Have you ever used the custom shape tool
By John Sweeney - 16th of January 2007
What is this thing called the custom shape tool, where do I find it and how do I use it.
- It is located just below the Text tool on the toolbar.
- You can reach it by selecting the letter U on your keyboard. You can also press and hold down the left shift key and keep tapping the U key, this will reveal all the tools that are in that part of the toolbox. Where you see a little black corner on the lower right of a tool this means that there are more tools in that box and you can reach the others just by holding down the shift key and continually tapping whichever key applies to that tool. Try it, it does work. Now, back to the shape tool, there's more here than meets the eye.
- Once you have selected the shape tool you will see it pan out on the contextual bar, that is just below the menu-bar at the top of your screen.
- Just under the word Help, on the Menu-bar you will see the word shape, and, just to the right of it a scroll down arrow, open it and you will see some shapes, any or all of which you can click on and use in an image, but wait, there's more.
- Next, open a Blank Canvas, Ctrl N on your keyboard and click OK to accept it, this is so that you can tryout your new found shapes.
- Now, in the shapes pallet that drops down you will see various shapes, but those are not the only shapes available to you in Photoshop, indeed not. Over to the right of that drop down box you will see a circle with a little arrowhead pointing to the right, click on it and you will then be presented with a whole list of shapes, select one, say animals, then you will be presented with the option to replace the current tools or to cancel or to append them to the current tools, append them and you know where they are so you can use them whenever you want.
- You can append all the tools if you like, the choice is yours, now try them out on your blank canvas, you can make them as big or as small as you like and you can move them about, to do this, move a tool that is, just hold down the space-bar on your keyboard whilst holding the tool with your left mouse button. A very useful tool with arrows and maps if you want to give someone directions and add arrows to maps for example.
- You might want to add holly to a Christmas picture or indeed any shape, oh, and you can colour the shapes too, just click on the black or white colour on your toolbar and from the resulting pallet choose a colour then place the shape where you want it on your picture.
The only way to learn about this very useful tool is to practise and experiment.
Good Luck.
|
