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Panels 103



The Photoshop panels illustrated*
Using the Tools panel
e Tools panel, which is illustrated on pages
104–106, contains 60 tools and a handful of
buttons! Believe it or not, by the end of this book,
you’ll be marginally to intimately familiar with
most of them.
To display the Tools panel if it’s hidden, choose
Window > Tools. To choose a tool, do one of the
following:
➤ If the desired tool is visible on the Tools panel,
click its icon.
➤ To cycle through related tools in the same slot,
Alt-click/Option-click the one that’s visible.
➤ To choose a hidden tool, click and hold on the
visible tool, then click a tool on the menu.
➤ To select a tool quickly, press its designated
letter shortcut (don’t do this if your cursor
is in type). e shortcuts are shown in the
screen captures on the next three pages. e
shortcut for each tool is also listed in its tool
tip onscreen. If Use Shift Key for Tool Switch is
unchecked in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences >
General, simply press the designated letter to
cycle through related tools in the same slot (for
example, press L to cycle through the three

Lasso tools). With the Use Shift Key for Tool
Switch option checked, you have to press Shift
plus the designated letter.
➤ To use (spring-load) a tool temporarily while
another tool is selected, press and hold down
its assigned letter key (see the sidebar at right).
To learn the function of a tool as you’re using it,
read the brief description (tool hint) at the bottom
of the Info panel. If you don’t see the tool hint,
choose Panel Options from the Info panel menu,
then check Show Tool Hints (see page 114).
Before using a tool that you’ve selected, you
need to choose settings for it from the Options
bar at the top of your screen. For example, for the
Brush tool, you would choose a brush preset, and
choose diameter, hardness, blending mode, opacity
percentage, and other settings. If the Options bar
is hidden, you can display it by choosing Window >
Options (see page 100).


e current Options bar settings for each tool
remain in eect until you change them, reset the
tool, or reset all tools. To restore the default set-
tings to a tool, right-click the thumbnail on the
Tool Preset picker (located at the left end of the
Options bar) and choose Reset Tool from the con-
text menu.
A
Or to reset all tools, choose Reset All

Tools from the menu, then click OK in the alert
dialog.
In Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Cursors, you
can control whether the pointer displays as cross-
hairs or as the icon of the current tool or, for some
tools, as a circle either the size or half the size of
the current brush diameter, with or without the
crosshairs inside it (see page 392).
SPRING-LOADING YOUR TOOLS
➤ To quickly access a tool and its Options bar
settings temporarily without having to actually
click the tool on the Tools panel, hold down its
letter shortcut key. For example, say the Brush
tool happens to be selected but you want to move
a layer, which requires using the Move tool. You
would hold down the V key, drag in the document
window, then release V. Or to access the Zoom tool
temporarily, you would hold down the Z key.
➤ This process is slightly less effi cient if you want
to access a tool that shares a slot with other tools
(as most tools do). In this case, the letter shortcut
accesses whichever tool happens to be visible on
the Tools panel. To make this work, you could plan
ahead and select the tools that you want to switch
back and forth among before using them.
A
To access these two commands,
right-click the Tool Preset picker
thumbnail, which is located at the
left end of the Options bar.

* e 3 D t o o l s , a n d t h e 3 D , A c t i o n s , A n i m a t i o n , M e a s u r e m e n t L o g , N o t e s , a n d P a t h s p a n e l s a r e n ’ t i l l u s t r a t e d i n t h i s c h a p t e r b e c a u s e
they aren’t covered in this book.

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104 Chapter 6

A
 e u p p e r p a r t o f t h e T o o l s p a n e l
Creates rectangular selections
Creates oval and circular selections
Creates 1-pixel-wide horizontal selections
Creates 1-pixel-wide vertical selections
Selects areas that it detects within clearly dened shapes
Selects pixels that are similar in color to the one
that’s clicked
Crops the image
Slices images for optimization (for Web output)
Selects slices by clicking
Samples colors from an image
Places color sampler (readout) points in an image
Measures distances and angles or straightens the image
★
Creates Acrobat-compatible annotations
Applies brush strokes
Draws freehand lines
Changes colors while preserving textures
Simulates traditional paint strokes; allows
colors to be mixed and smudged
★




