The Custom Shape Tool
When using the Custom Shape tool, ‘[‘ or ‘]’ goes to previous or next shape in Custom Shape Picker (in the Options bar). Adding the Shift key selects the first or last shape in the Custom Shape Picker.
« June 2009 | Main | August 2009 »
When using the Custom Shape tool, ‘[‘ or ‘]’ goes to previous or next shape in Custom Shape Picker (in the Options bar). Adding the Shift key selects the first or last shape in the Custom Shape Picker.
When using the Line tool‘[‘ or ‘]’ decreases or increases the line width by one pixel. Adding the Shift key will increase/decrease the line width in increments of 10.
When using the Polygon tool, ‘[‘ or ]’ decreases or increases the number of sides by one. Adding the Shift key will increase/decrease the number of sides in increments of 10.
For the rounded rectangle tool: ‘[‘ or ‘]’ decreases or increases the corner radius by one pixel. Adding the Shift key will increase/decrease the radius in increments of 10.
With the Line tool selected, click on the downward facing triangle to the right of the Custom Shape tool icon the Options bar to access arrowhead options.
Regardless of which Shape tool is selected, (Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Line and/or Custom Shape), when creating a shape layer ‘,’ (comma) or ‘.’ (period) goes to previous or next Layer style in the Style Picker (in the Options bar). Adding the Shift key selects the first or last style in the Style Picker.
In order to create a more even stroke of paint than you might be able to accomplish when painting “freehand”, first create a path in the shape of the stroke (with the Pen tool). Next, select the desired options for the Brush (to be used to paint the path), and, from the Paths panel fly-out menu, select Stroke Path. Choose Brush from the drop down menu and Voila, your path is strokes perfectly! You can even choose to check the Simulate Pressure option to simulate pressure sensitivity of the tool.
You can see from the tools listed in the Stroke Path dialog that you can use this technique to stroke with a variety of painting tools making this technique equally useful for dodging and burning, cloning objects etc.
When recording actions, this method enables a workaround for painting as brush strokes can’t be recorded, but stroking paths can be.
When the Freeform Pen tool is selected, try checking the Magnetic option (in the Option bar) to have the Pen tool analyze edge areas in images. To customize the Magnetic settings, in the Options bar click the downward facing triangle to the right of the Custom Shape tool icon and customize the “Width” (how many pixels to look at), “Contrast” (what determines an edge) and “Frequency” (how often to lay down anchor points).
With the Pen tool selected, in the Options bar click the downward facing triangle to the right of the Custom shape tool icon, and select Rubber Band. This option will preview the direction of the path that will be drawn as you move your cursor in the image area. (This is a great learning tool!)
To quickly find the center of a path or shape layer, select the path and choose the Move tool. In the Options bar, check the “Show Transform Controls” option. The transform controls can also be used to transform your path - simply drag the anchor points (shift -drag to constrain proportions). Don’t forget to apply the transformation (tap Return (Mac) or Enter (Win), click the check icon in the Option bar or double click within the transform controls.
Note: if the selected path is a vector mask, the transform controls will be displayed around the layer contents (not the path). Select the path, and then choose Edit > Transform Path.
It’s also worth mentioning that you can transform paths (and therefore shapes) outside of the visible image area and Photoshop will keep track of them.
After drawing a path with the Pen tool, Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Return (Mac) / Enter (Win) crates a selection from the path. Note: this shortcut works with any selected path (shape layer, vector mask etc.).
With a path selected, Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) -drag the path in the image area to duplicate it.
To select multiple paths (or delete them from the selection if they are already selected), shift-click the path with the Path Selection tool. Click and drag in the image area to select multiple paths with the Path Select tool, or click and drag to select multiple line segments with the Direct Selection tool.
To select an entire path, use the Path Selection tool. To select segments of a path (including anchor points, direction lines etc.), use the Direct Selection tool. Instead of switching tools, adding the Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) + click on a path/anchor point with the Direct Selection tool will select the entire path.
