Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Foreground and Background Colors

The two square overlapping boxes that appear toward the bottom of your Tools palette are the foreground and background colors (Figure 1.20). The top box is the foreground color; it determines which color will be used when you use any of the painting tools. To change the foreground color, click it once. (This will bring up a standard Color Picker.) The bottom box is the background color; it's used when you're erasing the background image or when you increase the size of your document by using Image > Canvas Size. When you use the Gradient tool with default settings, your gradient will start with the foreground color and end with the background color. You can swap the foreground and background colors by clicking ...