In order for us to use Adobe Photoshop use effectively, we must learn the environment first. For this tutorial, we will be using Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Fig1. The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Window
Figure 1 shows the whole Adobe Photoshop CS3 window. In any development environment, it is important to familiarize yourself with its par.
- Menu Bar- Contains all the commands necessary to use the program
- Toolbox- displays the common tools (or commands) that you need in creating /editing your images.
- Toolbar- this one changes when you select a tool from the toolbox. It provides additional options for each tool, if any.
- Canvass- This is where you create/edit your image
- Layers - Using layers makes photoshop a very powerful tool in editing images. Soon in this tutorial we will discover the power of layers.
There are still so many parts that you will soon seen in photoshop. Some of the windows here will disappear and reapper and more windows may appear, depending on what tool you are using. I introduced only these parts so that you will not be overwhelmed by the vast number of tools available in Photoshop.
The Toolbox
Fig. 2: The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Toolbox
As you can see there are 25 buttons in the toolbox, not to mention the sub options of those buttons that has a triangle on the lower right corner. To simplify this tutorial and not overwhelm you with all these tools. We will focus on a tool when needed. The most commonly tools that you may need to use are the Marquee, Move, Pencil/Brush, Eraser, Gradient/Fill Tool (not in any particular order). Of course the Text tool may be needed if your project needs it.
To avoid repeting the discussion of each tool , we will discuss each when we need it. First Let's create our first Photoshop Project
