The tool palette is found in the default interface down the left-hand side of the program. This is shown in the following screenshot:
The tool palette gives us access to the various drawing and editing tools in Clip Studio Paint. The tools are separated into categories, designated by the horizontal lines going across the tool palette, and are divided into thirds.
In the top third of the tool palette are the selection and editing tools. From top to bottom, they are listed in the following order:
- Zoom
- Move
- Operation
- Move layer
- Marquee
- Auto select
- Eyedropper
The middle third of the tool palette consists mainly of our drawing and other mark-making tools. From top to bottom, they are listed in the following order:
- Pen
- Pencil
- Brush
- Airbrush
- Decoration
- Eraser
- Blend
The bottom third of the toolbar holds tools that do not necessarily fit into the other two categories. They are as follows:
- Fill
- Gradient
- Contour line paint
- Figure
- Text
- Correct line
The very bottom of the tool palette shows the current foreground and background colors, as well as a transparent color that can be selected to allow mark-making tools to act like erasers. More information on this is in Chapter 5, Erasers, Selections, and the Subview Palette.
It is best to think of the tool palette as a collection of categories of tools. Clicking on one of the icons in the tool palette will change the options available in the Sub Tool palette. The desired tool is then selected from the Sub Tool palette. You can think of the tool palette as drawers holding supplies in each one. For instance, if we clicked on the pencil in the tool palette, it is like opening a drawer where all of our pencils are stored. Then, we can select the specific pencil we want out of that category of pencils. It is always good to have the Tool palette and Sub Tool palette open near each other to make tool selecting quick and easy.