Adobe Photoshop has a wealth of features that you can use to create various objects, retouch photos, and more. A novice user who has just begun to comprehend the basics of this program does not hurt to consider such a problem as drawing a straight line in Photoshop. And those who have been in this environment for a long time, it may be interesting to recall the basic ways of drawing a straight line. This or that method will be useful in individual cases.
How to draw a straight line in Photoshop?
There are many ways and techniques of drawing various lines and elements. But before you draw a straight line in Photoshop, you need to keep in mind that there are three main and quick ways to draw lines: the Brush, Pen, and Line tools. Despite their simplicity, we can assume that each person has his own drawing technique and each user chooses the tool himself, guided by his own preferences and the task that he faces.
Brush tool
The simplest and most understandable method is drawing with the Pencil and Brush tools in Photoshop. It should be borne in mind that these tools draw, rather than create some kind of object, so the image of the lines will be on the selected layer itself. You can avoid this situation and draw a line on a separately created layer. In this case, you can edit the brush mark without restrictions without harming other layers.
To draw a line, just select the Brush or Pencil tool. Then click on the left mouse button and set the line direction with the cursor. In addition, you can use the right mouse button to call up an auxiliary window with settings where you can select the type of brush, determine the stiffness and shape of the tip.
A straight line can be drawn using the tool in question using the multiple image enlargement method. The closer the image is, the more likely it is to draw a more or less straight line by hand. An ideal straight line can be created thanks to the pressed Shift key and using the same Brush / Pencil tool. Having activated the desired tool, hold down the left mouse button and the Shift key - we observe the construction of a straight line, adjustable by the cursor.
Line tool
There is another way to draw a straight line using the Line tool in Photoshop. A block is included in the quick access panel that combines a number of geometric tools, including the one in question. Created lines will be distributed in new layers, which are formed automatically after building a straight line.
Before you draw a straight line in Photoshop, you must select the tool of the same name and click on the left mouse button at the point where the beginning of this element will be. To complete the construction, you need to click on LMB again.
The convenience of this method is that the lines can be combined into a common layer and provide full editing of a group of constructed elements. After you finish working on it, the merged layer can be rasterized, however, working with the merged elements in vector graphics format will not work. You can format a rasterized layer in the same way as others. Another advantage is the fact that you can edit the lines themselves without losing quality. The menu of vector line editing is located at the top of the program - its header. Here you can set the color of the line, its contour, shape and thickness.
Pen tool
A universal tool for creating shapes of varying complexity. Using this function and the multiple image enlargement method, you can select hard-to-reach areas in the image in the new figure. So, for example, you can draw both straight lines in Photoshop and curves. To master this tool is extremely important - it is used everywhere in many creative works when it is necessary to cut out an image or create a new graphic interpretation.
Brush and Pen Interaction
Using a pen, you can easily draw a straight line in Photoshop. To do this, you must first select the Brush tool, where, using the right mouse button, a dialog box opens and the necessary stiffness, size and color of the future line are put down. Now you need to activate the Pen tool in the quick access panel (in addition to the usual pen, there are other types of the Pen tool in the block, but we won’t need them). We put the first reference point in the place where the beginning of the line should be. Then we put another point - the end of the line.
The Pen tool does not create a work object, but only a path. In order for the user to be able to turn the path into a real object, he needs to stroke the path. The outline panel is located by default in the lower right corner, where layers are usually located. In this window, select the "Contour" tab, where you can notice our work path. Right-click on the path and select "Run outline". In the appeared window "Photoshop" the brush is by default in the field - you do not need to change anything, just confirm the action.