how to use pen tool in adobe photoshop - designmodo

7/29/2019 How to Use Pen Tool in Adobe Photoshop - Designmodo

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How to Use Pen Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Stelian Subotin Tutorials February 12, 2013 6 Comments

In this tutorial I will teach you the basics of thePhotoshop Pen tool, which allows you to create your own,custom shapes. Well pass through the basics of the tool, and we will pass through a series of short and easyexercises so that you can get the hang of it in no time!

As you might, or might not be aware of, the Pen tool is one of the few shapes in Photoshop that work with VectoGraphics. These kind of graphics are way better then raster ones because when youre vector graphics, you got no

quality to lose when scaling,

Overview

This is the preview of the Pen Tool as found in the toolbox. The shortcut for the Pen Tool is the P key on yourkeyboard and as you can see, the dropdown shows other four sub-tools of the Pen Tool. We will move onexplaining those right now:

Pen Tool: The Pen Tool allows you to create straight lined, smooth curved paths and shapes (vector).

Freeform Pen Tool: is a tool that allows you to easy draw vector shapes and various paths by automaticallyadding anchor points.

Add Anchor Point Tool: is a tool that adds anchors and reshapes actual shapes and paths (which are shapeoutlines).

Delete Anchor Point Tool: is very similar to the previous tool, the only difference being that this tool removes

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anchor points.

Convert Point Tool: this tool edits existing shape masks and paths by converting smooth anchor points to corneranchor points.

We will move on to some practice, that is why Ill grab the Pen tool and will create a very simple shape. As youcan see I created a triangle by placing 3 different anchor points, but to do that I have activated the defaultPhotoshop grid (CTRL/Command + ;). The grid is extremely useful when working with Shape/Path tools such asthe Pen tool because you have a clear representation of your workspace, divided into equal sections which comesreally in-handy.


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Ive used the Freeform Pen Tool to create a shape made up of squares as shown on the screenshot. The FreeformPen Tool is slightly different than the Pen tool because it doesnt allow you to manipulate that much with shapesand is limited to straight lines/squares.

As you can see the Freeform Pen Tool lets you create some more different kinds of shapes but keep in mind thattheres nothing creative or complex you can come up with by using this tool. I made up the h and I letters byusing that tool, but keep in mind that there is nothing more you can do with it.

We will now move on to some Pen Tool practice. As you can see I have created a curved shape which isrelatively easy to create. Grab the Pen tool and create an anchor point then create another anchor point and dragyour mouse to the desired direction thats how you will achieve this effect.


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Another sub-tool of the Pen Tool is the Add/Delete Anchor Point which might sound confusing but reallyarent. As you can see on the first screenshot I have created a very simple path. By using the Delete Anchor Pointtool I simply clicked on the lower left anchor point and it got deleted simple as that.

Practice


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I have found this nice image of a green apple on flickr, so I thought that it might be useful and i could use it in aproject of mine. I cant use the image with the background thats why I have to cut the apple from thecomposition.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shyb/69459806/sizes/z/in/photostream/


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Grab the Pen tool, set the path mode to Paths and start passing around the apple shape. Its very well simpleand its much easier if you zoom in so that you can clearly see where you place your anchor points.


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After you are done, just click do a right click on your mouse and choose Create Vector Mask. You can also gowith Define Custom Shape but that way you will only get the shape of your object, not the apple itself. Thistechnique is useful if you are thinking about creating shapes of peoples vector silhouettes. Otherwise, just gowith Create Vector Mask and your object will be cut from its previous document. Our result is not the mostaccurate but with some more practice and attention you can end up with a better result.

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Stelian Subotin

Stelian is a Web/UI Designer who focuses most of his time on writing and creating premium PSD templates.

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6 Comments

1.

Martijn van de Laar Feb 12, 12:38 pm

What is this!? Using vector shapes in photoshop (and illustrator) should be base knowledge for even astudent whos learning for a design profession.

Reply+2

Zulhilmi Zainudin Feb 12, 7:22 pm

Yeap, tracing basics. ;)
http://designmodo.com/pen-tool-photoshop/#comment-35463http://designmodo.com/pen-tool-photoshop/?replytocom=35455#respondhttp://designmodo.com/pen-tool-photoshop/#comment-35455http://designmodo.com/pen-tool-photoshop/#commentshttp://designmodo.com/contact-form-psd/http://designmodo.com/website-design-bricks-ui/http://designmodo.com/photoshop-text-effects-styles/http://designmodo.com/author/stelian/


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Reply0

2.

Robin Heij Feb 12, 10:42 pm

Using so much anchor points for the apple, is a crime!

Reply+4

3.

bsmity Feb 12, 11:05 pm

Not only have you used 10,000 points but the end result is very rough. I would recommended a .5 featheron that thing if you intend to keep all those points.

Reply+1

4.

Erik Jacobs Feb 13, 2:44 am

Basic of the basics.

Reply0

5.

James brown Feb 14, 5:16 pm

Sounds like the comments know a lot.. But there is beginners out there.. Who know nothing..maybe youhave missed the whole point of this tutorial

Reply0

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how to use pen tool in adobe photoshop - designmodo

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