Photoshop 6
New Vector-shape drawing tools
& Layer Styles
by Joyce Evans
A new addition to Photoshop 6 is vector-shape tools, the
rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line and the
custom shape tools. These shapes are editable for use as shape
layers, as vector masks (called layer clipping paths) or for
painting pixels.
To help out a bit I want to say that when you select one
of the vector-shape tools, look at the bar below the menu
bar. It's a great new addition to Photoshop as well. Now you
have the context sensitive menu easily available. Today we'll
be working with the vector-shape tool and layer styles as
well (another new feature!)
| 1 |
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Open any background you'd
like to work with. |
| 2 |
|
Click on the vector-shape
tool from the tool bar |
| 3 |
|
These are the options, I selected
the Custom Shape Tool |
4
|
|
This is what the context sensitive
menu looks like. Click the new shape layer button. |
| 5 |
|
Click the down arrow next
to the shape icon. |
6
|
|
This is the menu that appears.
Select the shape you desire, I choose the first one. |
7
|
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To set the parameters for
your shape click the down arrow of the custom shape
tool |
8
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|
This is the menu that comes
up for the shape I choose, it may be slightly different
depending on the shape. I left the default of Unconstrained |
9
|
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At this point you could click
and drag your shape unto the background, but we are
exploring some new Photoshop 6 tools so we are going
to use the Layer Styles. Click the down button next
to the Layer Style. |
10
|
|
These are the options included
with Photoshop 6. The first row is for buttons, I choose
the first one (red with yellow center) |
11
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Click and drag your shape
over the background. Using the move tool (v) position
your shape where you want on the image. I lowered the
opacity from the layers palette until I could see the
texture of my background through the shape.
|
12
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I want just the shape, so
to copy it I choose Edit>Copy Merged. This copies
all the layers. Then opened a new file and Edit>Paste.
Here is what I ended up with.
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