Home » Tools Acorn

## Tools and the Tools Palette

The Tools palette contains most of the drawing tools that you'll need to edit and create your images. It has a list on the left side of the window of the basic category of tools, and a detail on the right side with specific settings for the selected tool.

On the bottom left you'll find the color wells, and on the bottom right you'll find the layers list with layer options right above it.

Tools for moving around

Move (Shortcut 'v')

You can the move tool to click on a bitmap layer and move it around. You can also use it to click on graphics in a shape layer, and to change the bounds of an image or move it around. This is your go-to tool to start moving things around in Acorn.

Panning / Hand Tool (Shortcut 'h')

If your image doesn't fit in the window because it's too big or you are zoomed in, you can use this tool to pan your view of the image around.

Zoom (Shortcut 'z')

The Zoom tool is used for magnifying your image so you can see those pixels up close and personal, or for zooming out. To zoom out with the zoom tool, hold down the option key when clicking on your canvas.

Crop (Shortcut 'c') The Crop tool is for cropping your image down to a smaller size. Use it to define the area of your image you would like to keep, and then double click inside the crop area, or press the enter key to perform the crop on your image.

Tools for performing selections

Rect, Oval, and Free Selection Tools (Shortcut 'm')

These three tools will allow you to make various types of selections in your image. Use the rect selection tool to make a straight rectangular selection, the oval tool to make a round selection, or the freehand tool to make a selection that goes wherever you want it too.

Holding down the shift key while using one of these tools will add to any selection that may currently already be in place. Holding down the option key will cut out from the selection.

Magic Wand (Shortcut 'w')

The Magic Wand tool works by selecting a single pixel, and then expanding that selection out to neighboring pixels that match the same color. You can adjust the tolerance so that there is a little bit more freedom in determining if a neighboring pixel should be selected or not.

Pencil (Shortcut 'b')

This is your most basic tool for getting new pixels down on the canvas. Hold down the shift key to draw in straight lines.

Eraser (Shortcut 'e')

The eraser is good for removing pixels from a bitmap image. Hold down the shift key to erase in straight lines.

Flood Fill (Shortcut 'k')

The flood fill tool fills in adjacent pixels with the same color. Using the flood fill tool on a pixel will change it's color to the current foreground color, and then turn any neighboring pixels with the same original color to the new color. The tolerance setting lets you adjust how close in color neighboring pixels are to be filled in.

Gradient (Shortcut 'g')

Use the Gradient tool to fill in your image or selected area with a gradual gradient, changing from what you have set as the background color, to the foreground color.

Text (Shortcut 't')

Add new text layers using the Text tool. Use the palette to change the font and style of your text.

Shapes (Shortcut 'r', 'o', and ';')

Simple shapes can be added to your image using the Shape tool. They can also be re-edited later on by using the Move tool to select, move, and adjust the bounds using the handles.

Next: Layers