CBSE Notes for Class 8 Computer in Action – Introduction to Visual Basic

Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 is one of the most powerful image editing and creation software. We can use this software to correct errors in photographs, to add effects to images or to build complex images from scratch. This software is widely used for creating graphics for magazines, newspapers and websites. We can improve or change colours of faded photographs; add, remove or replace people from photographs; and apply artistic effects to our photographs using this software.
Let us get started to learn about this exciting and versatile software program.

Learning Objectives

To Learn about:

❖ starting Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.
❖ components of Photoshop workspace.
❖ selection tools in Photoshop.
❖ drawing tools in Photoshop.
❖ painting tools in Photoshop.

STARTING PHOTOSHOP
To open Adobe Photoshop,
Step 1
Type Photoshop in the Search box next to the Start button.
Step 2
Click on the Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 option.
The startup screen of the Photoshop appears as shown in Figure 7.1.

We can customise the appearance of the Photoshop window according to our own preferences. In this chapter, we have chosen to display the interface in light grey colour by choosing the Edit ► Preferences ► Interface menu option.
While working in Photoshop, we can choose to create a new image or open an existing image for editing. To open an existing image, choose File ► Open. The Photoshop workspace appears as shown in the following figure.

Components of The Photoshop Workspace
The Photoshop workspace consists of the various components (Fig. 7.2). They are:

Tools Panel: The Tools panel offers various tools that let us select, edit, draw, paint and view images (Fig. 7.3). To use any tool, we can click on its icon in the Tools panel. Most of the tools in the Tools panel show a small triangle at the lower-right corner. Click and hold the mouse on these tools to view more tools of the same category.
Menu Bar: The Menu bar provides menu commands for performing various tasks in Photoshop. The Photoshop menus are arranged by topic. For example, the Layer menu provides options for working with layers.

Options Bar: The Options bar provides options related to the tool currently selected in the Tools panel. For example, to choose the thickness of the Brush Tool selected in the Tools panel, we use the Options bar.

Panels: Photoshop offers various other panels that help us monitor and change various properties of an image.

Document Window: It is the area that displays the image file that we will work on. The name of the image file appears as a tab at the top of the Document window.

Creating a New Photoshop File
We can create a new image by choosing the File ► New menu option. This displays the New dialog box (Fig. 7.4) wherein we can set properties related to the new file.

In the New dialog box, we can change the following properties.

► Name: To specify the name of an image file.

► Width and Height: To specify the size of an image file in different units of measurement such as pixels, inches, centimeters or points.

► Resolution: To specify the number of pixels to be displayed per inch or per cm. Resolution determines the sharpness and clarity of an image. Higher the resolution, better will be the clarity of an image.

► Color Mode: To specify the colour mode such as RGB, CMYK or Grayscale to be used for displaying or printing an image. Colour mode determines the number of colours and the file size of an image.

►Background Contents: To provide information about the background of an image. We can choose from three options—white, background colour and transparent.

Saving a File
We can save the new Photoshop file using the File ► Save or File ► Save As menu option. Photoshop supports various types of file formats such as PSD, TIFF, GIF, JPEG and PDF. The Photoshop file format is .PSD.

Using The Tools Panel

The Tools panel contains a collection of tools that let us work with different aspects of images. Some of the categories of tools that will be discussed in this class are —Selection tools, Painting tools, Drawing tools, Type tools and Retouching tools.
Before we proceed to learn about the different categories of tools, let us first learn about the Color Picker tool in the Tools panel.

The Color Picker tool lets us select a colour for setting the foreground and the background colours. The currently selected foreground colour gets displayed in the upper box and the currently selected background colour is displayed in the lower box.
The foreground colour is used for painting, filling shapes and drawing strokes (lines). The background colour is used to fill the erased areas of an image.
The steps to change the foreground or the background colour using the Color Picker are:
Click the upper box or the lower box of the Color Picker in the Tools panel. The Color Picker dialog box appears (Fig. 7.5).
Select a colour by performing any one of the following tasks.

► Drag the white triangles along the color slider, or
► Click in the Color slider, or
► Click in the Color field.

Click OK.

Selection Tools
The Selection tools allow us to select a portion or subset of an image to work on. This help us in editing and applying effects only to the selected portions of an image while leaving the unselected areas unaffected. The selected portions are highlighted using a dashed border.

In this section, we will learn about the following categories of selection tools—
Marquee Tools, Lasso Tools, Quick Selection Tool, Magic Wand Tool and Crop Tool.
► Rectangular Marquee Tool

The marquee tools include:
allows us to make a selection in a rectangular shape.
► Elliptical Marquee Tool allows us to make a selection in an elliptical or a circular shape.
► Single Row Marquee Tool allows us to make a selection as a row that is one pixel wide.
► Single Column Marquee Tool allows us to make a selection as a column that is one pixel wide.
The steps to be followed to select an area using the Marquee tools are:
Step 1
Open the image.
Step 2
Choose the required Marquee Tool.
Step 3
Drag the mouse over the surface of the image to mark the selection (Fig. 7.7 and Fig. 7.8).

