How to Use Photoshop’s Pen Tool

Pen Tool Tutorial Recommended for Beginner Level Photoshop Users

In this Photoshop tutorial we will explore how to use the pen tool.

First, we will look at the pen tool’s basic controls. We will examine creating paths, curvature modification and anchor point adjustments.

Next, on the flollowing page, we will use our new pen tool skills to cut out an image. This skill is so essential to know when using Adobe Photoshop, and it really illustrates the power behind the pen tool.

Finally we will see how a path created with the pen tool can be used to create custom shapes. Custom shapes are vectors so they will never pixelate or lose quality. Again this is such a handy skill, you’ll end up using it all the time!

BASIC CONTROLS OF THE PEN TOOL

Photoshop’s pen tool you have three options: Create a new work path, Create a new shape layer, and Fill Pixels.

We will use the Create a new work path option as this the most commonly used. You can find these options in the top left hand corner of the Photoshop window. See the image below.

Just like selection tools, the pen tool has several different options for the resulting path. The most commonly used is “add to path area”. See image below.

Take your pen tool and click on a blank canvas similar to what I have done below. Each time you click you create an anchor point.

Hold down Shft, move the mouse and click again. Holding down shift while making an anchor point creates it in a straight line with the last anchor point.

We can add and delete anchor points on the path we have created. Right click on the pen tool on the toolbar to reveal further tools. Use the Add and Delete Anchor Point Tool to do just that!

With the convert point tool click and drag on the second anchor point. Without letting go, move the mouse around and see how it affects the curve. The line that is created is called the Tangent Line. The tangent line controls the curvature of the curve.

Holding down Ctrl click on the anchor point and move the mouse, see how this allows you to move the anchor point.

Click on one end of the tangent line and drag.

This breaks the tangent line in half and creates sharp path changes.

Move the entire path by selecting the Path Component Selection Tool from the toolbar and drag the path to a new location.

Delete your path by right clicking on the path and select Delete Path.

Finally I will briefly touch on another style of creating a path. With your pen tool create two anchor points however on the second click don’t let go, drag the click to create the tangent line. The tangent line will affect the next anchor point that you create. Try it out. I don’t use this technique because I find it slower but many do…use the technique that feels right for you.

So that’s the basics of Photoshop pen tool. Try the following exercises on the next page, cutting out an image and creating a custom shape, to practice your use of the pen tool.

How to Use Photoshop’s Pen Tool (Video)

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Drawing a Shape

Before you even get started, first thing’s first. Create a new Photoshop file, name it whatever you want, and set it to any size you feel comfortable working in. We’re just going to be experimenting for now, so it doesn’t really mater.

Next, locate the pen tool. It should be in the toolbar on the left, in the same section as the path selection tool, horizontal type tool, and the polygon tool, represented by the fountain pen icon. Or, you can press P to bring it up immediately.

Once you’re ready, let’s get drawing!

Step 1 – Create a new layer, and set up shape layers

Select the drop-down menu to the right of the pen tool icon at the top of the window. There should be three options total: shape, path, and pixels. Select the shape option, since we’re going to start this tutorial out by drawing shapes, and choose a fill color for your shape. Also make sure you’re working in a new layer.

This next part is optional, but if you’d like to work in a grid to make plotting points more precise, press Ctrl+’ (that’s the apostrophe key), and enable snap by pressing Shift+Ctrl+; (the semi-colon key). Or, simply go to View > Snap using the menu at the top.

Step 2 – Plot points to create your shape

Next, start plotting points on your grid to create your shape. Think of it like a game of connect-the-dots. You can start to visualize how your image is made up of various points, with straight lines connecting each point. As you plot these points, the pen tool will automatically begin filling the image in.

In the example above, you can see the makings of a very oddly proportioned gold star. Don’t worry if your shape is perfect, this is just an experiment.

Once you’re ready to connect the final dot and complete your shape, just click the point you started out with. When you hover over the initial point for your shape, the pen tool cursor will appear with a small circle next to it, as in the example above.

