Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editor software for raster or bitmap images developed by the Adobe systems for Windows and Mac operating systems. Since its release in 1990, Adobe Photoshop has become the industry standard for image editing and graphics processing, so much so, that today ‘photoshop’ is used as a verb, as in ‘photoshopping an image’. Photoshop edits and composes images in layers, supporting all available image formats, and also supports text rendering, 3D Graphics processing, as well as video editing.
Prerequisites to Learn Photoshop:
Like other intuitive softwares, Adobe Photoshop does not need too many prerequisites. A basic knowledge of computers, image formats, and a good understanding of images, coupled with an aesthetic eye and a creative mind are all that you need to learn Photoshop.
Important Tools and Features:
Adobe Photoshop boasts of an enormous collection of tools and has many features to enable you to do almost anything imaginable with an image. Some of its most useful tools and features include:
- Quick Selection Tool: A simple click and drag over an area to select it quickly.
- Masking: This allows you to show or hide selected portions of a layer.
- Clone Stamp Tool: Allows you to duplicate a part of a layer into the same or another layer.
- Shape Tool: Allows you to make vector graphics by making a wide variety of common shapes.
- Type Tool: Allows you to add text to your image.
- Pen Tool: Allows you to make precise selections on a layer.
- Patch Tool: Allows you to remove a flaw in a picture by simply dragging it to a cleaner portion.
- Curve Tool: Allows you to adjust picture quality using visual graphs.
- Crop Tool: Allows you to crop an image in a predefined shape or free hand.
- Eyedropper Tool: Allows you to select the precise shade of colour you want.
- Healing Brush Tool: Allows you to clear out blemishes in a very precise and intuitive way.
- Colour Replacement Tool: Allows you to change image colour keeping other factors unchanged.
- Liquify Tool: Allows you to change shape, size, figure, etc. of a portion of the picture.
- Video Editing: Allows you to edit videos in different formats frame by frame.
- Eraser Tool: Allows you to remove edits or parts of an image on a layer.
- Plugins: The plugins are programs by third party sources that greatly enhance the features already available in Adobe Photoshop. They may range from simple filter plugins to 3D effects plugins.