Drawing with the pen tools, About the pen tools, Draw straight line segments with the pen tool – Adobe Photoshop CS4 User Manual
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USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Drawing
Last updated 1/10/2010
Proportional
Renders a rectangle, rounded rectangle, or ellipse as a proportional shape based on the values you enter
in the Width and Height text boxes.
Radius
For rounded rectangles, specifies the corner radius. For polygons, specifies the distance from the center of a
polygon to the outer points.
Sides
Specifies the number of sides in a polygon.
Smooth Corners or Smooth Indents
Renders a polygon with smooth corners or indents.
Snap To Pixels
Snaps edges of a rectangle or rounded rectangle to the pixel boundaries.
Square
Constrains a rectangle or rounded rectangle to a square.
Unconstrained
Lets you set the width and height of a rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, or custom shape by
dragging.
Weight
Determines the width, in pixels, of a line.
Drawing with the Pen tools
About the Pen tools
Photoshop provides multiple Pen tools. The standard Pen tool draws with the greatest precision; the Freeform Pen tool
draws paths as if you were drawing with pencil on paper, and the magnetic pen option lets you draw a path that snaps
to the edges of defined areas in your image. You can use the pen tools in conjunction with the shape tools to create
complex shapes. When you use the standard Pen tool, the following options are available in the options bar:
•
Auto Add/Delete, which lets you add an anchor point when you click a line segment or delete an anchor point when
you click it.
•
Rubber Band, which lets you preview path segments as you move the pointer between clicks. (To access this option,
click the pop-up menu to the right of the Custom Shape icon.)
Before drawing with the Pen tool, you can create a new path in the Paths panel to automatically save the work path
as a named path.
For more information about the modes in which you can draw with the Pen tools, see “
More Help topics
Path segments, components, and points
Draw straight line segments with the Pen tool
The simplest path you can draw with the Pen tool is a straight line, made by clicking the Pen tool to create two anchor
points. By continuing to click, you create a path made of straight line segments connected by corner points.