4. The Screen Setup of PhotoLine / 4.5 The Toolbox

4.5.2 Settings Of The Image Tools

If the active layer is an image layer, the toolbox contains several settings, that are used by the image tools.

The Foreground/Background Color

The color fields Foreground Color and Background Color are used for various tools.

Both colors can be exchanged by clicking the small double arrow. By clicking the two mini color fields the foreground color is set to black and the background color is set to white.

The foreground color is used by most drawing tools like painting, flood fill and so on. The eraser tool uses the background color.

The Active Brush

This brush field shows the current brush. It can be edited by double clicking. A double click in the brush list (see chapter 4.17) changes the active brush, too.

The brush is used by many tools of the toolbar, e.g. painting, eraser, spray, water, finger, ... Each of these tools has its own cursor. You can set different brushes for different tools.

If the active tool is a painting tool there is a fast way to change the brush size by using the arrow keys: arrow up enlarges the brush, arrow down reduces it. Additionally the arrow left rotates the brush left and the arrow right rotates it right. There is a second way to adjust the brush size by using the mouse: hold Ctrl (on Windows) or Command (on macOS) and drag the mouse until you got the wanted size. Additionally holding Shift will modify the width of the soft edge of the brush. Shift+mouse wheel will change the brush size, too.

The Icon Field

There is also a small toolbar with four functions. You can customize the content of this toolbar in the settings under "Usage > Toolbars" and the bar "Image tools" (see chapter 7.10.1.42).

The following 4 functions are included by default:

• Use Mask
The icon "Use mask" forces all drawing tools, the gradient and many other functions to pay attention to the mask of the active layer (see chapter 2.4.1).
• Edit Mask
"Edit mask" takes care, that all drawing tools modify the mask and not the image of a layer. You can paint in the mask, filter it, or work with the finger or the water tool. The mask is a normal gray image and can be edited the same way.
• Show Mask
If this button is selected, PhotoLine shows the mask of an image. The mask is usually shown as a colored, transparent area.
The look of the mask can be modified in the mask parameters (see chapter 7.10.1.24).
• Hide/Show Lasso
If this button is selected, PhotoLine shows the lasso, if there is one. On start up this button is selected.
Sometimes the visual appearance of the lasso is disturbing. Therefore, it is possible to turn it off.

In addition, the following functions are particularly useful for the painting tools:

• Show Brush Preview
This allows you to switch the preview function for the painting tools (e.g. the painting brush) on and off. With the preview function, you can already see the effect of a tool when you move the mouse pointer over the document, i.e. even before you press the mouse button. This also works with layer masks and the masks of adjustment layers.
• Show Brush Outline
The brush outline is often not important, especially when the brush preview is activated. This can be used to quickly switch it on and off. This can also be done with the Caps Lock key.
• Show Brush Cursor
Like the brush outline, the mouse cursor is often not necessary when the brush preview is activated.

These three functions can also be accessed in the settings under "Working > Mouse" (see chapter 7.10.1.22). You can find additional options there, too.