Toolbox
Your main accomplice in photo manipulation crime. Here we delve into the individual tools:
State history
Undo
Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl|Command + Z
Restores the current state of the the document to the state before the last taken action.
Redo
Keyboard shortcut: Shift + Ctrl|Command + Z
Restores the current state of the the document to the recorded state after the last undone action.
Positioning
Pan viewport
Keyboard shortcut: P
Enables you to pan the viewport across the full document size. This allows you to access all parts of your document at any zoom level. Accessible at any time by holding down Space while dragging.
Drag layer
Keyboard shortcut: V
When active, dragging over the document will move the currently active layer. This allows you to position layer contents relative to each other.
Selections
Selections are used to work with smaller content fragments within your document, for instance to copy / cut / delete content from your active layer or to create an area that constrains your brush operations to only work within that area. You can combine multiple shapes into your selection by holding down the Shift-key when you start drawing an additional selection.
You can toggle the active selection (as well as save and load selections) using the Selection section in the menu. Note that saved selections are stored in the document. Copied selections can be pasted across documents.
Rectangular selection
Keyboard shortcut: M
Clicking on a point will set it as the top left coordinate of the selection. Clicking again on a different point will set the bottom right coordinate of the selection.
You can also press down on the document and drag to see the bounding box of the selection. Upon release the selection is activated.
By default, rectangular selections are free form. If you wish to lock the width and height ratio of the selection, you can do so by either holding down the Shift-key while dragging, or by setting the toggle in the options panel. You can also adjust the width/height ratio of the selection in the options panel.
Lasso tool
Keyboard shortcut: L
A polygonal selection. You can add a new point to the selection by clicking
on different points within the document. By holding down the Shift-key,
new points snap within a multiple of 45 degrees relative to the last point.
Likewise, for free-form selections you can hold down the pointer while moving over the document.
To close the selection, the last point should meet the first point. The cursor
will highlight to indicate when its coordinate is within closing range. Upon click,
the selection is closed.
Alternatively, you can double click / tap at any time (when working with an unclosed
lasso selection) to auto-close the selection.
Magic wand
Keyboard shortcut: W
When using the magic wand, a selection will be made of all pixels adjacent to the pixel below the clicked area, that match its color.
By adjusting the threshold value, pixels that are similar in color will also be added to selection. The higher the value, the more leeway there is. Lower values work well with solid color logos while higher values work well with photos.
Drawables
Drawable tool types allow you to directly change pixel content of the current layers image source. All drawable types have their own settings which will appear in the options panel, providing control of brush size and color (note color opacity is also adjustable for more fine-grained control).
Drawables only work on layers of the graphic type (layers created from imported photos are not of the graphic type). The intention here being that drawing on a photo will not change the source contents.
When a layer is masked, the drawables can be used, regardless of layer type as the mask will accept graphics content.
Brush
Keyboard shortcut: B
By holding down on the document and moving the pointer across, the selected
brush color will be applied for the selected brush size.
By releasing the pointer, drawing will cease.
Eraser
Keyboard shortcut: E
By holding down on the document and moving the pointer across, the selected
brush color will be used to erase content from the layer source.
By releasing the pointer, drawing will cease.
Clone stamp
Keyboard shortcut: S
Works similar to the other drawable types, except that before drawing
can start, a layer source and source coordinate has to be selected.
The layer source can be selected from the options panel, while the
source coordinate can either be defined by first clicking on the respective
button in the options panel, followed by a click inside the document, or
by holding down the alt-key and clicking inside the document.
Text
Text
Keyboard shortcut: T
Allows you to write text on any layer of the "text"-type. Activating this tool on a non-text type layer will automatically insert a new text layer.
Transformations
Mirror layer
Keyboard shortcut: F
Will flip content either horizontally or vertically.
Rotate layer
Keyboard shortcut: R
Allows up to 360 degree rotation of the layer contents.
Scale layer
Keyboard shortcut: D
Allows expanding / shrinking the size of the currently active layer.
Utilities
Eyedropper
Keyboard shortcut: I
The eyedropper is basically a color picker.
By clicking on any point inside the document, the color of the pixel below
the click coordinate is set as the currently active color. Color picking
works across layers.
Zoom
Keyboard shortcut: Z
Allows you to adjust the scale at which the document is displayed. By default
the document will be scaled to best fit the current screen size.
Note: zooming can also be adjusted at any time using keyboard shortcuts.