Corrects aws without sampling
Corrects aws based on a sampled area
Corrects aws based on a selected area
Corrects red-eye in portrait photos
Clones imagery within or between documents
Stamps patterns
Click on or near this collapse/expand
button to toggle the panel’s double-
column and single-column formats.
Moves a layer, selection, guide, etc.; also functions as a transform tool
Creates freehand selections
Creates straight-edged polygonal selections
Creates freehand selections that snap to
high-contrast edges in an image
Tools panel

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Panels 105
Continued on the following page

A
 e m i d s e c t i o n o f t h e T o o l s p a n e l
Lightens pixels
Darkens pixels
Makes pixels more or less saturated
Creates horizontally oriented editable type
Creates vertically oriented editable type
Creates horizontal type-shaped selections

Creates vertical type-shaped selections
Selects whole vector paths
Selects path segments and points
Draws curved or straight-edged shapes or paths
Draws freehand shapes or paths
Adds anchor points to a path
Deletes anchor points from a path
Converts corner anchor points into
curve points, and vice versa
Creates rectangular shape layers or paths
Creates rounded-corner shape layers or paths
Creates oval shape layers or paths
Creates polygonal shape layers or paths
Creates straight-line shape layers or paths
Creates layers or paths from custom shapes
Creates soft blends of two or more colors
Fills similarly colored areas by clicking
Erases imagery by clicking or dragging
Erases a sampled color to transparency
Erases similarly colored pixels by clicking
Blurs edges
Sharpens edges
Smudges colors
Restores pixels from a History state or snapshot
Paints a history state or snapshot in stylized
brush strokes

ptg
106 Chapter 6
Use the tool tip to learn

a tool name or shortcut.
GETTING INFO ON PHOTOSHOP FEATURES
➤ If you’re unsure what an icon signifi es, what a menu is
called, or what a panel or dialog feature or tool does, you
may get the information you need from the tool tip. Let the
pointer hover on the feature in question without clicking
the mouse button, and a tip pops up onscreen. (For this to
work, Show Tool Tips must be checked in Edit/Photoshop >
Preferences > Interface.)
➤ Some dialogs (such as Edit > Color Settings) have a
Description area that contains information about the option
your pointer is currently hovering over.
➤ Keep an eye on the Info panel for color breakdown
readouts, document data (e.g. fi le size, color profi le, dimen-
sions, resolution), and tool hints (ways to use the currently
selected tool). See page 114.
➤ Use the Histogram panel to monitor changes to the
tonal ranges in an image as you apply color and tonal
adjustments. See pages 203–204.
Puts the document into a mode in which a
selection displays as a mask and can be edited
using brush strokes; when this button is clicked
again, the mask is converted back to a selection
Displays and lets you change the current
Foreground and Background colors
Resets the Foreground color to black
and the Background color to white
Swaps the current Foreground and
Background colors
Changes the document zoom level


A
 e l o w e r p a r t o f
the Tools panel
Moves a magnied image in the document window
Rotates the image in the document window
temporarily (see page 93)

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Panels 107





Adjustments panel
Unlike commands that are applied via the Image >
Adjustments submenu, adjustment layers don’t alter
image pixels until you merge them with their under-
lying layers. ey are a great mechanism for trying
out color and tonal adjustments, because you can
edit their settings and delete them at any time. Plus,
adjustment layers automatically have a layer mask.
By editing the mask, you can hide or reveal the
adjustment eect in specic areas of the image.
Using the Adjustments panel, you can easily
create and edit the settings for adjustment layers.
e panel also lets you restore the default settings to
any adjustment; hide and show the adjustment eect;
view the previous adjustment state; or, in a multi-

layered document, clip (limit) the adjustment eect
to just the underlying layer. See Chapters 12 and 13.
BUTTONS ON THE ADJUSTMENT PANEL
Invert
Posterize Gradient
Map
Selective
Color
 r e s h o l d
Vibrance
Hue/
Saturation
Black & White
Channel
Mixer
Photo FilterColor
Balance
Brightness/
Contrast Levels Curves Exposure
Clip to LayerExpanded View/Standard
View toggle for the panel
Adjustment
buttons for
creating
adjustment
layers
Clip Adjustment
Layer
Expanded View/
Standard View

toggle
Return to
Adjustment
List
Tog gle
Layer
Visibility
 e p a n e l m e n u
Press
to View
Previous
State
Reset to
Adjustment
Defaults
Delete
Adjustment
Layer
 e c o n t r o l s f o r
a Black & White
adjustment layer
are displaying on
this Adjustments
panel.

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108 Chapter 6

of a brush stroke made with the currently selected
tip and settings. See Chapter 15.