When using the Vector tools in Photoshop, keep the following in mind. First, The Pen and Shape tools can be used to create Shape Layers, Paths, or Filled Pixel regions. Be sure to select the correct icon (in the Options bar) before starting to work, or you might have to backtrack or go through extra steps to correct it. Also, the Pen and Shape tools can have Styles applied, so if you’re not achieving your expected results, make sure that the Style icon (in the Options Bar) is set to “No Style”.
When compositing several images into one document I often find that a portion of a layer will end up being positioned outside of the visible image area. Photoshop, of course, is still keeping track of this information (in case I choose to reposition the layer), but when I’m certain that I will no longer need it, I will choose Select > All and then Image > Crop. This eliminates unnecessary information outside or beyond the visible image area and will typically help to keep my file size more manageable
One can always select Image > Canvas Size in order to numerically add or subtract to the width or height of your image. But if you would rather eyeball it, try using the Crop tool. Drag out a crop marquee and release the mouse. Then, grab one of the anchor points and drag it beyond the visible image area. When the crop is applied,the area outside of the image and within the crop marquee will be added to the image canvas.
Note: If you can't drag the crop outside of the image because the image windows is in the way, try zooming out or using full screen mode.
To add transparency around the image (instead of filling the added space with the background color) convert the Background into a layer by dragging the Lock icon to the trash before cropping.
Most people only think of the History panel for multiple undo - but it does much more! Check out the options available through the History panel’s fly out (in the upper right) such as if and when to take Snapshots and Non-Linear History (to retain more current history states if you go back in History and want to try other options without loosing the more current states).
And this is a good time to add that if you do choose to Automatically Create First Snapshot (which is Photoshop’s default setting), you can “undo” an accidental save by clicking on the initial snapshot in the History panel, saving the file, and then returning to your current state and choosing to “Save As”.
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Z will toggle undo/redo of the last command.
• Option-Command (Mac) / Alt-Control (Win) + Z will step you back through history.
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Shift + Z will step you forward through history.
To change the number of history states (multiple undo’s) that Photoshop keeps track of per open image, select Preferences > Performance and enter a value for History States. Setting a higher number (50 for example) will save more changes, and allow you to step farther back in time, however it will also require Photoshop to keep track of more information. Therefore, if you increase the number of states and notice a performance hit, trying lowering the number again.
Layer Groups are, by default, set to display blending effects (such as opacity, blend modes etc.) just like any other layer in Photoshop. For example, if a layer in a Group has it’s blend mode is set to “Multiply”, it will be multiplied (blended) with all other layers below it. In this default state, clicking on the Group in the Layers panel displays “Pass Through” as the Group’s blend mode (i.e: any blending applied to layers within the group is “passing through” the group to be applied to the layers below it).
To change this default behavior to limit the blending between layers to only those layers within the Groups, target the Group in the Layers panel and set the Groups blend mode to “Normal” . For even more advanced blending of channels within Groups, choose Layer >Group Properties (or Control (Mac)/ right mouse (Win) -click the Group icon in the Layers panel and select Group Properties) to specify which channels to use for special effect blending of layers.
Not only are Layer Groups great for organizing your layers, you can also use them to mask the contents of multiple layers at a time. With the Group targeted in the Layers panel, click the Add Pixel (or Vector) Mask icon from the Masks panel. This mask will control the visibility of all layers within the Group.
Copying Merged Layers (and Groups)
Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Shift + C (with a selection) copies a merged view of all visible layers onto the clipboard.
Option-Command (Mac) / Alt-Control (Win) + Shift +E, pastes a merged copy of all visible layers on a (single) new layer above the topmost currently selected layer.
Command (Mac) / Control (Win) -click the disclosure triangle next to a layer Group to expand or collapse all layer Groups in the document.
Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) -click the disclosure triangle to expand collapse all groups nested within the current group.
Option-Command (Mac) / Alt-Control (Win) -cick the disclosure triangle to expand and collapse all groups (nested or not).
Or, if you prefer, Control (Mac)/ right mouse (Win) -click the Group’s disclosure triangle and choose “Close/Open this Group” or “Close/Open all Other Groups”.