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Tool galleries

  As of July 2024, Photoshop’s legacy 3D features have been removed. However, now in the Photoshop (beta) app you can seamlessly add 3D objects to your 2D Photoshop design using the Adobe Substance 3D Viewer (beta) app. Click here for more details.

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Try it in the app
Learn to work with the Tools panel in a few simple steps.

When you start Photoshop, the Tools panel appears at the left of the screen. Some tools in the Tools panel have options that appear in the context-sensitive options bar.

You can expand some tools to show hidden tools beneath them. A small triangle at the lower right of the tool icon signals the presence of hidden tools.

You can view information about any tool by positioning the pointer over it. The name of the tool appears in a tooltip below the pointer.

Some workspaces shipped with Photoshop CC 2015 and later, customized the toolbar. When you switch to one of such workspaces, some tools may seem missing from the toolbar. To learn how to resolve this issue, see the video below or check out Tools missing from the toolbar.

If you're looking for general information on how to use tools in Photoshop, see Using tools.

Rich tooltips

Figuring out what Photoshop tools do is now easier than ever before! When you hover the pointer over certain tools in the Tools panel, Photoshop displays a description and a short video of the tool in action.

You can choose not to view rich tooltips. To do so, deselect the Preferences > Tools Show Rich Tooltips preference.

Videos in the Photoshop application for new users

Customize the toolbar

You can customize the Photoshop toolbar to organize tools in a group and do much more.

  1. Do one of the following:
  • Select Edit > Toolbar 
  • Long press , located at the bottom of the toolbar and then select Edit Toolbar.
Photoshop Customize Toolbar dialog
The Customize Toolbar dialog

  1. In the Customize Toolbar dialog box, do one or more the following:
  • Drag and drop tools and/or groups to re-organize the toolbar.
  • Move excess, unused, or low priority tools to Extra Tools.
  • To access extra tools, long press  at the bottom of the toolbar.
  • To save the custom toolbar, click Save Preset
  • To open a previously saved custom toolbar, click Load Preset.
  • To restore the default toolbar, click Restore Defaults.
  • To move all the tools to Extra Tools, click Clear Tools.
  • Select the non-tool widgets to show/hide them at the bottom of the toolbar.
Photoshop non-tool widgets to show/hide them on toolbar

A. Show/Hide Extra Tools | B. Show/Hide Foreground/Background Colors | C. Show/Hide Quick Mask Mode | D. Show/Hide Screen Mode 

Tool galleries

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