Photoshop is a program for retouching and creating raster images (images made of pixels). Before you create anything, you need to understand its workspace.

The main areas

• The toolbar (on the left) — selection, brush, eraser, type and more.
• The canvas (in the centre) — the image you’re working on.
• The panels (on the right) — Layers, Colour, History.
• The options bar (at the top) — the settings for the active tool.

Moving around

Zoom with Ctrl/Cmd + scroll wheel, and pan by holding down the space bar. A tidy workspace saves you a great deal of time.

Key point: every tool displays its settings at the top. If a tool misbehaves, check that options bar first.