Understanding Layers

The marquee tools are used to make rectangular, elliptical, single-row, and single-column selections.

The lasso tools are used for making freehand, polygonal (straight-edged), and "magnetic" (object-based) selections.

The Quick Selection tool is used to "paint" a selection with a resizable brush. The Magic Wand tool is used to select similarly colored areas in an image.

The Crop tool is used to crop and trim images or to add canvas size. The Slice tool allows you to divide an image into multiple sections that are reassembled on a web page. The Slice Select tool is used to select and modify existing slices.

The Eyedropper and Color Sampler tools are used to sample colors in an image, the Ruler tool is used to measure distances, locations, and angles, and the Note tool allows you to attach notes to an image. The Count tool (Photoshop Extended only) is used to count objects in an image.

The Spot Healing Brush tool is used to remove unwanted objects and blemishes from an image. The Healing Brush and Patch tools allow you to fix imperfections using a sample or pattern. The Red Eye tool is used to remove the red reflection caused by a camera's flash.

The Brush tool is used for painting various brush strokes. Photoshop CS5 has added amazing NEW natural bristle brushes with a cool new preview. The Pencil tool allows you to paint hard-edged strokes. The Color Replacement tool is used to replace a selected color with a new color.

The Clone Stamp tool is used for cloning parts of an image or removing unwanted objects. The Pattern Stamp tool is used to paint based on part of an image as a pattern.

The History Brush tool is used to paint "back in time" to any previous state you choose. The Art History Brush tool lets you paint with stylized strokes that simulate the look of different painting styles.

The Eraser tool allows you to erase pixels, while the Background Eraser tool allows you to erase areas of an image to transparency. The Magic Eraser tool enables you to wipe out a solid background with a single click.

The Gradient tool is used to create blends between colors. The Paint Bucket tool allows you to fill similarly colored areas with the current foreground color.

The Blur tool allows you to soften hard edges and reduce detail in specific areas of an image. The Sharpen tool sharpens specific areas of an image. The Smudge tool simulates the effect you see when you drag your finger through wet paint.

The Dodge tool makes areas of an image lighter and the Burn tool makes areas of an image darker. The Sponge tool can either saturate or desaturate the colors in an image, making colors richer or closer to gray.

The pen tools are used to draw smooth-edged paths and shapes or to edit existing paths.

The type tools are used to create horizontal and vertical type on an image, while the type mask tools are used to create a selection in the shape of type.

The Path Selection and Direct Selection tools are used to select, move, and modify the shape of vector paths.

The Shape tools and Line tool are used for drawing different shapes and lines in either a normal layer or a shape layer. The Custom Shape tool allows you to create custom shapes by modifying predefined shapes or defining your own shapes.

The 3D object tools are used to rotate, roll, pan, slide, and scale a three-dimensional object.

The 3D camera tools are used to move the camera view around a three-dimensional object so you can see it from different viewing angles.

The Hand tool is used to move an image around within the document window. The Rotate View tool allows you to nondestructively rotate the canvas.

The Zoom tool is used to magnify and reduce the view of an image.

The current foreground color appears in the upper square and the current background color appears in the square behind. The color squares also allow you to change the foreground and background colors.

Quick Mask mode allows you to create a temporary mask, which becomes a selection when you exit Quick Mask mode. It's often used to fine-tune an existing selection.