Adobe Certified Professional Photoshop key terms

The arrangement of panels, tools, and document windows in the Photoshop interface. Users can switch between preset workspaces or save custom arrangements for different tasks.

A floating or docked interface element that holds controls for a specific function, such as Layers, Color, or History. Panels can be collapsed, grouped, and rearranged.

The vertical strip of icons containing all Photoshop tools. Tools with small corner triangles hide related nested tools that can be revealed by clicking and holding.

The context-sensitive strip below the menu bar that shows settings for whichever tool is currently selected, such as brush size, blending mode, or selection feathering.

The active color applied by painting, drawing, and fill tools. It is shown as the front square in the toolbox and can be swapped with the background color using a keyboard shortcut.

The secondary color square behind the foreground color. It is used by the eraser on the background layer and by commands that expand the canvas.

Any workflow that preserves original pixel data so changes can be revised or removed later. Adjustment layers, masks, and smart objects are common examples.

The color model a file uses, such as RGB for screens or CMYK for print. Changing modes can shift colors because the available gamuts differ.

The number of bits used to describe each color channel per pixel. Higher depths such as 16-bit capture more tonal steps and reduce banding during heavy edits.

The density of pixels in an image, usually expressed as pixels per inch. It determines print size when combined with the pixel dimensions of the file.

Changing the pixel dimensions of an image by adding or removing pixels. Enlarging interpolates new pixels and can soften detail; reducing discards pixels.

The overall editable area of a document. Changing it adds or crops space around the image without scaling the existing pixels.

A tool that trims a document to a chosen area and optionally resamples it. It can also straighten horizons and enforce aspect ratios or output sizes.

The panel listing every layer, group, and effect in a document. It controls stacking order, visibility, opacity, blending, and selection of individual layers.

The vertical order of layers in the Layers panel. Layers higher in the list render in front of layers below them unless blending or masking changes the result.

A folder that holds multiple layers so they can be shown, hidden, moved, or masked together. Groups can contain nested groups and can carry their own blend mode.

An isolated region of a document that edits and filters affect while the rest is protected. Selections are shown as a moving dashed outline called marching ants.

Softening the edge of a selection or mask so the transition between affected and unaffected areas is gradual rather than a hard line.

A temporary mode for painting and refining a selection as if it were a grayscale mask. Painting black hides areas from the selection and white reveals them.

A layer that applies a color or tonal correction to everything beneath it without altering pixels. Its settings stay editable and its effect can be limited with a mask.

An adjustment that remaps tones by setting black, white, and midtone points on a histogram. It is often used to correct contrast and color casts.

An adjustment that maps input tones to output tones along an editable graph. It offers precise control over contrast, brightness, and individual color channels.

A graph showing how many pixels fall at each brightness level in an image or channel. It helps diagnose clipping, contrast, and tonal distribution.

Loss of detail when pixel values are pushed beyond the darkest or lightest recordable level. Clipped shadows become solid black and clipped highlights become pure white.

Visible stepping between tones where a smooth gradient should appear. It often results from heavy edits on low bit-depth images or from over-compressed files.

Adding a small amount of noise to break up visible steps in a gradient or when reducing colors. It trades slight grain for smoother apparent transitions.

A file describing how numeric color values map to a real color space. Assigning or converting profiles controls how colors appear across devices.

A preview that simulates how an image will look on a specific printer and paper using a chosen output profile, without changing the actual file data.

The range of colors a device or color space can reproduce. Colors outside a target gamut are described as out of gamut and must be approximated when converted.

A grayscale channel attached to a layer that controls visibility per pixel. White reveals, black hides, and gray produces partial transparency without deleting pixels.

A layer setting that confines a layer's visible content to the opaque pixels of the layer directly beneath it. It is commonly used to place images inside shapes or text.

A layer that embeds its source content so edits are applied non-destructively. Transforming a smart object repeatedly does not degrade the original pixels.

A filter applied to a smart object that stays editable and can be reordered, adjusted, or removed later. It may also carry its own filter mask.

A rule governing how a layer's pixels combine with the layers beneath it, such as Multiply, Screen, or Overlay. Each mode produces a distinct color interaction.

The overall transparency of a layer, group, or tool stroke expressed as a percentage. At 100 percent the content is fully opaque; at 0 percent it is invisible.

A retouching tool that samples nearby pixels and blends them to cover blemishes while matching surrounding texture, lighting, and color automatically.

A retouching tool that paints a copy of pixels sampled from a chosen source point. Unlike the healing brush, it copies texture and tone exactly.

A command that fills a selection by synthesizing pixels from surrounding areas. It is frequently used to remove unwanted objects from a photo.

A command for saving copies of a document in web and screen formats such as PNG, JPEG, or GIF, with controls for scale, quality, and transparency.

The structure used to store an image, such as PSD, TIFF, PNG, or JPEG. Each format differs in compression, transparency support, and preserved editing data.

A storage method that discards some image data to shrink file size. It can create visible artifacts, especially when a file is repeatedly resaved.