ABSTRACT
The various shape tools, including the line tool, are mostly useful to graphic designers who wish to create things like buttons or who need to add vector shapes to a design layout. In Figure 1.66, you can see an example of how a filled, custom shape vector layer was placed above a pixel layer that had been filled with a radial gradient. The gradient tool may certainly be of interest to photographers. For example, you can use the Adjustment layer menu to add gradient fill layers to an image. Gradient fill layers can be applied in this way to create gradient filter type effects. You will also find that the gradient tool comes in use when you want to edit the contents of a layer mask. For example, you can add a black to white gradient to a layer mask to apply a graduated fade to the opacity of a layer. The paint bucket tool is another type of fill tool and is a bit like a combination of a magic wand selection combined with an Edit ➯ Fill using the foreground color.
