Panning (Hand Tool)

I mentioned already that you can use the Spacebar on your keyboard to temporarily switch to the hand tool at any time. To practice this:

1. Open an image and drag the borders of the document window so it is smaller than the image.
2. Press the Spacebar and click on the image.
3. While holding the Spacebar down, move the mouse around to move the image around within the window.

We don't need no stinkin' scroll bars! Another handy shortcut is to double-click on the hand tool in the toolbox to quickly fill the available workspace with your image. This will set the magnification level to whatever size it needs to be to make the image fill the screen. Check the title bar or the status bar to see what the actual magnification level is.
While you have the hand tool active, take a look at the options bar for the hand tool. You'll notice three buttons there for Actual Pixels, Fit Screen, and Print Size. Do you remember these from the zoom tool's context sensitive menu?

• Actual Pixels shows the image at 100% magnification.
• Fit Screen scales the image to fit inside your workspace. This may make the magnification higher or lower than 100% depending on the size of the image and your screen resolution and workspace layout.
• Print Size approximates the size that the image will be when printed, taking resolution into account. Since all monitors vary, this should only be considered an approximation. Well learn more about resolution later.

Since these options are also available in the Zoom tool, and now that you know the Spacebar trick, there is very little reason you'll ever need to use the hand tool from the toolbox!

Posted in: Adobe Photoshop Tutorial