Use all current grouped tools, their shortcuts, flyout cycling, and context-sensitive options for selection, retouching, painting, vector work, navigation, and AI fill.
Where: Open Image Editor → left tool rail and top options bar
Key ideas
- Grouped rail: Tools sharing a shortcut occupy one flyout slot. Press the letter for the default; Shift+letter cycles the family. The editor remembers the last-used tool per group in local preferences.
- Options follow the tool: The top bar shows generic fields such as size, hardness, opacity, flow, feather, tolerance, radius, contrast, and aligned, or a purpose-built control set for complex tools.
- All cataloged tools are marked ready: The current TOOLS registry marks every listed rail tool ready; use the exact names below when searching help or choosing a shortcut.
- Brush-tip and navigation feedback: The cursor/tip reflects the active brush operation and size, and holding Space temporarily switches to pan without discarding the current tool.
Steps
- Choose a rail slot; hold/open its flyout when a family contains more than one tool.
- Set the context-specific options before drawing or selecting.
- Perform the edit on the intended pixel, mask, text, path, or shape target.
- Review the History panel and the canvas at high zoom before continuing.
- Check the brush tip before painting; use Space-drag to pan, release Space, then continue the same brush/eraser/mask operation.
Transform, selection, and navigation
- V — Move.
- M — Marquee Select (Feather).
- L — Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magnetic Lasso (Feather; Magnetic also Radius and Contrast).
- W — Magic Wand (Tolerance, Contiguous).
- J — Object Select.
- C — Crop.
- I — Eyedropper.
- H — Hand.
- Z — Zoom.
Paint, fill, healing, and retouch
- S — Clone Stamp (Size, Hardness, Opacity, Aligned).
- J — Spot Healing Brush and Patch.
- B — Brush (Size, Hardness, Opacity, Flow).
- E — Eraser (Size, Hardness, Opacity).
- G — Fill, Gradient, Generative Fill Brush.
- O — Dodge, Burn, Sponge.
- R — Smudge, Blur, Sharpen.
Text and vector
- T — Type.
- P — Pen and Curvature Pen.
- A — Path Selection and Direct Selection.
- U — Shape.
Key family behavior
- Shift+L cycles freehand, polygonal, and magnetic lasso.
- Shift+J cycles Object Select, Spot Healing, and Patch.
- Shift+G cycles Fill, Gradient, and Generative Fill Brush.
- Shift+O cycles Dodge, Burn, and Sponge.
- Shift+R cycles Smudge, Blur, and Sharpen.
- Shift+P cycles Pen and Curvature Pen; Shift+A cycles path/direct selection.
Object Select (J)
- Hover previews the object under the pointer; click commits it.
- Drag a box to union distinct objects inside the region.
- Replace/Add/Subtract/Intersect buttons apply to points and boxes.
- Shift/Alt/Shift+Alt temporarily add/subtract/intersect.
- Select Subject (canvas) makes one full-composite/region selection.
- Shift+J cycles Object Select, Spot Healing, and Patch.
Crop, smart objects, channels, and large-image fixes
The Image Editor now exposes ratio/straighten cropping with optional destructive pixel trimming, smart-object embedded-content operations, a layer filter bar, component-channel viewing, and a live histogram. The focused guides below describe the actual controls and boundaries.
- 4K brush strokes and masks persist more reliably; live changes to brush settings apply without restarting the tool.
- GPU-pressure handling protects mask/brush work, but browser memory and hardware still limit large documents.
- SVG/path vertex editing supports multi-selection, segment movement, and resynchronization after undo.
- Deep duplication keeps masks and nested effect data independent between copies.
Current menu and floating-surface behavior
Image Editor menus now use the shared styled select control and the full-screen workspace owns a top-level floating layer. Tooltips, dropdowns, filters, blend modes, channel/range controls, and dialogs stay above the editing surface instead of being clipped behind it.
- Crop ratios and AI actions
- Curves channels and Selective Color ranges
- Layer kind/visibility filters
- Blend modes, smart filters, and vector properties
- Panel registry, export, layer-style, and save-selection dialogs
Tips
- Select the layer thumbnail for pixel painting or the mask thumbnail for mask painting.
- Save a difficult selection or path before performing a destructive edit.
- Use the Options bar instead of assuming the last tool settings reset.
Limitations and important notes
- Shortcut letters may be intercepted while focus is in a text/input field.
- Generative Fill Brush invokes an AI operation; local healing/retouch tools have different behavior and cost.
- Object Select currently uses the best-scoring SAM mask in Image Editor; candidate Tighter/Looser cycling is available on the Flowgen node and canvas dialog.
Related guides
- Image editor tools, selections, paths, and channels
- Image Editor layers, masks, adjustments, filters, and workspaces
- Use AI Fill, Erase, Restyle, outpainting, and Remove Background
- Image Editor Object Select: hover, click, and multi-object boxes
- Image Editor: crop ratios, straighten, and canvas transforms
- Image Editor: smart objects, embedded contents, and layer filtering
- Image Editor: component channels and the live histogram