Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P14 docx

specify-✦ Corner point: Click with the pen tool to create a corner point, which repre-sents the corner between two straight segments in a path.. ✦ Curved segment followed by straight: A

✦ Joining two open subpaths: To join one open subpath with another, click or

drag an endpoint in the first subpath and then click or drag an endpoint in thesecond

✦ Specifying path overlap: You can set the path tools to one of four settings,

which control how Photoshop treats overlapping areas in a path when youconvert the path to a selection

To make your will known, click one of the buttons near the left end of theOptions bar The buttons, which are labeled in Figure 8-27, become availableonly after you make your first click or drag with a pen tool And the buttonyou click remains in effect until you choose another button

Figure 8-27: Click one of these buttons on the

Options bar to control how Photoshop treats overlapping areas when you convert a path

• Subtract: Select this button to draw a subpath that eats a hole in an

existing path Any areas that you enclose with the subpath are notselected Note that if you select a path and the Make Selection command

is dimmed in the Paths palette, it’s probably because you drew the pathwith the subtract option in force

• Restrict path area: The opposite of Invert, this option selects only

over-lapping areas

• Invert: Any overlapping regions are not included in the selection.

You can change the overlap setting for a subpath after you draw it if sary Click inside the path with the black arrow tool and then click the overlapbutton for the setting you want to use

neces-Note

Add Subtract Restrict Invert

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✦ Deactivating paths: At any time, you can click the check-mark button at the

right end of the Options bar or press Enter to dismiss — deactivate — the path.

When you do, Photoshop hides the path from view To retrieve the path, clickits name in the Paths palette Be careful with this one, though: If you dismiss

an unsaved path and then start drawing a new path, you can lose the missed one For more details, see “Converting and saving paths,” later in thischapter

dis-✦ Hiding paths: If you merely want to hide paths from view, press Ctrl+H, which

hides selections, guides, and other screen elements as well Or choose View ➪Show ➪ Target Paths to toggle the path display on and off To select whichitems you want to hide with Ctrl+H, choose View ➪ Show ➪ Show Options

To get a better sense of how the pen tool works, turn on the Rubber Band check box

on the Options bar (Press Enter to display the bar and the check box.) This tellsPhotoshop to draw an animated segment between the last point drawn and the cur-sor Unless you’re an old pro and the connecting segment gets in your face, there’s

no reason not to select Rubber Band (Besides, what with the ’70s being so hot withthe teenies, the Rubber Band check box makes the pen tool seem, well, kind of funky.Consider it another chance to bond with today’s youth.)

The anatomy of points and segments

Points in a Bézier path act as little road signs Each point steers the path by ing how a segment enters it and how another segment exits it You specify the iden-tity of each little road sign by clicking, dragging, or Alt-dragging with the pen tool.The following items explain the specific kinds of points and segments you can cre-ate in Photoshop See Figure 8-28 for examples

specify-✦ Corner point: Click with the pen tool to create a corner point, which

repre-sents the corner between two straight segments in a path

✦ Straight segment: Click at two different locations to create a straight segment

between two corner points Shift-click to draw a 45-degree-angle segmentbetween the new corner point and its predecessor

✦ Smooth point: Drag to create a smooth point with two symmetrical Bézier

control handles A smooth point ensures that one segment meets with another

in a continuous arc

✦ Curved segment: Drag at two different locations to create a curved segment

between two smooth points

✦ Curved segment followed by straight: After drawing a curved segment,

Alt-click the smooth point you just created to delete the forward Bézier controlhandle This converts the smooth point to a corner point with one handle.Then click at a different location to append a straight segment to the end ofthe curved segment

