The Toolbox and tool options bar

The Toolbox, shown in Figure 2.6, provides easy access to all of the tools in Photoshop that require mouse or stylus interaction with the document. The Toolbox includes tools such as selection tools, painting tools, erasing tools, and much more. We discuss each of the tools available in the Toolbox later in this tutorial.

FIGURE 2.6
The Toolbox provides access to the mouse/stylus tools. Each time you select a new tool, the tool options bar changes to reflect settings for the new tool.

 

 The tool options menu bar, usually referred to as the “options bar” or the “tool menu,” sits below the main menu. The tool options menu looks very different depending on the tool you have selected in the Toolbox. Figure 2.6 shows the different options for the Move, Brush, and Type tools.

It is always smart to keep an eye on what is going on in the options bar. When you select a tool, the options are set to default values that are commonly used, but not necessarily the values you would use in a particular situation. After you change the options for any given tool, those options stay changed, even after using other tools. The options bar is so useful and important that you’ll see many examples throughout this book of different ways to set your options, and as you use Photoshop, you soon become very familiar with it.

In this tutorial:

1. Photoshop Workspace 
2. Workspace Overview 
3. The Document Workspace 
4. The Application Bar 
5. The Workspace Presets 
6. The Toolbox and Tool Options Bar 
7. Cruising Main Menus 
8. Understanding Panels 
9. Understanding Tools in Toolbox 
10. Using Presets 
11. Setting Preferences 
12. Interface Preferences 
13. File Handling Preferences 
14. Transparency Gamut Preferences 
15. Customizing Shortcuts and Menus