18 min read

The Workspace

The menu bar, options bar, tools panel, document window and panels — plus zoom, undo and resetting the workspace.

The Main Areas

A simplified Photoshop workspace. The real one has more buttons, but the areas are the same.

A small triangle on a tool button means more tools are hidden underneath — click and hold to see them.

Panels are opened from the Window menu. The ones you need most are Layers, Properties, Adjustments, Character, Paragraph and History . If panels go missing or the screen gets messy, choose Window \to Workspace \to Reset Essentials .

Everyday shortcuts (Windows; use Cmd instead of Ctrl on a Mac)
Everyday shortcuts (Windows; use Cmd instead of Ctrl on a Mac)

Practice

Where do you change the size of the Brush tool?

Tools You Will Use

A small triangle on a tool button means more tools are hidden underneath — click and hold to see them.

Moving Around and Undoing

Everyday shortcuts (Windows; use Cmd instead of Ctrl on a Mac)
Everyday shortcuts (Windows; use Cmd instead of Ctrl on a Mac)

Practice

Where do you change the size of the Brush tool?