The Blur and Sharpen tools affect the focus of pixels. The Blur tool lets you emphasize or deemphasize parts of an image by selectively blurring the focus of elements, much as a photographer controls depth of field. The Sharpen tool can be useful for repairing scanning problems or out-of-focus photographs. The Smudge tool lets you gently blend colors, as when creating a reflection of an image.

To blur or sharpen an image:

  1. Select the Blur or Sharpen tool.
  2. Set brush options in the Property inspector:

    Size sets the size of the brush tip.

    Edge specifies the softness of the brush tip.

    Shape sets a round or square brush tip shape.

    Intensity sets the amount of blurring or sharpening.

  3. Drag the tool over the pixels to be sharpened or blurred.

    TIP

    Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh) to change from one tool behavior to the other.

To smudge colors in an image:

  1. Select the Smudge tool.
  2. Set the tool options in the Property inspector:

    Size specifies the size of the brush tip.

    Shape sets a round or square brush tip shape.

    Edge specifies the softness of the brush tip.

    Pressure sets the intensity of the stroke.

    Smudge Color allows you to smudge using a specified color at the beginning of each stroke. If this option is deselected, the tool uses the color under the tool pointer.

    Use Entire Document smudges using color data from all objects on all layers. If this option is deselected, the Smudge tool uses colors from the active object only.

  3. Drag the tool over the pixels to be smudged.