Figure 8-28: The different kinds of points and

segments you can draw with the pen tool

✦ Straight segment followed by curved: After drawing a straight segment, drag

from the corner point you just created to add a Bézier control handle Then

drag again at a different location to append a curved segment to the end of

the straight segment

Corner pointStraight segment

Smooth pointCurved segment

Curved segmentfollowed by straight

Straight segmentfollowed by curved

Cusp point

✦ Cusp point: After drawing a curved segment, Alt-drag from the smooth point

you just created to redirect the forward Bézier control handle, converting thesmooth point to a corner point with two independent handles, sometimes

known as a cusp point Then drag again at a new location to append a curved

seg-ment that proceeds in a different direction than the previous curved segseg-ment

Going freeform

If the pen tool is too much work, try the freeform pen tool, which is just a press ofthe P key away from the standard pen As you drag, Photoshop tracks the motion ofthe cursor with a continuous line After you release the mouse button, the programautomatically assigns and positions the points and segments needed to create theBézier path

You can draw straight segments with the freeform pen: As you’re dragging, pressand hold Alt Then click around to create points When you’re finished drawingstraight segments, drag again and release Alt (If you release Alt when the mousebutton is not pressed, Photoshop completes the path.)

Alas, automation is rarely perfect (If it were, what need would these machines havefor us?) When the program finishes its calculations, a path may appear riddled withfar too many points or equipped with too few

Fortunately, you can adjust the performance of the freeform pen to accommodateyour personal drawing style using the Curve Fit control on the Options bar Whenthe freeform pen is active, press Enter to highlight the Curve Fit value You canenter any value between 0.5 and 10, which Photoshop interprets in screen pixels.The default value of 2, for example, instructs the program to ignore any jags in yourmouse movements that do not exceed 2 pixels in length or width Setting the value

to 0.5 makes the freeform pen extremely sensitive; setting the value to 10 smoothesthe roughest of gestures

A Curve Fit from 2 to 4 is generally adequate for most folks, but you should ment to determine the best setting Like the magic wand’s Tolerance setting, youcan’t alter the Curve Fit value for a path after you’ve drawn it Photoshop calculatesthe points for a path only once, after your release the mouse button

experi-Going magnetic

As I mentioned earlier, the official magnetic pen is gone from the Photoshop 6 box but lives on To use it, select the freeform pen tool and then select the Magneticcheck box on the Options bar

tool-The magnetic pen works like a combination of the magnetic lasso and the freeformpen As with the magnetic lasso, you begin by clicking anywhere along the edge

of the image element you want to select (For a pertinent blast from the past, seeFigure 8-5.) Then move the cursor — no need to drag — around the perimeter of theelement and watch Photoshop do its work To set an anchor point, click When youcome full circle, click the point where you started to complete the path

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Tip

You can create straight segments by Alt-clicking, just as you can when using the

freeform pen without Magnetic turned on And the Curve Fit option (on the Options

bar) controls the smoothness of the path Lower values trace the edges more

care-fully; higher values result in fewer points and smoother edges

To uncover the remaining options for the magnetic pen, click the tool’s icon on the

Options bar, as shown in Figure 8-29 A drop-down palette gives you access to the

Width, Contrast, Frequency, and Stylus Pressure options, all of which are lifted right

out of the magnetic lasso playbook Read “Modifying the magnetic lasso options”

near the beginning of this chapter for complete information

Figure 8-29: While the freeform pen is active, select the Magnetic check box

to access the magnetic pen Click the adjacent icon to display additional options

Editing paths

If you take time to master the default pen tool, you’ll find yourself drawing accurate

paths more and more frequently But you’ll never get it right 100 percent of the time —

or even 50 percent of the time And when you rely on the freeform or magnetic pen

tools, the results are never dead on From your first timid steps until you develop into

a seasoned pro, you’ll rely heavily on Photoshop’s capability to reshape paths by

mov-ing points and handles, addmov-ing and deletmov-ing points, and convertmov-ing points to change

the curvature of segments So don’t worry too much if your path looks like an erratic

stitch on the forehead of Frankenstein’s monster The path-edit tools provide all the

second chances you’ll ever need

Reshaping paths

The white arrow tool — known in official Adobe circles as the direct selection

tool — represents the foremost path-reshaping function in Photoshop To select this

tool from the keyboard, first press A to select the new black arrow tool and then

press A again to toggle to the white arrow Or just Alt-click the black arrow tool in

the toolbox (You use the black arrow to select, relocate, and duplicate entire paths

or subpaths, as explained in the upcoming section “Moving and cloning paths.”)

