In this blog post, we will learn about foreground and background colors in Adobe Photoshop. These are two important settings that affect how we paint, fill, and apply effects to our images.
The foreground color is the color that we use to draw, paint, or fill a selection. We can see the current foreground color in the upper color box in the toolbox. To change it, we can click on the box and choose a color from the Adobe Color Picker.
The background color is the color that fills the erased areas of an image or the background layer. We can see the current background color in the lower color box in the toolbox. To change it, we can click on the box and choose a color from the Adobe Color Picker.
We can also swap the foreground and background colors by clicking on the switch icon in the toolbox, or restore them to their default values (black and white) by clicking on the default icon.
Foreground and background colors are also used by some special effects filters, such as gradient fill, stroke, and cloud. We can experiment with different combinations of colors to create interesting effects on our images.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Result | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Open Fill dialog box on background or standard layer | Backspace or Shift + Backspace | Delete or Shift + Delete |
| Fill with foreground or background color | Alt + Backspace or Control + Backspace* | Option + Delete or Command + Delete* |
| Fill from history | Control + Alt + Backspace* | Command + Option + Delete* |
| Displays Fill dialog box | Shift + Backspace | Shift + Delete |
| *Hold down Shift to preserve transparency |
Notes:
- You can customize the keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop.
- You can view, edit, and summarize keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box. To view this in Photoshop, select Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts or use the following keyboard shortcuts:
- Alt + Shift + Control + K (Windows)
- Alt + Shift + Command + K (macOS)
- On newer MacBook Pro models, the Touch Bar replaces the function keys on top of the keyboard.
-Snippet from Adobe Photoshop Help
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