➤  i s p a n e l c a n b e o p e n e d f r o m t h e W i n d o w
menu; by clicking the Brush Panel button
on the Brush Presets panel (see the following
page); or when a tool that uses a brush is
selected, by clicking the Toggle Brush Panel
button on the Options bar.
★
Brush panel
You’ll use the Brush panel to choose brush tips and
create custom brushes for many tools, such as the
Art History Brush, Blur, Brush, Burn, Clone Stamp,
Dodge, Eraser, History Brush, Mixer Brush, Pattern
Stamp, Pencil, Sharpen, or Smudge tool. Using this
panel, you can also choose options for a graphics
tablet and stylus.
Click an options set name on the left side of
the panel to display settings on the right. At the
bottom of the panel, the preview shows an example
Brush stroke
preview
Open
Preset
Manager
★
Bristle
Brush
Preview
★
New
Brush

Show the Brush
Presets panel
★
Activate
and access
option sets
Numeral indicating
the default diameter
of the tip, in pixels
Bristle Qualities
options (available
only when a bristle
tip is selected)
★

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Panels 109



Brush Presets panel
★
Use the Brush Presets panel to store, display, and
choose from an assortment of predened and user-
created brush presets. You can also use this panel
to change the size of any brush preset temporarily,
and to save a custom brush as a new preset.
Via buttons on the panel, you can turn the
Bristle Brush preview on or o and quickly access
the Preset Manager dialog. is panel can be

opened from the Window menu or by clicking
the Brush Presets button on the Brush panel. See
page 260.
USING THE BRUSH PRESET PICKER
Brush presets can also be chosen from the Brush
Preset picker, a pop-up panel that opens from
the Options bar (shown below). Commands for
loading, appending, and saving brushes and
brush libraries are available on the Brush Presets
panel menu and the Brush Preset picker menu.
Open Preset
Manager
Open or close
the Brush panel

Bristle Brush
Preview
(on/o)
New
Brush
Delete
Brush
Brush
Diameter
Brush
presets
 e B r i s t l e B r u s h p r e v i e w
displays a schematic of the
current bristle tip and the set-
tings you have chosen for it.


ptg
110 Chapter 6
Character panel
You can choose attributes for the type tools from
either the Character panel, which is shown below,
or the Options bar (see page 100). Open this panel
from the Window menu, or when a type tool is
selected, by clicking the Toggle Character and
Paragraph Panels button on the Options bar. See
Chapter 20.


Channels panel
e Channels panel displays a list of, and the
thumbnails for, all the color channels in an image.
To show an individual channel in the document
window, click the channel name or press the
keystroke listed on the panel. To redisplay the
composite image (all the channels), such as RGB
or CMYK, click the topmost channel on the panel,
or press Ctrl-2/Cmd-2. (See pages 2–3.)
You can also use this panel to save and load
alpha channels (which are saved selections). See
page 160. And you can use it to create and store
spot color channels, which commercial print
shops use to produce individual color plates for
predened ink colors, such as PANTONE inks.
Visibility icon
for showing

or hiding the
channel
Load Channel
as Selection
Save
Selection
as Channel
Channel
Delete New
Channel
A user-created
alpha channel
A user-created
spot color channel
Font family
Text color
Horizontal scale
Font size
Kerning
Vertical scale
Baseline shift
Type styles
Language Anti-aliasing
method
Leading
Font style
Tracking

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Panels 111





Clone Source panel
e Clone Source panel lets you keep track of up
to ve dierent sources (documents) when cloning
pixels with the Clone Stamp tool. e sources are
represented by a row of buttons at top of the panel.
You can also use this panel to hide, show, and control
the opacity and mode of the clone overlay, and ip,
scale, rotate, invert, or reposition the source pixels
before or while you clone them. See pages 248–249.
Five clone sources
Horizontal oset

Flip Horizontal and
Flip Vertical
★
Vertical oset
Horizontal and
Vertical Scale
Blending mode
for the overlay
Display the clone
source as an overlay
Reset transform
Rotate the clone source
Hide the overlay
while cloning