Step 3 – Making curves with the pen tool

You’ll notice something interesting happen if you plot a point and drag your cursor, rather than releasing click. That point will become an anchor for a curved line, which you can manipulate as long as you hold down the left click button after placing the point. You can use this to create shapes with curves, rather than rigid shapes composed only of straight lines, like our star example.

Wow!

Cut an Image Out Using the Pen Tool

The pen tool can also be used to map out a custom selection. This is useful if you want to cut out only part of an image, like the sign in the example above, and not the whole image.

Before you begin, make sure your image is on a new layer, and that you’ve selected the path option in the pen tool menu. We’re going to be mapping a path this time, not drawing a shape. If you leave the shape option selected, we’ll just be drawing a shape over our sign rather than preparing to cut it out.

You might be asking yourself what a path is in Photoshop. A path is basically the line that connects two points. In Photoshop, even though we can “draw” a path using the pen tool, the path is not actually an image itself. There are no pixels involved. Remember what we learned about vector graphics and raster graphics?

Step 1 – Start mapping points!

There are two major steps in this guide, and the first uses techniques we learned in the previous guide. Just map points around the image you want to select, as though you were drawing out its shape.

You can zoom in if you want to be more precise. This image in particular is fairly easy to trace, because it’s made up of straight lines. Don’t forget to close the shape by clicking its starting point!

Step 2 – Load your path as a selection

This path doesn’t mean anything for what we want to do until we load it as a selection. Do this by clicking the Paths tab in the Layers swatch – there should be a path called Work Path in the shape of the object you just traced – and clicking the icon of the dotted line circle, as seen on the left.

You should see the part of your image that you outlined with a path highlighted with the dotted line, showing that it’s selected and ready to be cropped. You can do this quickly by using the shortcut Ctrl+J, which copies and pastes the selection onto a new layer. If you set the two layers beneath it to invisible, by unchecking the eye icons in the Layers swatch, you can see your newly cut-out sign over a transparent background!

Now you can overlay your sign on new backgrounds by taking advantage of layers.

Photoshop Tool Basics

This is a quick summary of Photoshop’s Tools palette with a description of each tool’s functions and shortcuts. Great for those brand new to Photoshop.

I decided to start at the beginning. The very beginning. For those people who just “picked up” a copy of Photoshop and have no idea what to do with it. The keyboard shortcut is in ( ).

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)

Use this tool to make selections on your image, in a rectangular shape. This changes the area of your image that is affected by other tools or actions to be within the defined shape. Holding the [Shift] key while dragging your selection, restricts the shape to a perfect square. Holding the [Alt] key while dragging sets the center of the rectangle to where your cursor started.

Move Tool (V)

Use this tool to, well, move things. Usually you use it to move a Layer around after it has been placed. Hold the [Shift] key to limit the movements to vertical/horizontal.

Polygon Lasso Tool (L)

Ok, this should be the Lasso Tool, but I use the Polygon Lasso a lot more often. Use this to draw selections in whatever shape you would like. To close the selection, either click on the beginning point (you’ll see the cursor change when you’re on it), or just double-click. When holding the [Ctrl] key, you’ll see the cursor change, and the next time you click, it will close your selection.

Magic Wand Tool (W)

Use this to select a color range. It will select the block of color, or transparency, based on wherever you click. In the Options Bar at the top, you can change the Tolerance to make your selections more/less precise.

Crop Tool (C)

The Crop Tool works similarly to the Rectangular Marquee tool (see above if you have no short-term memory). The difference is when you press the [Enter/Return] key, it crops your image to the size of the box. Any information that was on the outside of the box is now gone. Not permanently, you can still undo.

Slice Tool (K)

This is used mostly for building websites, or splitting up one image into smaller ones when saving out. It’s kind of an advanced tool, and since you’re in here for the basics, we’ll kind of skip over it. Kinda makes you mad I made you read all that for nothing, huh?