Step 1:
Open the image.
Step 2
Choose the required Lasso Tool and follow the given steps to understand the working of each tool.
► Lasso Tool: The Lasso Tool allows us to make selections by drawing a freehand area. For this, drag the mouse around the portion of the image to be selected (Fig. 7.10).

► Polygonal Lasso Tool: The Polygonal Lasso Tool allows us to make selections by clicking specific points around an image. To use this tool, click anywhere on the image to mark the starting point and then click at the position where you want the first straight segment to end. Continue clicking to mark endpoints for subsequent segments till the area you wish to select is enclosed forming a polygon. To close the selection, position the pointer over the starting point and click (Fig. 7.11).

► Magnetic Lasso Tool: The Magnetic Lasso Tool allows us to select objects by sticking the selection border to the edges of an object. This tool is particularly useful when there is a huge contrast between the foreground objects and the background objects of an image. Magnetic Lasso Tool identifies this contrast and draws points to create a selection area as you drag the mouse around the edges of the object to be selected (Fig. 7.12).

The Magic Wand Tool lets us select those areas of an image which share a similar colour. When using this tool, we can also set various options for specifying the exact selection in the Options bar (Fig. 7.13). These options include:

► Tolerance: Tolerance determines how closely the colours should be matched. Specifying a low value selects colours that are very similar to the pixel where you clicked. Specifying a higher value selects a wide range of colours.
► Anti-aliased: This option lets us define a smooth edge for the selection.
► Contiguous: This option lets us select only adjacent areas that share the same colours.

Drawing Tools
We can use tools such as Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon and Line from the Tools panel for drawing various shapes in Photoshop. We can also draw other shapes such as a blob, a heart and arrows using the Custom Shape Tool.

The steps to use the Custom Shape Tool are:
Step 1
Select the Custom Shape Tool from the Tools panel.
Step 2
Select a shape from the Shape pop-up panel in the Options bar
(Fig. 7.21).
Step 3
Click and drag the mouse to draw the selected custom shape
(Fig. 7.22).

Painting Tools
The Painting Tools are used for changing the fill colour of an image. The Painting tools available in Photoshop are Brush Tool, Pencil Tool, Color Replacement Tool, History Brush Tool, Paint Bucket Tool and Gradient Tool.

You can use the Brush Tool and the Pencil Tool to apply colour with brush strokes while the Gradient Tool and the Paint Bucket Tool can be used to apply colour to large areas. Let us discuss some of these tools.

You can set various options in the Options bar (Fig. 7.23). These options include:

► Brush Preset Picker: It lets us change the master diameter of the brush. The master diameter determines the size of the brush. We can change the size either by dragging the master diameter slider or by selecting a preset brush at the bottom of the menu.

► Mode: It allows us to set the painting mode such as to darken and to lighten when applying the brush strokes.

► Opacity: It allows us to set the level of transparency when applying brush strokes. Decreasing the opacity makes your brush more transparent while increasing the opacity makes it less transparent.

► Flow: It allows us to specify how quickly the paint will be applied.

To use the Brush Tool, follow the given steps.
Step 1
Open the image file.
Step 2
Choose an appropriate foreground colour from the Color Picker.

Step 3
Select the Brush Tool.
Step 4
Set the appropriate Brush size, Mode, Opacity and Flow for the Brush from the Options bar.
Step 5
Drag the mouse to paint strokes using the brush on the image (Fig. 7.24).

The Gradient Tool is used to fill selected areas with a blend of multiple colours. You can choose from the Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected or the Diamond gradient types. The steps to use the Gradient Tool are:
Step 1
Select the area of the image in which you wish to apply the gradient fill using one of the Selection tools.
Step 2
Select the Gradient Tool.
Step 3
Double-click on the Gradient Sample box in the Options bar (Fig. 7.25). The Gradient Editor dialog box appears (Fig. 7.26).

Step 4
Select a Preset gradient fill or create a New gradient fill in the Gradient Editor dialog  box. Click on OK to close the dialog box.

Step 5
Choose an appropriate gradient type in the Options bar.
Step 6
Place the mouse pointer in the selected area where you want to set the starting point of the gradient and drag to define the end point (Fig. 7.27).

The Color Replacement Tool in Photoshop enables you to replace the colour of an image with the colour of the foreground. When you choose this tool, the mouse pointer changes to the target symbol. As you drag the Color Replacement Tool, it picks up a sample of the colour that has to be replaced. That colour is then replaced with the colour that you have selected for the foreground from the Color Picker.
You can also specify various settings to control the behaviour of the Color
Replacement Tool in the Options bar (Fig. 7.28). Two of these settings include:

► Tolerance: Tolerance determines how closely the colours should be matched for sampling. Specifying a lower value selects colours that are very similar to the pixel where you clicked. Specifying a higher value selects a wide range of colours.
► Limits: It allows you to specify whether only the colour of adjacent pixels containing the sample colour should be replaced or the colour of the non-adjacent areas should also be replaced.

The steps to use the Color Replacement Tool are:
Step 1
Set the foreground colour using the Color Picker in the Tools panel.
Step 2
Select the Color Replacement Tool. The pointer shape changes to a target symbol.
Step 3
Set the appropriate options for Tolerance and Limits in the Options bar.
Step 4
Drag the target symbol over the port where you want to change the colour.