Display the overlay
within the brush cursor
Invert the overlay

Color panel
e Color panel is one of several mechanisms that
Photoshop provides for mixing colors. Choose a
color model for the sliders or color ramp from the
panel menu, then either mix a color using the sliders
or quick-select a color by clicking the color ramp.
To open the Color Picker (or the Color Libraries
dialog, from which you can also choose colors),
click once on the Foreground or Background color
square on the Color panel if it’s already selected
(has a black border), or double-click the square if
it’s not selected. Colors are applied by painting and
editing tools, such as the Brush and Pencil tool, and
by some commands, such as Edit > Fill and Image >
Canvas Size. See page 188.
Background color square
Foreground color square
Warning that the current color
is outside the printable gamut
Color ramp

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112 Chapter 6
Histogram panel

While a le is being edited or while the
Adjustments panel is being used, the Histogram
panel provides valuable feedback in the form of a
graph of either the current light and dark (tonal)
values in the image or its current and modied
tonal values.
Via the Channel menu, you can choose to have
the panel display data about the composite chan-
nel (combined channels) or just a single channel.
You can also expand the panel to display a
separate histogram for each channel (as is shown
at right). See pages 203–204.
Source channel
for the graph
Source of the pixel data
(all layers or just the
currently selected layer)
Uncached
Refresh
Displays the
histogram using
uncached data

ptg
Panels 113








History panel
Every image edit from the current work session —
from the use of a lter or command to the creation
of a selection, type, or a new layer — is listed as
a separate state on the History panel. e most
recent (last) edit is listed at the bottom. If you click
a prior state, the document reverts to that stage
of the editing process. In linear mode, the default
mode for the panel, if you click an earlier state
and then resume image editing from that state (or
delete that state), all subsequent, dimmed states
are discarded.
e oldest history states are deleted from the
panel as new edits are made — that is, when the
maximum number of history states is reached,
as specied in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences >
Performance, under History & Cache). All states
are deleted when you close your document. e
New Snapshot command creates states that stay on
the panel until you close your document, regardless
of the History States setting. See Chapter 10.
e History panel has two related tools. When
you apply strokes with the History Brush tool,
the areas under those strokes are restored to the
state or snapshot you have designated as a source.
e Art History Brush does the same thing, but in
stylized strokes.
Current source

for the History
Brush tool
History State
slider
Snapshot
New New Document
from Current State
Delete
Current
State
Snapshot
created from
a state
USING THE THREE UNDO COMMANDS
Windows Mac OS
Undo the last Photoshop edit
(not every edit can be undone)
Ctrl-Z (Edit > Undo) Cmd-Z (Edit > Undo)
Undo multiple editing steps in
reverse order (step backward)
Ctrl-Alt-Z Cmd-Option-Z
Step forward through your
editing steps (reinstate what
you have undone)
Ctrl-Shift-Z Cmd-Shift-Z

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114 Chapter 6

Info panel
e Info panel displays a color breakdown of the
pixel under the pointer at its current location in
the document. While a color adjustment dialog is
open or the Adjustments panel is being used, the
panel displays before and after color readouts. e
panel also lists the current location of the pointer
on the x/y axes.
Other information may display on the Info
panel, depending on which tool is being used,
such as the distance between points when you
move a selection or use the Ruler tool; the dimen-
sions of a selection or crop marquee; or the width
(W), height (H), angle (A), and horizontal skew


(H) or vertical skew (V) of a layer or selection as
you transform it. e panel also displays readouts
for up to four color samplers that are placed in a
document.
Press one of the mini arrowheads on the panel
to choose a color model for that readout (this
model can dier from the current document
color mode). Or to choose color models via the
Info Panel Options dialog (shown below), choose
Panel Options from the panel menu, then change
the Mode for the First Color Readout and Second
Color Readout. In the same dialog, you can also
change the Ruler Units for the panel (under Mouse
Coordinates), check which Status Information you

want displayed in the lower part of the panel, and
check Show Tool Hints to display context-sensitive
information about the current tool or edit.
➤ To choose a unit of measurement for the Info
panel (and for the rulers in the document
window), click the arrowhead on the panel for
the X/Y readout.
Use the Info Panel Options dialog to choose display
preferences for the panel.
Color breakdown
for the pixel currently
under the pointer
Menu for choosing
a color model
for that readout
Location of the pointer
in the document
A tool hint
Document (status) data
Width and height of
the current selection

