Drawing tools

From RealWorld Wiki

The raster editor window uses the active drawing tool to modify the current image. The active tool receives commands given by the keyboard or using left mouse button (or tablet). The tool is responsible for displaying the preview of the outcome until the drawing is finished (applied or canceled).

[edit] Selecting the active tool

The basic method for selecting a tool is to click its icon in the toolbar above the raster editor. This toolbar holds the frequently used tools, but not all available tools.

Due to the plug-in nature of the tools and the existence of meta-tools, the total number of available tools is much higher. The meta-tools (ERASER, SELECT, RETOUCH, CLONE) can be combined with ordinary tools yielding dozens of possible combination (retouching with pencil, selecting with brush, ellipse, or polygon, etc.). These combinations are not used very often, but are still important. For example when creating beveled text, selecting with text tool is a fundamental tool.

Probably the easiest way of accessing the uncommon tools is by using the toolbar with custom presets. The custom presets not only allows you to add the specialized tools, but also allows remembering and activating selected drawing modes in one click.

[edit] Mode of operation

Most drawing tools are activated by the press left mouse button->move the mouse->release the button sequence. In some cases, only the last of the 3 actions is important.

Most drawing tools display control handles after the initial definition of the drawn shape and the control handles can be used to adjust the tool's function. There may be several classes of control handles, differentiated by color. Some control handles belong to fill styles (usually having purple color) and can be used to fine-tune gradients.

[edit] Tips

Many drawing tools support temporary switch to the dropper tool to change current color by holding down the CTRL key.

There are a lot of ways how to finish and apply a tool:

• Press ENTER.
• Perform the apply mouse gesture (Down->Right).
• Switch to another tool (except the crop tool, which must be explicitly applied).
• Right click and select Apply from context menu.
• Click Apply button in toolbar or in main menu.
• Just start drawing another shape (only valid for shape-drawing tools).

Selection can be canceled by:

• Pressing ESC.
• Pressing undo button (Ctrl+Z, or the undo mouse gesture).