About drawing and painting

About drawing and painting

When creating graphics on a computer there is a distinction between painting and drawing. Painting involves changing the colors of pixels using a painting tool. You can apply colors gradually with soft edges and transitions and manipulate individual pixels using powerful filter effects However once you apply a brush stroke there is no simple way to select the entire brush stroke and move it to a new location in the image. Drawing, on the other hand involves creating shapes that are defined as geometric objects (also called vector objects) For example if you draw a circle using the ellipse tool, the circle is defined by a specific radius location and color. You can quickly select the entire circle and move it to a new location or you can edit the outline of the circle to distort its shape (See About bitmap images and vector graphics on section 61

Working with shapes provides several advantages:

Shapes are object-oriented-you can quickly select resize and move a shape and you can edit a shape s outline (called a path) and attributes (such as stroke fill color and style). You can use shapes to make selections and create libraries of custom shapes with the Preset Manager.

Shapes are resolution-independent-they maintain crisp edges when resized printed to a PostScript printer saved in a PDF file or imported into a vector-based graphics application.

Drawing shapes and paths

You use the drawing tools to create shape layers work paths and rasterized shapes.

About the drawing tools

Keep in mind the following similarities and differences when using the drawing tools in

Photoshop and ImageReady:

The rectangle tool rounded rectangle tool ellipse tool and line tool are available in both Photoshop and ImageReady.

The pen tool , freeform pen tool , polygon tool , custom shape tool , add anchor point tool , delete anchor point tool , and convert point tool are available only in Photoshop.

In Photoshop you can use the drawing tools to create a work path in ImageReady you can t create a work path.

In Photoshop you can draw multiple shapes in a layer and specify how overlapping shapes interact In ImageReady you can only draw one shape in a layer.

In Photoshop you can edit shapes after you draw them In ImageReady you can move and transform shapes but you can t edit them.

Creating shape layers

You create a shape layer using a shape tool or a pen tool. The shape is automatically filled with the current foreground color however you can easily change the fill to a different color a gradient or a pattern. The shape s outline is stored in a vector mask that is linked to the layer.

In Photoshop you can draw multiple shapes in a layer and specify how overlapping shapes interact.

To create a new shape layer:

1 Select a shape tool or a pen tool and click the Shape Layers button in the options bar.

2 To apply a style to the shape layer select a preset style from the Style pop-up menu.

(See Applying preset styles on section 302

3 To change the color of the shape layer click the color swatch in the options bar and choose a color.

4 Set additional tool-specific options and draw a shape For more information see "Using the shape tools on section 203 and "Using the pen tools (Photoshop) on section 205

To draw multiple shapes in a layer (Photoshop):

1 Select the layer to which you want to add shapes.

2 Select a drawing tool and set tool-specific options.

3 Choose one of the following in the options bar:

Add to Shape Area to add the new area to the existing shapes or path.

Subtract from Shape Area to remove the overlapping area from the existing shapes or path.

Intersect Shape Areas to restrict the area to the intersection of the new area and the existing shapes or path.

Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas to exclude the overlap area in the consolidated new and existing areas.

Use the following keyboard shortcuts while drawing with a shape tool Hold down

Shift to temporarily select the Add to Shape Area option hold down Alt ( Windows) or

Option (Mac OS) to temporarily select the Subtract from Shape Area option.

4 Draw in the image. You can easily switch between drawing tools by clicking a tool button in the options bar.

Creating a work path (Photoshop)

A work path is a temporary path that appears in the Paths palette and defines the outline of a shape. You can use paths in several ways:

You can use a path as a vector mask to hide areas of a layer (See "Masking layers on section 314

You can convert a path to a selection For more information see "Converting between paths and selection borders (Photoshop) on section 218

You can edit a path to change its shape For more information see "Editing paths

(Photoshop) on section 210

You can designate a saved path as a clipping path to make part of an image transparent when exporting the image to a page-layout or vector-editing application.

Create a new path in the Paths palette before you begin drawing to automatically save the work path as a named path.

To create a new work path:

1 Select a shape tool or a pen tool and click the Paths button in the options bar.

2 Set tool-specific options and draw the path For more information see "Using the shape tools on section 203 and "Using the pen tools (Photoshop) on section 205

3 Draw additional path components if desired. You can easily switch between drawing tools by clicking a tool button in the options bar Choose a path area option to determine how overlapping path components intersect:

Add to Path Area to add the new area to overlapping path areas.

Subtract from Path Area to remove the new area from the overlapping path area.

Intersect Path Areas to restrict the path to the intersection of the new area and the existing area.

Exclude Overlapping Path Areas to exclude the overlap area in the consolidated path.

Use the following keyboard shortcuts while drawing with a shape tool Hold down

Shift to temporarily select the Add to Path Area option hold down Alt ( Windows) or

Option (Mac OS) to temporarily select the Subtract from Path Area option.

For more information on working with paths see "Using the Paths palette (Photoshop)" on section 209

Creating rasterized shapes

As the name implies rasterized shapes are not vector objects Creating a rasterized shape is the same as making a selection and filling it with the foreground color. You cannot edit a rasterized shape as a vector object.

To create a rasterized shape:

1 Select a layer. You cannot create a rasterized shape on a vector-based layer (a shape layer or a type layer).

2 Select a shape tool and click the Fill Pixels button in the options bar.

3 Set the following options in the options bar:

Mode to control how the shape will affect the existing pixels in the image.

(See "Selecting a blending mode on section 241

Opacity to determine to what degree the shape will obscure or reveal the pixels beneath it A shape with 1% opacity appears nearly transparent while one with 100% opacity appears completely opaque.

Anti-Aliased to blend the shape s edge pixels with the surrounding pixels.

4 Set additional tool-specific options and draw a shape For more information see "Using the shape tools on section 203 and "Using the pen tools (Photoshop) on section 205

Note: In Photoshop, you can easily switch between drawing tools by clicking a tool button in the options bar.