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Panels 115







Layer Comps panel
When you create a layer comp (short for “composi-
tion”), it includes, collectively, any of the follow-
ing document characteristics: the current layer
Visibility (which layers are showing or hidden),
Position (the location of imagery on each layer),
and Appearance (layer styles, including layer blend-
ing modes, opacity settings, and layer eects). Via
the Layer Comp Options dialog, you can decide
which document attributes will be included in the
comp, as well as add comments for the viewer.
Layer comps are useful if you’re weighing the
pros and cons of multiple versions of a document
or need to present them to a client. For example,
say you’ve created a few versions of a book cover.
You could create a layer comp from each version,
with or without lettering, or with lettering or a
background image in two dierent colors, etc.
When presenting the design to your client, instead
of opening and closing separate les, you would
simply display each version sequentially within the
same le by clicking the Apply Layer Comp icon on
and o for each comp on the panel.
Layer comps are automatically saved with the
document in which they’re created. (Whereas
states on the History panel aect all editing done
to an image but can’t be saved, layer comps save
with the document but let you display only layer
options and settings.) See pages 382–384.




Kuler panel
Kuler (pronounced “cooler”) is a free, Web-hosted
Adobe application that lets users create and upload
color groups, called color themes. By using the
Kuler panel in Photoshop, you can access and
browse through those themes. To open the Kuler
panel, choose Window > Extensions > Kuler. (Also
go to Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Plug-Ins, and
check Allow Extensions to Connect to the Internet.)
To use the Kuler panel eciently, take advan-
tage of its search eld and menus. Enter a theme
or creator name, or search by choosing ratings cri-
teria from the menus. To add a selected theme to
your Swatches panel, from the menu on the right
side of that theme, choose Add to Swatches Panel.
To save the current search parameters (e.g., for a
search that you use frequently), choose Custom
from the rst menu, enter a search term or terms,
then click Save. To learn more about Kuler, go to
.
A p p l y
Layer
Comp
A p p l y
Previous
A p p l y
Next
Update

Layer
Comp
New
Layer
Comp
Delete
Layer
Comp

View
Previous or
Next Set of
 e m e s
Search eld
and menus
Kuler color
themes

Refresh
 e m e s
from Kuler
Community
Edit eme
in Create
panel
Add
Selected
 e m e t o
Swatches


ptg




116 Chapter 6
Layers panel
Every new image starts out with either a solid-color
Back ground or a transparent layer, depending
on what Background Contents you choose in the
New dialog or whether you opened a digital photo.
On top of that, you can add layers of many types;
some Photoshop features create layers automati-
cally. Using the Layers panel, you can create, hide,
show, duplicate, group, link, lock, unlock, merge,
atten, delete, and restack layers. You can also
change the blending mode, opacity, or ll opacity
for any layer; attach masks to them; and apply layer
eects. e panel looks complex (Egads!), but you’ll
soon be accustomed to using it in all your work
sessions. e following are the kinds of layers you’ll
encounter in this book:
➤ Image layers.



➤ Editable type layers, which are created by the
Horizontal Type or Vertical Type tool.
➤ Adjustment layers, which apply editable adjust-
ments to underlying layers, and fill layers,

which apply editable tints to underlying layers.
➤ Smart Object layers, which are created manu-
ally when you convert one or more layers in a
Photoshop image into a Smart Object, or auto-
matically when you place an Illustrator or PDF
le, another Photoshop le, or a Camera Raw
le into a Photoshop document. Double-click a
Smart Object layer and the object reopens in its
original application for editing; save and close
it, and the object updates in Photoshop. (See
pages 308-311.)
To learn more about layers, see Chapter 8.
 e L a y e r s p a n e l f o r t h i s i m a g e i s s h o w n a t
left.
Blending mode
menu
Lock buttons:
Transparent Pixels,
Image Pixels,
Position, and All
Adjustment layer
Smart Filter
Layer group
Visibility icon (show
or hide the layer)
Smart Object layer
Type layer
Layer eect
New
Group

New
Layer
Delete
Layer
New Fill/Adjustment Layer menuAdd Layer/Vector Mask
Add Layer
Style menu
Link
Layers
Layer mask
Layer eects
icon and expand/
collapse arrowhead
Smart Filters mask

