The Photoshop CS toolbox contains an array of tools that you can use for drawing, adding text, making selections, image retouching, and more. The toolbox may seem intimidating at first, but once you learn to use some of its tools, it will quickly become indispensable.

 

The toolbox can be divided into sections with each section normally containing tools with related functions.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you see a small black triangle in the lower right corner of a tool button, you know that there are variants of the tool available to you. To see the variants of a given tool, click the tool button and hold your left mouse button down. A box displaying the tool variants will appear just to the right of the tool button you are clicking on. To select a tool, click the appropriate button in the toolbox.

 

The Options bar, located immediately beneath the menu bar, contains more refinements and choices related to the tool that is currently selected. If you switch tools in the toolbox, you will see the option bar layout change to reflect the current tool.

 

If you have an Internet connection, clicking on the feather at the top of the toolbox will open the Adobe Photoshop Web site. The rest of the tools in the Photoshop toolbox will be explained in more detail in Lesson 2.1.