Get dimensions of chosen area of graphic?

In photoshop, how would I find out how long in width a box shaped layer is?
I'm designing a layout, and want to know how wide the nav bar is, currently the only way I can do this is by cropping the nav bar and viewing image size.

Surely there must be an easier way?

Cheers

[Tamlin]

Use the Measure tool. It's in the same tool group as the Eyedropper and the Color Sampler.

Here's what to do...

Make the Info palette visible (in the same group as the Navigator and Histogram palettes). Click the little black triangle to open the palette's menu and select Palette Options...

In the Options dialog box, make sure Ruler Units is set to Pixels. Close the dialog box.

Select the Measure tool from the Toolbox.

Click at one side of the area you want to measure, then without releasing the mouse button drag to the other end of the area and release the mouse button. A (non-printing) black line will appear on your image.

Now look in the Info palette or at the Options bar at the top of the screen - the distance between the two points you marked will be shown as a number of pixels in the W: section (if you drew a horizontal line) or the H: section (if you drew a vertical line).

[MoodsR4Cattle]

Nice work on that on that quickie tutorial, Tamlin!

You can use the Marquee tool (or make a selection with the magic wand) to get Width and Height in the Info pallet as well.

[Tamlin]

Originally Posted by MoodsR4Cattle

You can use the Marquee tool (or make a selection with the magic wand) to get Width and Height in the Info pallet as well.

Yeah - your method is probably the best in this case: if you want to measure something like a box or navbar, the Marquee tool will give you the height and the width at the same time. The Measure tool really comes into its own if you want to measure diagonals or angles. Still, it shows that there's always more than one way to do anything in Photoshop!

Great help, thanks a lot you two, especially Tamlin. =D