The Pencil Tool
Basically just another brush, the Pencil tool shares the Brush tool's slot in the Tools panel. Choose the Pencil from the pop-out menu or press N to activate it.
The Pencil has many of the same settings as the Brush—like size, mode, and opacity—but it offers only hard-edged brushes. In other words, you can't draw fuzzy lines with the pencil, not even the kind of lines you'd sketch with a soft pencil. The Pencil's lines are always well defined. It's especially useful when you want to work on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
You use the Pencil tool the same way you use any other brush. The big difference is the Auto Erase checkbox in the Options bar. This setting makes the Pencil paint with the Background color over areas that contain the Foreground color. But if you start dragging in an area that doesn't include the Foreground color, it paints with the Foreground color instead. This is really confusing until you try it. Take a look at Figure 12-12 for some help understanding this setting, or better yet, create a blank file (Creating a New File) and try it yourself.
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