Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Toolbox & Tools – Complete Guide

Toolbox and Tools in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (With Images)

In Adobe Photoshop 7.0, the Toolbox (also called the Tools palette) is usually found on the left side of the screen. It contains all the essential tools required for creating, editing, painting, retouching, and navigating images. Each tool performs a specific function, and many have hidden tools underneath them (indicated by a small triangle at the bottom-right corner of the icon).

Full Toolbox Preview

Here’s how the complete toolbox looks in Adobe Photoshop 7.0:

Toolbox Overview

The Adobe Photoshop 7.0 toolbox is divided into four major sections:

1. 1. Selection Tools

   2. Painting and Retouching Tools

   3. Vector and Text Tools

   4. Navigation and Other Tools

Note: Many tools have a small black triangle in the bottom-right corner, indicating that more related tools are hidden behind them.

1. Selection tools

1. 1. Move Tool (Shortcut keys – V): This is used to move selected areas, layers, or guides within your image.

   2. Marquee Tools (Shortcut key – M): These include the Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee Tools. They allow you to make rectangular or circular selections. You can also select a single row or column.

   3. Lasso Tools (Shortcut – L): These include the Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, and Magnetic Lasso Tools. They allow freehand or polygon-based selections, and the magnetic option sticks to the edge of objects.

   4. Magic Wand Tool (Shortcut – W): Select areas of similar colors with one click. Very useful for removing backgrounds.

   5. Crop Tool (Shortcut – C): Used to trim and crop unwanted parts of the image.

   6. Slice Tool and Slice Select Tool (Shortcut – K): Used mainly for dividing web layouts into smaller sections for optimized web export.

Selection tools preview in the toolbox:

2. Painting and Retouching Tools

1. 1. Brush Tool (Shortcut – B): The main tool for painting smooth brush strokes. You can adjust size, hardness, and opacity.

   2. Pencil Tool (Shortcut – “B” then Shift + B): Similar to the brush, but it creates hard-edged lines. Also, under the brush tool.

   3. Clone Stamp Tool (Shortcut – S): Used to copy pixels from one part of the image to another. Hold Alt and click to define the source point.

   4. Pattern Stamp Tool (Shortcut – “S” then Shift + S): Paints with a selected pattern instead of a normal color.

   5. Eraser Tool (Shortcut – E): Erases pixels from the image. Background Eraser and Magic Eraser are also grouped here for advanced background removal.

   6. Blur Tool, Sharpen Tool, Smudge Tool (Shortcut key- R): These are used to blur or sharpen areas of an image or smudge pixels for distortion effects.

   7. Dodge Tool, Burn Tool, Sponge Tool (Shortcut key- O): Dodge lightens areas, Burn darkens, and Sponge desaturates or saturates parts of an image.

   8. Paint Bucket Tool (Shortcut key: G): Fills an area with the selected foreground color.

   9. Gradient Tool (Shortcut key – G then Shift+G): Creates a gradual blend between multiple colors. Useful for backgrounds and overlays.

   10. Healing Brush and Patch Tool (Shortcut key- J): Used for repairing damaged or blemished areas by blending surrounding pixels.

Painting and retouching tools are previewed in the toolbox below:

3. Text and Vector Tools

1. 1. Type Tool (Shortcut: T) – This adds horizontal or vertical text to your canvas. You can change font, size, alignment, etc.

   2. Pen Tool (Shortcut: P) – Used to create paths and complex shapes. It gives you precise control over curves.

   3. Freeform Pen Tool – This allows you to draw paths freely like a pencil.

   4. Anchor Point Tools – These tools (Add/Delete/Convert Anchor Point) are used for modifying vector shapes.

   5. Shape Tools (Shortcut: U) – You can draw shapes like rectangles, ellipses, polygons, lines, and custom shapes.

Text and Vector Tools preview in the toolbox:

4. Navigation and Measuring Tools

1. 1. Eyedropper Tool (Shortcut: I) – Samples colors from the image to set as your foreground color.

   2. Color Sampler Tool – Shows RGB values of multiple sampled points.

   3. Measure Tool – Helps measure distances and angles.

   4. Hand Tool (Shortcut: H) – Moves your canvas when zoomed in.

   5. Zoom Tool (Shortcut: Z) – Zooms in or out of your canvas.

   6. Notes and Audio Annotation Tool (Shortcut: N) – Useful in team environments for adding comments or audio notes.

-Navigation and Measuring Tools preview in the toolbox:

5. Color and Mode Area

At the bottom of the toolbox:

• • Foreground Color — This is the active color used for painting and filling.

  • Background Color — This is the color behind the active layer or used with gradients.

  • Swap Colors (Shortcut: X) — Switches foreground and background colors.

  • Default Colors (Shortcut: D) — Resets to black and white.

  • Quick Mask Mode (Shortcut: Q) — Used to refine selections with brush strokes.

Color and Mode Area preview in the toolbox:

Final Tips

• Hold down your mouse on any tool with a small triangle to see hidden tools.

• Press Shift + Shortcut to toggle between tools in the same group.

• You can move or undock the toolbox by dragging it.

• You can hide the toolbox temporarily by pressing the Tab key.