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Press and hold Ctrl to access the white arrow tool temporarily when one of the pen

or path-edit tools are selected When you release Ctrl, the cursor returns to theselected tool This is a great way to edit a path while you’re drawing it

However you put your hands on the white arrow, you can perform any of the ing functions with it:

follow-✦ Selecting points: Click a point to select it independently of other points in a

path Shift-click to select an additional point, even if the point belongs to a ferent subpath than other selected points Alt-click a path to select all itspoints in one fell swoop You can even marquee points by dragging in a rect-angle around them You cannot, however, apply commands from the Selectmenu, such as All or None, to the selection of paths

dif-✦ Drag selected points: To move one or more points, select them and then drag

one of the selected points All selected points move the same distance anddirection When you move a point while a neighboring point remains station-ary, the segment between the two points shrinks, stretches, and bends toaccommodate the change in distance Segments located between two selected

or deselected points remain unchanged during a move

You can move selected points in 1-pixel increments by pressing arrow keys Ifboth a portion of the image and points in a path are selected, the arrow keysmove the points only Because paths reside on a higher layer, they take prece-dence in all functions that might concern them

✦ Drag a straight segment: You also can reshape a path by dragging its

seg-ments When you drag a straight segment, the two corner points on eitherside of the segment move as well As illustrated in Figure 8-30, the neighboringsegments stretch, shrink, or bend to accommodate the drag

This technique works best with straight segments drawn with the default pentool Segments created by Alt-clicking with the freeform or magnetic pen mayinclude trace control handles that make Photoshop think the segment is actu-ally curved

✦ Drag a curved segment: When you drag a curved segment, you stretch,

shrink, or bend that segment, as demonstrated in Figure 8-31

When you drag a curved segment, drag from the middle of the segment, imately equidistant from both its points This method provides the best lever-age and ensures that the segment doesn’t go flying off in some weird directionyou hadn’t anticipated

approx-Tip

Caution

Tip

Tip

Figure 8-30: Drag a straight segment to move the segment

and change the length, direction, and curvature of the

neighboring segments

Figure 8-31: Drag a curved segment to change the curvature of

that segment only and leave the neighboring segments unchanged

✦ Drag a Bézier control handle: Select a point and drag either of its Bézier

con-trol handles to change the curvature of the corresponding segment without

moving any of the points in the path If the point is a smooth point, moving

one handle moves both handles in the path If you want to move a smooth

handle independently of its partner, you must use the convert point tool, as

discussed in the “Converting points” section later in this chapter

Adding and deleting points and segments

The quantity of points and segments in a path is forever subject to change

Whether a path is closed or open, you can reshape it by adding and deleting points, which, in turn, forces the addition or deletion of a segment:

✦ Appending a point to the end of an open path: If a path is open, you can

acti-vate one of its endpoints by clicking or dragging it with the pen tool, ing on the identity of the endpoint and whether you want the next segment to

depend-be straight or curved Photoshop is then prepared to draw a segment depend-betweenthe endpoint and the next point you create

✦ Closing an open path: You also can use the technique I just described to

close an open path Select one endpoint, click or drag it with the pen tool toactivate it, and then click or drag the opposite endpoint Photoshop draws asegment between the two endpoints, closing the path and eliminating both

endpoints by converting them to interior points, which simply means the

points are bound on both sides by segments

✦ Joining two open subpaths: You can join two open subpaths to create one

longer open path To do so, activate an endpoint of the first subpath and then,using the pen tool, click or drag an endpoint of the second subpath