Opacity of the cur-
rent layer, excluding
layer eects

Opacity of the cur-
rent layer, including
any layer eects

ptg
Panels 117








Masks panel
e Masks panel lets you add a pixel or vector mask
to a layer, disable or enable an existing mask, or
load a mask as a selection. When you’re done using
the mask, you can either apply its eect to your
document or delete it. See pages 170–171 and 173.
Other controls on the panel include a Density
slider for adjusting the opacity of a mask and a
Feather slider for softening the edges between the
white and black areas in a mask. ese settings can
be readjusted at any time without permanently
altering the original mask.
e Mask Edge button opens the Rene Mask
dialog (shown below), which oers the same con-
trols for a mask as the Rene Edge dialog does for
a selection (see page 239). e Color Range button
gives you quick access to the Color Range dialog,
for selecting areas to be masked, and the Invert
button swaps the black and white areas in the mask.
Load Selection
from Mask
Delete
Mask
Add (or select)
the Pixel Mask
Add a
Vector Mask
Disable/

Enable Mask
Apply Mask

ptg
118 Chapter 6
Mini Bridge panel
★
To open the Mini Bridge panel, a miniature, conve-
nient, panel-sized version of “big” Bridge, choose
Window > Extensions > Mini Bridge or click the
Launch Mini Bridge button on the Application
bar. Via Mini Bridge, you can do many of the things
you can do in Bridge, such as locate and preview
image thumbnails, open images, and apply ratings
and labels. See pages 46–47.
View menu for accessing
layout, View Content,
and other options
Go to Parent,
Recent Items,
or Favorites Bridge
Go to Home
Page
Search
Panel View menu for
displaying the Path
bar, Navigation pod,
and Preview pod
Tools menu
for accessing

commands
SortSelect
Filter Items
by Rating
Preview menu for
accessing Slideshow
and Review modes
 u m b n a i l
Size slider
Preview
pod
Close
button
Navigation
pod

ptg
Panels 119

Paragraph panel
After creating paragraph type, you can use the
Paragraph panel to apply or change such attributes
as horizontal alignment, indentation, spacing
before, spacing after, and auto hyphenation. From
the panel menu, you can access additional type
formatting commands (hanging punctuation and
line-composer options) and the Justication and
Hyphenation dialogs. See page 345.

Navigator panel

You can use the Navigator panel to move a magni-
ed image in the document window or to change
the document zoom level (see page 92) — or if
you prefer, you can accomplish the same tasks by
using tools or keyboard shortcuts, as described in
Chapter 5.
Zoom Out
button button
Zoom In Zoom
slider
Zoom eld for
entering the desired
zoom percentage
View box for magnifying
the image and for moving
it in the document window
Horizontal
Alignment
options
Indent Left Margin
Indent First Line
Add Space Before
Paragraph
Automatic
Hyphenation
Add Space After Paragraph
Indent Right Margin

Styles panel
Each style is a unique collection of layer settings

that is saved to, stored in, and applied via the
Styles panel. A style can include the settings for
one or more layer eects (such as a Drop Shadow,
an Outer Glow, or a Color Overlay) and/or blend-
ing options (such as the layer visibility, opacity,
and blending mode settings). Like swatches on the
Swatches panel, the styles on this panel are avail-
able for use in any document. Commands on the
Styles panel menu let you save, load, and append
style libraries, which are collections of styles. See
pages 365–366.
Style
thumbnails
Clear
Style
New
Style
Delete
Style

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120 Chapter 6
Swatches panel
e Swatches panel stores predened and user-
created solid-color swatches, which are applied
by various tools, lters, and commands. A wide
assortment of predened swatch libraries can be

saved, loaded, and appended via commands on the
panel menu. Color themes from the Kuler panel
can also be added to this panel. See pages 189–190.
Color swatches New Swatch of
Foreground Color
Delete
Swatch



Tool Presets panel
A tool preset is a saved collection of settings for
a particular tool. By using the Tool Presets panel,
you can store settings for your favorite tools. is
is a great way to customize and personalize the
Photoshop interface, and the possibilities are in-
nite. e presets on this panel are available for all
Photoshop documents.
Say, for example, you frequently resize and
crop images to a particular set of dimensions with
the Crop tool. By saving a preset for the tool with
those width and height parameters, the next time
you use the tool, instead of having to choose the
same settings, all you would have to do is click that
preset on either the Tool Presets panel or the Tool
Preset picker, then click or drag in the document.
(To open the picker, click the Tool Preset picker
thumbnail on the left end of the Options bar.)
By using the Tool Presets panel or the Tool
Preset picker, you can create, save, load, sort,

rename, reset, and delete the presets for any
Photoshop tool. To have the panel or picker list the
presets for just the current tool (for a streamlined
approach), check Current Tool Only, or uncheck
that option to display the presets for all tools. See
page 402.
New Tool
Preset
Tool
presets
Delete
Tool
Preset