User Manual, Pgs 153-157
Search engine, keywords "Photoshop pen tool"
choose color in the tool pallet- the little boxes toward the bottom. select a brush/size in the tool pallet go to path pallet at bottom select stroke or fill.
appreciate the response but the hard copy manual and the HTML version are worthless as they do not cover what I need to know…
tga
appreciate the response…. even though I’m a veteran Photoshop user of over 15 years, I have never worked with creating curves using the pen tool of all things… I had already tried your suggestions regarding choosing color and brush size and it still didn’t work… If you have any other suggestions, please let me know…
tga
Path pallet (tab on the "layers pallet"): Stroke path. You will get some options, choose paint brush. (Having already set brush size and color as suggested above).
appreciate the response but the hard copy manual and the HTML version are worthless as they do not cover what I need to know…
They do, but they use different terminology than you are using, so maybe you just couldn’t find it. 😀
It’s a dual… you’re challenged… prove me wrong regarding the manual(s)… tell me precisely what page, what column, what paragraph, etc… that changing the line weight and color is covered between the pages of 153-157…
tga
wow if you followed my instructions it should have worked!! Please describe exactly what you are doing-that might give us a hint as to where you turned left instead of right.
wait a minute-do you have your path sellected in the path pallet(should be yellow)?
It’s a dual… you’re challenged…
Don’t get so hussy! 😀
Do you know him Matt? He keeps pointing out he’s from Tga.
I am really frustrated over this… why is it not as simple as choosing a color… choosing the pen tool… and going for it… when one uses the pencil tool, it’s very easy to choose the color and line weight and just draw… why is it not the same for the pen tool when making curved lines…?
why is it not the same for the pen tool when making curved lines…?
beacuse the pen tool draws the paths that your stroke follows. vector. editable, flexable. the pencil tool (or paintbrush) draws actual pixels – raster. uneditable. fixed once laid down.
with the pen tool you can lay down the curve and then adjust and tweak it to your hearts content. do as barry suggested in post 2 and mat suggested in post 5.
RTFineM or open help. select index. select P. scroll down to Pen Tool. Select [3]. When you’ve got that, select index. Select "S". Scroll down to "Stroke". There are several sections there for your learning pleasure. Such as:
Stroke command [1]
Stroke effect [1]
Stroke Path command [1]
strokes:
keyboard shortcuts [1]
stroking:
paths [1]
paths, How To Tip [1]
selection borders [1]
selections [1]
selections, How To Tip [1]
So there you are.
Thanks Dave…. you won the "challenge"… hahaha
I will check out your detailed info and see how I make out… hope it helps… Adobe definitely needs to make some of these tools as easy to use as others…
Have a good one….
hey Dave…
couple other questions…. how do I keep it from "filling" the curved line?? it’s acting as if I’ve created a shape rather than a line… and why does a thin black line show even though I’ve chosen a color and weight which is also appearing…?
Thanks Dave…. you won the "challenge"…
No problem Garret. What do I win? 🙂
Here’s a little tip to make using the program (ANY program) easier. Here’s what I do. First thing…. read the manual. Not being sarcastic. Seriously. Read it cover to cover, just skimming. That should take you about a week or 2 if you keep it in the "throne room". That will give you a basic understanding of the capabilities and more importantly, terminology (which mat alluded to). Now armed with that new "jargon" you should have no problem using the online help in search mode. It’s extremely difficult to go into the index blindly and find just what you need in a hurry, if you’re not sure exactly what you’re already looking for and more specifically, exactly what it’s called in the program’s "jargon".
