Before we tackle the tools, we should open a document to work with. Click the "File" option on the menubar, then select New. Alternatively, you can press Apple-N on your keyboard, or you can press a single hotkey unique to each tool. Hold your mouse pointer over the tool to see what the hotkey is (displayed in parenthesis beside the tool name.) In this case, it is M.

Change the Width and Height to 300 pixels each, and leave the resolution at its default of 72 (if the resolution is different, change it to 72.) Leave color profiles as they are, and click "OK." These settings will be the standard for all documents used as examples throughout the course of these tutorials, so when you're asked to open a new document, you'll be able to simply click "OK" instead of constantly adjusting properties.

Return your attention to the toolbar. At the very top, you will notice a dotted-line box and a black arrow with a tiny coordinate plane next to it. These are the marquee and move tools, respectively.



Begin by selecting the rectangular marquee tool (the dotted-line box.) This is an easy tool to learn and a very important one to master.


By default, the rectangular marquee selection type is active. By clicking and holding on any tool icon with a small black arrow in the lower right, you will gain access to extra tools in the same category. For instance, clicking and holding on the marquee tool's icon will allow to choose from a variety of other shapes. Many useful tools are variants of other tools - don't forget to explore the toolbar fully! (Note: you can also hold down the Control key and click an icon to produce the same effect as clicking and holding.)

For now, though, let's leave the rectangular marquee selected. Click and drag anywhere in the image document you opened previously, then release your mouse button. You have just made a selection.

With the marquee tool still active, you can now click inside the selection you just made to move it around on the canvas.

By holding down Shift and clicking/dragging, you can add on to your selection. This is handy if you make a selection and forget to grab a vital part of an image.

Notice the tool options bar beneath the menubar. Here you can change various options specific to the currently selected tool.



For the marquee tool, you can change how or what it selects (makes a selection, adds to a selection, subtracts from a selection, or intersects a selection,) as well as add in a feather effect to the selection or change the selection style. Once again, these options change from tool to tool, so while it is time consuming to learn all of the options available to you here, it's very useful.

Assuming the selection you made is still on the image, change your tool now to the move tool (the black arrow with the coordinate plane directly to the right of the selection tool.)

Using the move tool, you can move an entire layer, or, if you have a selection made, you can move whatever is selected around.

Click "continue" below to learn about the lasso and magic wand tools.

 

continue