All 70+ Photoshop Tools And Toolbar Introduction

Move Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: V

Photoshop’s Move Tool is used for drag and drop. You can move layers, selections, or objects within a photoshop document just by dragging and dropping it.

Artboard Tool – keyboard shortcut: V

Photoshop’s Artboard Tool lets you design multiple variants of the same file, at the same time with different screen sizes, colors, etc.

Rectangular Marquee Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: M

Photoshop’s Rectangular Marquee Tool is used to outline rectangle-shaped selections in any part of the image. You can move that selected cutout by the ‘move tool’ afterward.

Elliptical Marquee Tool – keyboard shortcut: M

Photoshop’s Elliptical Marquee Tool is used to outline circular oval-shaped selections in any part of the image. You can move that selected cutout by the ‘move tool’ afterward.

Single Row Marquee Tool –

Photoshop’s Single Row Marquee Tool lets you select a single row of pixels from left to right horizontally in an image.

Single Column Marquee Tool –

Photoshop’s Single Column Marquee Tool lets you select a single column of pixels from top to bottom vertically in an image.

Lasso Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: L

Photoshop’s Lasso Tool is used to outline freeform selection on an image. Lasso Tool does not limit you to fixed shapes, you can freely move the cursor to make formless selections.

Polygonal Lasso Tool – keyboard shortcut: L

Photoshop’s Polygonal Lasso Tool is used to outline freeform straight lines selection on an image. In Polygonal Lasso Tool you will have to use straight lines to create the borders of your freeform selection.

Magnetic Lasso Tool – keyboard shortcut: L

Photoshop’s Magnetic Lasso Tool is a smart selection tool. Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool and move the cursor around the target object’s border in the photo. It will automatically adjust the outline around that object and will give you a perfect selection.

Object Selection Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: W

Photoshop’s Object Selection Tool is a smart selection tool. Simply, move your cursor on the object in the image you want to select example: a car, a person, or a tree. Click on that, this tool will automatically select that object for you.

Quick Selection Tool – keyboard shortcut: W

Photoshop’s Quick Selection Tool is a popular selection tool. Simply, move your cursor roughly around the areas of your target part of the image. As you move your cursor, the selection outline will also smartly expand accordingly.

Magic Wand Tool – keyboard shortcut: W

Photoshop’s Magic Wand Tool is a one-click selection tool that allows you to select the area of an image that has similar colors.

Crop Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: C

Photoshop’s Crop Tool is used to remove unwanted parts of your image simply by cropping it from all 4 sides. It is the basic crop tool of photoshop.

Perspective Crop Tool – keyboard shortcut: C

Photoshop’s Perspective Crop Tool is used for cropping the image as well as changing the viewing angle of that image.

Slice Tool – keyboard shortcut: C

Photoshop’s Slice Tool divides an image into multiple smaller images, which can be edited and exported separately.

Slice Select Tool – keyboard shortcut: C

Photoshop’s Slice Select Tool lets you select the parts of an image that you have sliced with the slice tool.

Frame Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: K

Photoshop’s Frame Tool was first introduced in the ‘Photoshop CC 2019’ version. Frame tool is used to frame images in shapes example: rectangular and elliptical (circle/oval).

Eyedropper Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: i

Photoshop’s Eyedropper Tool lets you pick a color from the current screen. Simply, select this tool and click on any color on the screen which you want to sample. That color will be then selected for further use.

3D Material Eyedropper Tool – keyboard shortcut: i

We can import 3D models in photoshop. With Photoshop’s 3D Material Eyedropper Tool you can sample material from a 3D model.

Color Sampler Tool – keyboard shortcut: i

Photoshop’s Color Sampler Tool displays color codes of the color currently selected. You can select up to 4 color spots at the same time.

Ruler Tool – keyboard shortcut: i

Photoshop’s Ruler Tool is used to measure lengths, locations, and angles. It helps in positioning objects precisely.

Note Tool – keyboard shortcut: i

With Photoshop’s Note Tool, you can attach notes to your photoshop document. Either for your future reference or for other people working on the same project.

Count Tool – keyboard shortcut: i

Photoshop’s Count Tool is used to count anything in a project. You can place the counting points manually on an image, or you can see the counting of all the selected areas in an image.

Spot Healing Brush Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: J

Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush Tool removes facial blemishes and does other tiny spot corrections in an image.

