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            <div class="Photoshop"><table><tr><td class="banner">Adobe Photoshop CS4</td><td class="pod"><img src="images/PDF.gif" width="16" height="16" hspace="15" valign="50%" />&#160;&#160;
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     <a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7809a.html"><b>Painting tools</b></a> 
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                <h1>
                    About painting tools, options, and panels
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                <div><p>Adobe
Photoshop CS4 provides several tools for painting and editing image color.
The Brush tool and the Pencil tool work like traditional drawing
tools by applying color with brush strokes. The Gradient tool, Fill
command, and Paint Bucket tool apply color to large areas. Tools
like the Eraser tool, Blur tool, and Smudge tool modify the existing
colors in the image. See <a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-74f3a.html">Painting tools gallery</a>.</p>
<p>In the options bar for each tool, you can set how color is applied
to an image and choose from preset brush tips.</p>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Brush and tool presets</h4><p>You can save a
set of brush options as a preset so you can quickly access brush characteristics
you use frequently. Photoshop includes several sample brush presets.
You can start with these presets and modify them to produce new effects.
Many original brush presets are available for download on the web.</p>
<p>You
choose presets from the Brush Preset picker, which stores preset
brushes and allows you to temporarily modify the diameter and hardness
of a brush preset.</p>
<p>You use tool presets when you want to save
brush tip characteristics along with settings from the options bar,
such as opacity, flow, and color. To learn more about tool presets,
see <a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-74e9a.html">Create and use tool presets</a>.</p>
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<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Brush tip options</h4><p>Along with settings
in the options bar, brush tip options control how color is applied.
You can apply color gradually, with soft edges, with large brush
strokes, with various brush dynamics, with different blending properties,
and with brushes of different shapes. You can apply a texture with
your brush strokes to simulate painting on canvas or art papers.
You can also simulate spraying paint with an airbrush. You use the
Brushes panel to set brush tip options. See <a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-77ffa.html">Brushes panel overview</a>.</p>
<p>If you work with a drawing tablet, you can
control how color is applied using pen pressure, angle, rotation,
or a stylus wheel. You set options for drawing tablets in the Brushes
panel.</p>
<div class="tip"><img src="images/tip_help.png" />You can resize or change the hardness
of painting cursors by dragging. Right-click + Alt (Windows) or
Control + Option (Mac OS) and drag to the left or right to reduce
or enlarge the size of the painting cursor. Shift + right-click
+ Alt (Windows) or Control + Option + Command (Mac OS) and drag
to the left or right to change the hardness.</div></div>
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