✦ Inserting a point in a segment: Using the add point tool, click anywhere along

an open or closed path to insert a point and divide the segment into two ments Photoshop automatically inserts a corner or smooth point, depending

seg-on its reading of the path If the point does not exactly meet your needs, usethe convert point tool to change it

In Photoshop 6, you can no longer pick up the add point tool pressing the pluskey as in versions past Instead, Version 6 gives you this alternative option:When a pen tool is active, select the Auto Add/Delete check box on the Optionsbar Now, whenever you pass the pen tool cursor over a segment, you see thelittle plus sign next to your cursor, indicating that the add point tool is tem-porarily in the house This trick works only if the path is selected, however

✦ Deleting a point and breaking the path: The simplest way to delete a point is

to select it with the white arrow and press Delete or Clear (You also can chooseEdit ➪ Clear, though why you would want to expend so much effort is beyondme.) When you delete an interior point, you delete both segments associatedwith that point, resulting in a break in the path If you delete an endpoint from

an open path, you delete the single segment associated with the point

✦ Removing a point without breaking the path: Select the remove point tool

and click a point in an open or closed path to delete the point and draw a newsegment between the two points that neighbor it The remove point toolensures that no break occurs in a path

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To access the remove point tool when using one of the pen tools, select theAuto Add/Delete check box on the Options bar and then hover your cursorover a selected interior point in an existing path You see the minus sign next

to the cursor, indicating that the remove point tool is active Click the pointand it goes away Alternately, you can remove a point when the add pointtool is active by Alt-clicking, and vice versa

✦ Deleting a segment: You can delete a single interior segment from a path

with-out affecting any point To do so, first click with-outside the path with the white arrowtool to deselect the path Then click the segment you want to delete and pressDelete When you delete an interior segment, you create a break in your path

Converting points

Photoshop lets you change the identity of an interior point You can convert a

cor-ner point to a smooth point and vice versa You perform all point conversions using

the convert point tool as follows:

✦ Smooth to corner: Click an existing smooth point to convert it to a corner

point with no Bézier control handle

✦ Smooth to cusp: Drag one of the handles of a smooth point to move it

inde-pendently of the other, thus converting the smooth point to a cusp

✦ Corner to smooth: Drag from a corner point to convert it to a smooth point

with two symmetrical Bézier control handles

✦ Cusp to smooth: Drag one of the handles of a cusp point to lock both handles

back into alignment, thus converting the cusp to a smooth point

Press Alt to access the convert point tool temporarily when one of the three pen

tools is active and positioned over a selected point To do the same when an arrow

tool is active, press Ctrl+Alt

Transforming paths

In addition to all the aforementioned path-altering techniques, you can scale,

rotate, skew, and otherwise transform paths using the following techniques:

✦ To transform all subpaths in a group — such as both the eye and skull outline

in the first example of Figure 8-32 — select either arrow tool and click off apath to make sure all paths are deselected Then choose Edit ➪ FreeTransform Path

✦ To transform a single subpath independently of others in a group, click it with

the black arrow and then select the Show Bounding Box check box on theOptions bar Or click the path with the white arrow and choose Edit ➪ FreeTransform Path

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Tip

Tip

✦ Photoshop even lets you transform some points independently of othersinside a single path, as demonstrated in the second example of Figure 8-32.Just use the white arrow to select the points you want to modify and thenchoose Edit ➪ Free Transform Points.

The keyboard shortcut for all of these operations is Ctrl+T If you select an dent path — or specific points inside a path — press Ctrl+Alt+T to transform a dupli-cate of the path and leave the original unaffected

indepen-Figure 8-32: To transform multiple paths at once (top), deselect all

paths and press Ctrl+T You can alternatively transform independent paths or points by selecting them and pressing Ctrl+T (bottom)

Rotate cursor Transformation origin

Tip

In an attempt to conserve tree matter — which is being wasted liberally enough in

this tome — I explain the larger topic of transformation in one central location, the

“Applying Transformations” section of Chapter 12 Even so, here’s a brief rundown

of your transformation options after you press Ctrl+T:

✦ Scale: To scale a path, drag one of the eight square handles that adorn the

transformation boundary Alt-drag a handle to scale with respect to the originpoint You can move the origin by dragging it or by clicking one of the boxes

in the little bounding box icon at the left end of the Options bar

✦ Rotate: Drag outside the boundary to rotate the paths or points, as

demon-strated in Figure 8-32

✦ Flip: Right-click to access a pop-up menu of transformation options Choose

Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical to create a mirror image of the path

✦ Skew: Ctrl-drag one of the side handles to slant the paths Press Shift along

with Ctrl to constrain the slant along a consistent axis

✦ Distort: Ctrl-drag one of the corner handles to distort the paths.

✦ Perspective: Ctrl+Shift+Alt-drag a corner handle to achieve a perspective

effect

You can’t take advantage of the distortion or perspective features when vidual points are selected These techniques apply to whole paths only

indi-✦ Numerical transformations: If you need to transform a path by a very specific

amount, use the controls on the Options bar, which are the same ones you getwhen transforming a regular selection Modify the values as desired and pressEnter (Figure 8-23 earlier in this chapter labels the options.)

When you finishing stretching and distorting your paths, press Enter or

double-click inside the boundary to apply the transformation You also can double-click the

check-mark button at the right end of the Options bar To undo the last transformation

inside the transform mode, press Ctrl+Z Or bag the whole thing by pressing

Escape

To repeat the last transformation on another path, press Ctrl+Shift+T

Moving and cloning paths

You can relocate and duplicate paths as follows:

✦ Clone a path: Click inside the path with the black arrow tool to select it

To select multiple subpaths, Shift-click them Then Alt-drag to clone allselected paths

Tip

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Note

✦ Move a path: After selecting the path with the black arrow, drag the path to

its new home

✦ Align and distribute paths: You can align two or more paths by selecting

them with the black arrow and then clicking an alignment button on theOptions bar To space the paths evenly across the image, click one of the dis-tribution buttons, which are shown in Figure 8-33 Press Enter or click thecheck-mark button on the Options bar to apply the transformation

Figure 8-33: You can now align and distribute multiple selected paths, just as you

can layers and vector objects

Merging and deleting paths

When the black arrow is selected, the Options bar contains a Combine buttons (see Figure 8-33) Clicking this button merges all selected subpaths into one WhenPhotoshop combines the subpaths, it does so according to which path overlapoptions were active when you drew the subpaths Remember, you can select a subpath with the black arrow to change its overlap setting if necessary Just clickinside the subpath and then click the appropriate overlap button on the Optionsbar (see Figure 8-33) Refer to the earlier section, “Drawing paths with the pen tool,”for more information about overlap options

To get rid of a path, click inside it with the black arrow or drag around it with thewhite arrow Then press Delete That path is outta here

Filling paths

After you finish drawing a path, you can convert it to a selection outline — asdescribed in the upcoming “Converting paths to selections” section — or you canpaint it You can paint the interior of the path by choosing the Fill Path commandfrom the Paths palette menu, or you can paint the outline of the path by choosingStroke Path In either case, Photoshop applies the fill on the active image layer.The Fill Path command works much like Edit ➪ Fill After drawing a path, choose theFill Path command or Alt-click the fill path icon in the lower-left corner of the palette(the one that looks like a filled circle) Photoshop displays a slight variation of theFill dialog box discussed in Chapter 6; the only difference is the inclusion of two

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Path Overlap buttons Vertical alignment Vertical distribution

Horizontal alignment Horizontal distribution

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Rendering options Enter a value in the Feather Radius option box to blur the edges

of the fill, as if the path were a selection with a feathered outline Select the

Anti-aliased check box to slightly soften the outline of the filled area

If you select one or more subpaths, the Fill Path command changes to Fill Subpaths,

enabling you to fill the selected subpaths only The fill path icon also affects only

the selected subpaths

When applying the fill, Photoshop adheres to the overlap option you used when

creating the path Suppose that you draw two round paths, one fully inside the

other If you drew both circles with the Add overlap option active, both circles get

filled If you drew the interior circle with the Invert option active, Photoshop fills

only the area between the two paths, resulting in the letter O.

