Working with Vectors, Part 3

Photoshop makes working with vector shapes easier than ever before. While not actual vector objects, such as those created in Illustrator, the new Shapes tools are true time savers.

Photoshop provides ellipses and circles, rectangles and squares, rounded rectangles, polygons, and a variety of special shapes. Simply clicking and dragging puts the shape into your image. While not true vector objects, they can be edited.

The Options Bar has three buttons (circled in the figure below) that determine what you'll create with the Shape tool. They are Create New Shape Layer, Create New Work Path, and Create Filled Region. The last accomplishes in one step what is equivalent to making a selection and filling it with the foreground color. The second, as the name says, creates work paths. Once a path has been started, the tool then gives you the choice to add to the shape area, subtract from it, create an area of exclusion, or create an area of overlap. As always, if a path is active, it will be added to, if no path is active, a new Work Path will be started.

The Create New Shape Layer mode is the big time saver. These are clipping paths on layers filled with the foreground color. Like any path, they can be repositioned, resized, transformed, and otherwise manipulated. Rather than having to draw a rectangle and fill it, we can now, use the Rectangle Tool and simply drag. Shift-drag, as always, constrains proportions and will create a square when using the Rectangular Shape tool). The Option/Alt key allows you to draw from the center. The polygon tool (represented by the pentagon) draws from the center and is always proportionally constrained by default. The Shift key will force the polygon to a vertical orientation (pointing upward if there is an odd number of sides).

A look at the Layers palette (in the figure below) shows that a second shape drawn on the same layer as the first has the same fill color. If you use the Color palette, the Swatches palette, or the Color Picker to change the foreground color and drag another shape with the same layer active, the color change will have no effect on the shape. Despite the change in color, another shape drawn will be of the same color as the first shape on that layer. Remember that these are not actually filled shapes, but rather clipping paths on a filled layer. The layer is filled with a single color, so the clipping paths will reveal the color of the layer, despite the current foreground color. Working on a different layer will produce a shape of the then-current foreground color.

Note in the Layers palette that the thumbnail image of the shapes is linked to the that of the layer itself. (That "slider" at the bottom of the layer's thumbnail is to indicate that it is a Shape Layer.) While the clipping path and the layer are linked, the shape can be repositioned on the layer using the Move tool. If you click the link icon to remove it, the shape cannot be moved but can still be edited. (Unlinking the clipping path is not the same as locking the layer.)

Looking at the Paths palette (see below) clarifies how the Shape tools work. Note that the shapes are sub-paths of a single Clipping Path. The shape's clipping path is only visible in the Paths palette when the Shape Layer is active in the Layers Palette. Double-clicking and re-naming the path will produce a copy, leaving "Shape 1 Clipping Path" intact. Note that the Fill, Stroke, Make Selection and Make Work Path buttons are all grayed out. The command Make Selection from the Paths palette pop-out menu is available.

You cannot use Photoshop’s tools on the shapes layers. If you try, you’ll receive an error message. Several examples are shown below. You can, of course, use the Make Selection command and switch to a different, non-shape, layer. Copying a shape's clipping path by dragging it to the New Path button (or double-clicking and renaming) allows you to use the Stroke, Fill, and Make Selection buttons. However, a non-shape layer must be active.

You can click and hold on the Shape Tool in the Toolbox and select the Custom Shape Tool from the Pop-out menu, or you can, with any shape tool active, click on the Custom Shape Tool in the Options bar. By default, you'll see a multi-pointed star. In the Options bar you have access to a variety of custom shapes, as well as the capability to load libraries (sets) of shapes. (Photoshop ships with additional custom shapes in the Presets folder within the Photoshop folder.)

With the Custom Shape Tool active, you'll see an icon labeled Shape toward the right of the Options bar. Click on the triangle to active a pop-out palette showing the preset custom shapes (shown in the figure below). Notice that the palette, as do most, has a small triangle in the upper right which activates a pop-out menu. The pop-out menu is divided into four sections. At the top are commands allowing you to work with sets of shapes. The second set lets you rename or delete an individual shape. Next are several commands that control how the palette itself is displayed. At the bottom is a list of the shape sets that have been loaded.

Keeping in mind that these are clipping paths and are therefore paths, it should be easy to accept the fact that you can edit these shapes to meet your needs. The Direct Selection tool works with them as it does with any path, allowing you to select and alter any point or segment. Likewise, the Convert Anchor Point tool allows you to reshape segments using an anchor point's handles (direction lines).

The new Path Component Selection tool (its Options Bar is shown below) allows you to work with sub-paths using the same techniques as the add, subtract, intersection, and exclude buttons on the Options Bar. You can only work with sub paths on the same layer, and the tool's options include a Combine button that will group the sub paths. This command, by the way, cannot be reversed with Undo or Command/Control-Z. It can, however, be undone with the menu command Edit> Step Backward (Command-Option/Control-Alt-Z) or the History palette. This tool can also be used to select shapes for alignment or distribution using the Options Bar.

The new vector Shape tools may not create actual vector objects, like those produced by Illustrator, but the clipping paths and Shape layers provide much the same functionality. Remember, too, that you can change the opacity and blending mode of a Shape layer.