How do I draw/re-uses arrows?

DL
Posted By
Daniel Lipkie
Sep 8, 2006
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1033
Replies
4
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Closed
I’d like to annotate some images by adding text and arrows.

Are there pre-defined arrows or do I use the line tool to create arrows each time I want one?

Daniel

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MH
Mike Hyndman
Sep 8, 2006
"Daniel Lipkie" wrote in message
I’d like to annotate some images by adding text and arrows.
Are there pre-defined arrows or do I use the line tool to create arrows each time I want one?
Daniel,

There are a few arrows in the custom shape tool, U on the keyboard. Why not use one to make an arrow shaped brush? See
http://www.cbtcafe.com/photoshop/custombrush2/custombrush.ht ml on how to. (its a shield but the technique is the same)

MH
ND
Nick_Decker
Sep 8, 2006
If you look in your Custom Shapes collections, you’ll find several arrows there that you can render at whatever size you like.
GW
Gary Wedemayer
Sep 8, 2006
Daniel:
I do a lot of annotating images as I prepare graphics for lecture use (PowerPoint presentations). Instead of cluttering up the graphic with arrowheads, I’ve come to adopt another method, once used rather extensively by many of the early anatomists. Basically, draw your labelling lines as usual, but instead of them ending in an arrowhead pointing to the structure of interest, extend the lines onto the structure and have them end in a dot– a dot slightly larger than the line width, so there is a slight expansion that says, "This structure here!" Typically I will lay down a white line and then overlay it with a thinner black line; such lines are visible regardless of the tonal quality of the underlaying image, be they dark or light. Here’s how I do that, if you need some pointers:

I prefer to keep the lines and dots on separate layers, so I first make four layers which I’ll cordon off in their own layer set. I call the layers, from top down, "Black dots", "Black lines", "White dots", and "White lines". Then I’ll go to the Paths palatte, create a new Path layer, and use the pen tools to lay down paths for all of the labelling lines. While doing this, I make judicious use of guides to help ensure a visually pleasing layout. Also remember that if you hold down the Shift key while clicking the pen tool, the resulting anchor point will be either horizontal or vertical (or 45 deg.) to the previous anchor point– this gives nice straight lines. Remember that you can select your anchor points and move your paths around until you arrive at a satisfactory layout.

Now to stroke the paths and make them visible. On the tools palatte, select the Brush tool, and make it an appropriate size. You can do this from the Brushes dialog box, but I prefer to use the keyboard shortcuts– "[" decreases your brush size, while "]" increases it– no need to access the menu at all. Make you brush an appropriate size for you graphic. For the purpose of discussion, let’s say you decide lines 15 points in width are appropriate, so yo set your brush size to 15 points.

Next make sure that white is your foreground color (hit "D" for the default black in foreground and white in background, and then "X" to exchange them– white becomes foreground.

Now comes the fun. Make sure that your "White lines" layer is selected on the layers palatte, then switch to the Paths palatte, select all your paths (by dragging the Selection tool, located just above the Pen tool on the Tools palatte) and hit the Stroke icon at the bottom left of the Paths palatte (it looks like a dotted circle). Voila! All of your paths are now stroked with a 15 point white line. Now switch to the "Black Lines" layer, lower the brush size (say from 15 to 8 points, press "X" again to put black back into the foreground and then hit that stroke icon again. You now have a 15 point white line overlain by a 9 point black line. Very cool.

For the dots, select the circular marque tool, and make it a fixed size a little larger than your white line. For our 15 point white lines I might use a 22 or 25 point circle. Select the "White dots" layer, and then put white dots at the ends of all the lines. Do this by clicking the marque tool near the end of a line, then click and drag the marching ants (the selection) exactly into position, and then fill it with white (Ctrl-backsapce or Alt-backspace, depending on whether white is your foreground or background color. Do this for all of your lines, making sure all the white dots are going to the "White dots" layer. When you are finished, there is one more thing to do…

Now, select all the white dots at once by pressing Ctrl and clicking on the "White dots" layer icon on the layers palatte (don’t click the name of the layer– just its icon!). This will select all of the white dots. Now select the "Black dots" layer, then shrink all the dot selections at once by going to the Selection menu and select "Modify–>Contract". Give it an appropriate value– I usually shrink them by 3-5 points. Now fill them with black like you filled them with white earlier.

You are done. Your labelling lines are now white lines ending with white dots, all of which have a black core. Looks very nice, and arrowheads are not involved.

Have fun.
Cheers!
—garywed

On Fri, 8 Sep 2006 11:07:06 -0700, "Daniel Lipkie" wrote:

I’d like to annotate some images by adding text and arrows.
Are there pre-defined arrows or do I use the line tool to create arrows each time I want one?
Daniel
JR
John_R_Nielsen
Sep 9, 2006
If you use the Line tool (which is actually a specialized Shape tool), you can specify the appearance of the arrowheads with several different parameters.

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