- Opening files
- The Photoshop Elements workspace
- Undoing actions
- Changing foreground and background colors
- Working with selections
- Working with layers
- Managing color
Changing foreground and background colors
See those swatches at the bottom of the toolbox? They determine the foreground (top) and background (bottom) colors at any point in time. Most of the painting tools, including the Brush and Pencil tools, paint in the foreground color. The Eraser tool replaces existing pixels with the background color. Many other tools and features use the foreground and background colors, too, so you should check them frequently and get comfortable changing them.
- To change the foreground or background color, click its swatch and then select a new color from the Color Picker.
- To change the foreground or background color to a color you already have in your image, click the swatch. The cursor becomes an eyedropper that you can use to sample a color in the image.
- To set the foreground and background boxes to black and white, click the Default Colors icon.
- To switch the colors in the two boxes, click the Switch Colors icon.