Healing Brush Tool – keyboard shortcut: J

Photoshop’s Healing Brush Tool repairs unnecessary parts of the image by simply overwriting the good part of the image on it.

Patch Tool – keyboard shortcut: J

With Photoshop’s Patch Tool, you remove the unnecessary part of the image by outlining a rough selection around it. Then, drag that part to the good part of the image which will take its place.

Content-Aware Move Tool – keyboard shortcut: J

Photoshop’s Content-Aware Move Tool is a smart move tool. When you move a part of the image with this tool, it will cover the leftover empty part by analyzing the surrounding.

Red Eye Tool – keyboard shortcut: J

Photoshop’s Red Eye Tool will correct the red eye problem in a photo that is caused by camera lights.

Brush Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: B

Photoshop’s Brush Tool is used to paint brush strokes on any part of the image including layers and layer masks.

Pencil Tool – keyboard shortcut: B

Photoshop’s Pencil Tool is a painting tool similar to the brush tool, the only difference is that the Pencil tool’s stroke edges are harder while the brush tool’s stroke edges are softer.

Color Replacement Tool – keyboard shortcut: B

Photoshop’s Color Replacement Tool is used to replace the original color in an object with a different color chosen by you.

Mixer Brush Tool – keyboard shortcut: B

You can think of Photoshop’s Mixer Brush Tool as similar to the standard Brush Tool. But the ink here is not of a plain color, the ink can be any texture or blend of multiple colors you want.

Clone Stamp Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: S

With Photoshop’s Clone Stamp Tool, you can sample an area from one part of the image and clone it to the other part of the image.

Pattern Stamp Tool – keyboard shortcut: S

Photoshop’s Pattern Stamp Tool is used to paint patterns and textures on an image. You can use the in-built patterns or you can also choose your own patterns.

History Brush Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: Y

Photoshop’s History Brush Tool is a brush form of undo feature in photoshop. Wherever you draw the brush, it will restore the previous version of that part.

Art History Brush Tool – keyboard shortcut: Y

Photoshop’s Art History Brush Tool also restores the previous version by brushing on a part of the image similar to the standard history brush tool. But, this tool has the added advantage of styling. You can paint the undo version with different artistic brush styles.

Eraser Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: E

Photoshop’s Eraser Tool is used to permanently delete a part of the image by erasing its pixels making that erased part transparent.

Background Eraser Tool – keyboard shortcut: E

Photoshop’s Background Eraser Tool is an eraser tool that adjusts the cut smartly when you are erasing the background of an object near its edges. So you can move the cursor with ease while removing the background rather than being in alert mode. 😊

Magic Eraser Tool – keyboard shortcut: E

Photoshop’s Magic Eraser Tool is similar to the magic wand tool. But on clicking, instead of selecting the area of an image that has similar colors it rather erases that area permanently.

Gradient Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: G

Photoshop’s Gradient Tool lets you paint gradient effects by combining multiple colors. With the gradient editor, you can create your own custom gradients.

Paint Bucket Tool – keyboard shortcut: G

Photoshop’s Paint Bucket Tool fills your desired color in the part of the image you click on, as far as the color of that area is similar. You can adjust this tool’s tolerance to specify, how far the color will spread from the point of your click.

3D Material Drop Tool – keyboard shortcut: G

We can import 3D models in photoshop. With Photoshop’s 3D Material Drop Tool, you can sample the texture from one part of the 3D model and drop it on the other part. You can also choose material from photoshop’s built-in textures.

Blur Tool (default) –

Photoshop’s Blur Tool, blurs the areas of the image where you rub your cursor.

Sharpen Tool –

Photoshop’s Sharpen Tool, sharpens the areas of the image where you rub your cursor.

Smudge Tool –

Photoshop’s Smudge Tool, smudges and smears the areas of the image where you rub your cursor. This tool gives a finger-painting effect.

Dodge Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: O

Photoshop’s Dodge Tool, lighten the areas of the image where you rub your cursor.

Burn Tool – keyboard shortcut: O

Photoshop’s Burn Tool, darkens the areas of the image where you rub your cursor.

Sponge Tool – keyboard shortcut: O

Photoshop’s Sponge Tool, increase or decrease color saturation of the areas of the image where you rub your cursor.