Healing Brush Tool (J)

This is a really useful tool. Mildly advanced. You can use this tool to repair scratches and specs and stuff like that on images. It works like the Brush tool (see below). You choose your cursor size, then holding the [Alt] key, you select a nice/clean area of your image. Let go of the [Alt] key and paint over the bad area. It basically copies the info from the first area to the second, in the form of the Brush tool. Only, at the end, it averages the information, so it blends.

Brush Tool (B)

This is one of the first tools ever. It’s what Photoshop is based off of. Well, not really, but it’s pretty basic. It paints one your image, in whatever color you have selected, and whatever size you have selected. There’s a lot of options for it, but this is basic, so you don’t get to learn them. Ha.

Clone Stamp Tool (S)

This is very similar to the Healing Brush Tool (see above). You use it the exact same way, except this tool doesn’t blend at the end. It’s a direct copy of the information from the first selected area to the second. When you learn to use both of these tools together in perfect harmony, you will be a Photoshop MASTA! Not really, it’s just less irritating.

History Brush Tool (H)

This tool works just like the Brush Tool (see above) except the information that it paints with is from the original state of your image. If you go Window>History, you can see the History Palette. The History Brush tool paints with the information from whatever History state is selected.

Eraser Tool (E)

This is the anti-Brush tool. It works like an eraser (duh) and erases whatever information wherever you click and drag it. If you’re on a Layer, it will erase the information transparent. If you are on the background layer, it erases with whatever secondary color you have selected.

Gradient Tool (G)

You can use this to make a gradiation of colors. Gradiation doesn’t appear to be a word, but it makes sense anyway. It creates a blending of your foreground color and background color when you click and drag it. Like a gradient.

Blur Tool (R)

The Blur tool is cool. It makes things blurry. Click and drag to make things blurry. The more you click and drag, the blurrier things get.

Dodge Tool (O)

This tool isn’t as crappy as the car brand. It’s actually used to lighten whatever area you use it on. As long as it is not absolute black. Absolute black won’t lighten.

Path Selection Tool (A)

You use this tool when working with paths. Since this is all about the basics, I won’t go into details. It’s related to the Pen Tool (see below) though.

Horizontal Type Tool (T)

It makes type. Or text. Or whatever you want to call it. You can click a single point, and start typing right away. Or you can click and drag to make a bounding box of where your text/type goes. There’s a lot of options for the Type Tool. Just play around, it’s fairly straight-forward.

Pen Tool (P)

I mentioned this tool above. It’s for creating paths, in which you would use the Path Selection Tool to select the path. Paths can be used in a few different ways, mostly to create clipping paths, or to create selections. You use the tool by clicking to add a point. If you click and drag, it will change the shape of your path, allowing you to bend and shape the path for accurate selections and such.

Rectangle Tool (U)

By default it draws a Shape Layer in the form of a rectangle. It fills the rectangle with whatever foreground color you have selected. It’s pretty complicated, don’t hurt yourself with this one.

Notes Tool (N)

Like post-it notes, but digital. You can use this tool to add small little note boxes to your image. These are useful if you’re very forgetful or if you’re sharing your Photoshop file with someone else. I’m pretty sure it only works with .PSD files.

Eyedropper Tool (I)

This tool works by changing your foreground color to whatever color you click on. Holding the [Alt] key will change your background color.

Hand Tool (T)

You can really make short work of your job with the Hand Tool. It’s for moving your entire image within a window. So if you’re zoomed in and your image area is larger than the window, you can use the Hand Tool to navigate around your image. Just click and drag. You can get to this tool at any time when using any other tool by pressing and holding the [Spacebar].

Zoom Tool (Z)

Pretty obvious what this tool does. It allows you to zoom into your image. Don’t be dumb, it doesn’t actually change the size of your image. Hold the [Alt] key to zoom out. Holding the [Shift] key will zoom all of the windows you have open at the same time. Double-click on the Zoom Tool in the palette to go back to 100% view.

BONUS!!

These are your color boxes. Foreground (in the front) and Background (in the back). Click on either one to bring up the color select dialog box.