I’m a tech geek and PS hobbyist, not an artist in the sense of some of the pros here are. So I find skimming the manuals a breeze. I understand some of the "creative" types have more of a problem doing that!! 🙂
Good luck, dave
The line is your path-deselect path in path pallet
maybe there some mystical, magical, master switch that needs to be turned on so that some of these choices and buttons and such that several of you are mentioning will appear… but one would think that these items would appear by default… the Path pallette doesn’t give any options whatsoever for deselecting the path… at least not for me… argh!
click outside of the selected path , just below it in the empty space or shift click the path
okay… now I’m totally confused… first you said to deselect the path using the Path Pallette… now it sounds like you are talking about simply clicking away from the created path in the working area…
hey Dave Milbut, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to touch base with you through email to discuss this stuff further… if it’s cool with you, please email me at and I will touch base with further questions…
thanks again for the help….
you should keep it here garret. people get the most help out of these forums that way. and i can’t get my personal mail at work (leaving in 5 minutes).
what barry is saying is deselect the path by clicking in an empty area INSIDE the paths palette. i.e. an area that doesn’t have a path defined. blank space.
good morning Dave…. by george, I think I made a break through… got the deselecting thing figured out but still don’t understand how to keep the area from filling in like it’s a shape instead of a line… any help would be appreciated…
in the options bar (underneath the menu) you can select shape, path or pixel fill. select path.
I see where that’s at, Dave, but when I select path and draw the curve… I lose the color and weight of the line now… got rid of the fill problem but just totally took me backwards… argh!
hey Dave…. I just figured out how to remove the fill situation by using the Blending options settings… however, aside for the curved line between the two anchor points, I’m still getting a straight line connecting the two points… in the end, creating an outlined shape… any ideas of how to remove that line?
It sounds like what Garret is asking for is something that isn’t in photoshop (unless it’s in CS, which I haven’t seen yet.)
I once requested something similar to this, but unfortunately it was never implemented. It would be nice to change the colour of the pen lines and control points. Not stroke them after the path is made, but to have the path itself show in a user-defined colour. An old piece of assembly software called Contex had this exact feature, where you could change the path elements to different kinds bright colours, as well as change the path line’s thickness, which aided in keeping the path inside your close-crop a minimum number of pixels. (ex. make the path thickness 4 pixels, then you could be sure to close-crop at least 2 pixels inside your image by keeping at least one pixel outside of the path line)
As it is now, the colour-adjusting grey line is useless as it becomes nearly invisible on certain neutral noisy backgrounds. It would be nice to be able to change it to some bright colour, maybe with little radio buttons on the option bar, or to any user-defined colour.
hey PeterK…. thanks for the support… that’s exactly my point… I have never really used this tool before and now when I need it, I’m spending way too much time trying to figure out how to make it work they way I want… hopefully Adobe will get the message one of these days and makes some changes in the next update/version…
hey Thomas… thanks for the link… while informative, it still doesn’t answer my final burning question of how to create a curved line between two points without the other connecting line automatically appearing… I’m not trying to outline something… but simply trying to create curved lines from point A to point B…
Quit wasting time typing and continue reading the manual and experimenting. You have enough info to go on now.
That which you figure out for yourself will stick far more tenaciously in your head.
I type 150 wpm… so typing a message takes no time… but I also don’t have the time to read a worthless manual that doesn’t spell out what I need to know… guess I’ll just eventually figure it out on my own since no one has yet to shed enough light on the subject…
You have to draw the path without any shapes or fills. Just the path itself, which is accessed as one of the boxes in the options bar. With the path selected, go to the paths palette and click on the right arrow, select "stroke path". You can select which tool the path will be stroked with. The current settings for that tool (brush, pencil, smudge, whatever) will determine how the stroke looks.
I do believe that finally did it…. thanks for spelling it out PeterK… you are a real help… I’m under a lot of stress at work at present with so many projects going on…. This last little bit of info did the trick… I really appreciate you stepping up to the plate… I owe you one!!!
You have enough …’s to be…no…it…couldn’t be…JG?
Yes, do what PeterK says. In Illustrator, you can control stroke and fill as you use the pen tool. In Photoshop you apply a stroke after creating the path.
Hey Philo, I already went with Peter’s directions and put my pressing project to rest today thanks to his help. My last posting "huh?" was directed to the last person’s post which appeared garbled… I think they were trying to be funny or something… 😉
I think they were trying to be funny or something…
I hear there’s a lot of that going around. 🙂