Pen Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: P

Photoshop’s Pen Tool is used when you need to draw precise path selections, shape creations, and masks. To use it, click at one point on the image then click on another point, it will join both points with a straight line then click on the third point, and so on.

Freeform Pen Tool – keyboard shortcut: P

Photoshop’s Freeform Pen Tool is similar to the standard pen tool. But the difference is that you can draw freeform outlines with this tool. Whereas with the standard pen tool, you can only draw straight lines.

Curvature Pen Tool – keyboard shortcut: P

Photoshop’s Curvature Pen Tool is similar to the standard pen tool. But the difference is that you can draw curved line shapes with this tool. Click at one point on the image then click on another point, it will join both points with a curved line then click on the third point, and so on.

Add Anchor Point Tool –

Photoshop’s Add Anchor Point Tool is used to add extra anchor points to the path that you have drawn with the other pen tools.

Delete Anchor Point Tool –

Photoshop’s Delete Anchor Point Tool is used to remove existing anchor points on the path that you have drawn with the other pen tools.

Convert Point Tool –

With Photoshop’s Convert Point Tool, you can click on a smooth anchor point to convert it to a corner point or vice versa. The corner point lets you edit the curve next to the corner point and previous to the corner point both at the same time just by editing the corner point.

Horizontal Type Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: T

Photoshop’s Horizontal Type Tool is used to add standard horizontal text to the project. Simply select this tool, click anywhere, and start typing.

Vertical Type Tool – keyboard shortcut: T

Photoshop’s Vertical Type Tool is used to add vertical text to the project. Simply select this tool, click anywhere, and start typing.

Vertical Type Mask Tool – keyboard shortcut: T

Photoshop’s Vertical Type Mask Tool does not type plain text, it creates outlines of vertical characters you type. You can move, copy, fill, or stroke those text outlines similar to what you do with any other selection.

Horizontal Type Mask Tool – keyboard shortcut: T

Photoshop’s Horizontal Type Mask Tool does not type plain text, it creates outlines of horizontal characters you type. You can move, copy, fill, or stroke those text outlines similar to what you do with any other selection.

Path Selection Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: A

With Photoshop’s Path Selection Tool, you can select and move the entire path including all its anchor points at once. (Path is the outline you make with the pen tools by plotting anchor points).

Direct Selection Tool – keyboard shortcut: A

Photoshop’s Direct Selection Tool is a specific version of the previous path selection tool where instead of selecting the entire path, you select and move individual anchor points.

Rectangle Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: U

Photoshop’s Rectangle Tool is used to draw rectangular shapes as well as selections. You can choose to draw sharp as well as rounded corner rectangles. Hold the shift key while you draw, to lock the shape into a perfect square.

Ellipse Tool – keyboard shortcut: U

Photoshop’s Ellipse Tool is used to draw elliptical shapes as well as selections. Hold the shift key while you draw, to lock the shape into a perfect circle.

Triangle Tool – keyboard shortcut: U

Photoshop’s Triangle Tool is used to draw triangular shapes as well as selections. You can choose to draw sharp as well as rounded corner triangles. Hold the shift key while you draw, to lock the shape into a perfect equilateral triangle.

Polygon Tool – keyboard shortcut: U

With Photoshop’s Polygon Tool, you can create any polygon shape with any number of sides example: a pentagon, octagon, or decagon, etc.

Line Tool – keyboard shortcut: U

With Photoshop’s Line Tool, you can draw straight lines as well as lines with arrows. By editing the settings like weight and color, you can customize how your ‘line’ looks.

Custom Shape Tool – keyboard shortcut: U

With Photoshop’s Custom Shape Tool, choose a shape from photoshop’s built-in shapes library or create your own custom shape.

Hand Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: H

Photoshop’s Hand Tool lets you travel to different areas of the image, especially when zooming. Using this tool will not affect the actual project.

Rotate View Tool – keyboard shortcut: R

With Photoshop’s Rotate View Tool, rotate the editing canvas to edit or view the project from different angles. Using this tool will not affect the actual project.

Zoom Tool (default) – keyboard shortcut: Z

Photoshop’s Zoom Tool is used to zoom in and zoom out the image. Click on the screen to zoom in, and Click with alt (on windows) or option key (on mac) to zoom out. Zooming will not affect the actual project.