If the Fill Path command fills only part or none of the path, the path probably falls

outside the selection outline Choose Select ➪ Deselect (Ctrl+D) to deselect the

image and then choose the Fill Path command again

Painting along a path

Unlike the Fill Path command, which bears a strong resemblance to Edit ➪ Fill, the

Stroke Path command is altogether different from Edit ➪ Stroke Edit ➪ Stroke

cre-ates outlines and arrowheads, whereas the Stroke Path command enables you to

paint a brush stroke along the contours of a path This may not sound like a big

deal at first, but this feature enables you to combine the spontaneity of the paint

and edit tools with the structure and precision of a path

To paint a path, choose the Stroke Path command from the Paths palette menu to

display the Stroke Path dialog box shown in Figure 8-34 In this dialog box, you can

choose the paint or edit tool with which you want to stroke the path (which only

means to paint a brush stroke along a path) Photoshop drags the chosen tool

along the exact route of the path, retaining any tool or brush shape settings that

were in force when you chose the tool

You can also display the Stroke Path dialog box by Alt-clicking on the stroke path

icon, the second icon at the bottom of the Paths palette (labeled back in Figure

8-24) If you prefer to bypass the dialog box, select a paint or edit tool and then

either click the stroke path icon or simply press Enter Instead of displaying the

dia-log box, Photoshop assumes that you want to use the selected tool and strokes

away If any tool but a paint or edit tool is active, Photoshop strokes the path using

the tool you previously selected in the Stroke Path dialog box

If you select one or more subpaths, the Stroke Path command becomes a Stroke

Subpath command Photoshop then strokes only the selected path, rather than all

paths saved under the current name

Figure 8-34: Select the paint or edit tool that

you want Photoshop to use to stroke the path

The following steps walk you through a little project I created by stroking pathswith the paintbrush and smudge tools Figures 8-35 through 8-37 show the progres-sion and eventual outcome of the image

STEPS: Stroking Paths with Paint and Edit Tools

1 After opening a low-resolution version of a hurricane image, I drew the zigzag path shown in Figure 8-35 As you can see, the path extends from the

eye of the hurricane I drew the path starting at the eye and working upward,which is important because Photoshop strokes a path in the same direction

as you draw the path

2 I saved the path I double-clicked the Work Path item in the Paths palette,

entered a name for my path, and pressed Enter

3 I used the Brush drop-down palette to create three custom brush shapes.

Each one had a Roundness value of 40 The largest brush had a diameter of

16, the next largest had a diameter of 10, and the smallest had a diameter of 4

4 I selected the paintbrush and pressed Enter to display the Options bar.

Then I opened the Brush Dynamics palette (by clicking the brush icon on theright end of the Options bar) and set the Color option to Fade, entering a Fadevalue of 400 This option fades the brush stroke from the foreground color tothe background color over the course of your drag, as explained in Chapter 5

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Figure 8-35: I drew this path starting at the eye of the hurricane

and working my way upward

5 I stroked the path with the paintbrush three times using the Stroke Path

command I changed the foreground and background colors for each stroke.

The first time, I used the largest brush shape and stroked the path from gray

to white; the second time, I changed to the middle brush shape and stroked

the path from black to white; and the final time, I used the smallest brush

shape and stroked the path from white to black The result of all this stroking

is shown in Figure 8-36

6 Next, I created two clones of the zigzag path by Alt-dragging the path with

the black arrow tool I pressed Shift while dragging to ensure the paths

aligned horizontally I then clicked in an empty portion of the image window

to deselect all paths, so they appeared as shown in Figure 8-36 This enabled

me to stroke them all simultaneously in Step 9

Figure 8-36: After stroking the path three times with the

paintbrush tool, I cloned the path twice