Paint Bucket Tool

The Paint Bucket Tool changes the color of identical adjacent pixels with the color you have set as foreground in the Toolbox.
Therefore, you also give a tolerance value to determine the range of colors that are to be changed.
The other options in the options bar are same as those for the measurement tools we discussed earlier.

Gradient Tool and Gradient Editor

You use the “Gradient” tool to fill small areas when you want to paint with a gradient of colors.
Photoshop gives us a set number of Gradients.
Choose from the list that is provided by Photoshop.
And click and drag the mouse pointer in the picture.

If you want to provide only a part of the image with a gradient, please create a selection with one of the selection tools.
And only then click and drag your “Gradient” tool in the selection.
The “Gradient” Tool or the “Paint Bucket” Tool automatically creates a new layer.
So, if you want to apply the gradient on a new layer, first click on the “Create New Layer” button at the bottom of the “Layer” Palette.

To create, modify or remove a gradient, we use the “Gradient Editor”.
In the upper half of the window, we first choose an existing gradient.
Then you specify the colors in the color bar below.
Note that the lower part of the color bar is used to add or delete color.
The upper part of the color bar is for the transparency of the color.
You add color by clicking an empty space below the color bar.
You change colors by double-clicking the block.
You remove colors by dragging down the block.
Ditto for transparency, even here we can add or remove cubes.
We set the transparency in the “Opacity” box at the bottom of the dialog.
Specify a name for the gradient created and click “New”.
The gradient you just created is selected in the options bar of the “Gradient” Tool.
The “Gradient Type” can also be changed to “Noise”. You should try this, it may also have nice effects.

Borders

The “Borders” command allows us to provide edges to a selection, pattern or a layer .
In this example, I first make a selection with the “Elliptical Marquee Tool” in an image.
Then click “Edit” – “Stroke” … in the menu bar.
In the dialog that appears, give the options for your border.
The “Width”, “Color”, “Location”, “Mode” and “Opacity”.
When there are transparent pixels in your image, you can retain these from the edges, by checking the “Preserve Transparency” box.
Click OK when you are satisfied.

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