7 Magic Eraser
Used for removing
portions of images
Found at #6 in the Toolbar diagram at left
The magic eraser is grouped with the other eraser tools in the toolbar. To find the one you want, click on the eraser, and choose it from the pop-up menu that appears.
Unlike the other two erasers, this tool acts by clicking, not dragging. It’s similar to the magic wand tool, except that it removes the pixels found, instead of selecting them.
The magic eraser erases to transparency on the active layer. If you apply it to the background layer, the layer will automatically be changed into a regular layer since the background layer does not permit transparency.
If you choose Edit > Fade immediately after using this tool, you can change the opacity of the erasing you have just done.
The keyboard shortcut for the erasers is the letter E. To cycle through all three eraser tools, hold down the Shift key while repeatedly pressing the shortcut key.
The illustration below is the magic eraser tool’s options bar. To find any tool presets that have been made for this tool, click on the tool’s thumbnail at the left end of the options bar. To reset the tool to its default settings, right-click on the tool’s thumbnail and choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears.
The Tolerance setting determines how much variation in the selected color will be erased. A low setting allows very little variation; a high number will allow erasure of a broader range of similar colors. If Contiguous is left unchecked, all pixels of the selected color within the designated tolerance range will be erased. When checked, only pixels connected to the spot clicked will be erased. Check Use All Layers if you want to sample a color to erase from all visible layers. Note that the resulting erasure will only affect the active layer.
The Opacity slider determines the amount of erasing that will occur per stroke. When set to 100 % the erasure will be to complete transparency. When set to a lower value, semitransparent color will be left according to the percentage chosen. To access the slider, click on the little arrow to the right of the percentage setting.
If you have doodled with a tool’s options and want to get back
to the default settings, right-click that tool’s icon at the far
left end of its options bar (in Photoshop 6, left-click). Choose either
Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore
default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop’s .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
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