Overview If you have no prior experience in digital image editing, then you have reached the right place. This chapter will present to you, in step by step fashion, the basis to digital image processing and will help you enter effortlessly into the wonderful world of digital image editing. With the program you can edit existing images as well as create new images, illustrations and drawings from scratch. In order to get the most out of the program, you must become acquainted with the user interface. The program's user interface is a standard user interface common to programs working in the Windows environment. The interface contains menus, pop-up menus, toolbars, dialog boxes, work windows and more. The program has primary work states: Reduced State - The state in which the program is loaded. In this state, there are no images opened on the screen; the toolbox, toolbars and Layers window are not available and only a limited number of menus are displayed. Work State - The state in which the program is in most of the time. This is the state in which an image is open and active in the program window. This state includes all of the options which the reduced state has plus many more options. In this state, many diverse menus are displayed; the toolbox, toolbars and Layer window all become active and available. The program alternates from reduced state to work state automatically. Here is a short detail of the program's interface: Menus - The menus contain most of the program's functions and are used to activate them. Shortcuts Toolbar - A toolbar containing shortcuts for the common operations from the menus. Tools Toolbar - A toolbar containing many editing and image editing tools which is also used to activate them. Styles Panel - The Styles Panel contains the following elements: Fore (Main) Style - One of two main styles used by many tools in the program. The fore style box can be found at the top of the styles panel on the left. To select a new fore style, click on the fore style box and choose a new style. Back Style - One of two main styles used by many tools in the program. The back style box can be found at the top of the styles panel on the right. To select a new back style, click on the back style box and choose a new style. Working Procedure with the Program The program contains dozens of photo editing functions, functions for repairing photod, effects, work tools, editing tools, selection tools and many more diverse possibilities. Even though there is much diversity, it is possible to separate most of the program's operations into a number of principal categories: Photo editing Functions (such as color and brightness changes, image repairs, filters, effects and many more) - These are the principal functions found under the menus and in the Shortcut Toolbar. Drawing and Editing Tools (such as paintbrushes, general drawing tools, text tools and more) - These tools are found under the Tools Toolbar. Selection Tools (such as the Standard Selection, Magic Wand and more) - These tools are also to be found under the Tools Toolbar menu. Layers and Masks Tools (such as creating and deleting layers and masks, changing and editing layers and masks and more) - These tools are generally to be found under the toolbars in the Layers window. Assorted/Other - All the rest of the tools and windows in the program such as the layers panel, tools properties ,script editor more.