Press A on your Keyboard and you will immediately notice that your mouse pointer has turned into a black slightly tilted arrow, this is the Path selection tool, you have toggled it using its Designated keyboard shortcut A. But before we learn how to select a path, maybe we should talk a bit about paths in Photoshop.
A Path is a route travelled between two points and in Photoshop any line joining two points is called a path, thus we have two types of path, open paths and closed paths in Photoshop. Open Paths are called lines and closed paths are called shapes.
Paths are usually drawn using the pen tool to draw two points or more (Since a path needs at least two points). The pen tool grants you access to a number of options at the top of the page (see image below). Starting from left to right we will try explain what every option does and how and when you should use it
The thing looking like a pen (1) , it actually shows you the tool you are using, and right next to it you see a small black triangle pointing downwards (2) , click on it and it will show you a list, this is the tool preset picker, it has a number of presets for a number of Photoshop tools, some of which you might not be using that’s why you will see a small box (3) that says “Current tool only” next to it, checking that box will show you presets for your current tool only while unchecking it will show all presets for all tools, its usually unchecked by default (See image below)
while the tool preset menu is still open you will see a small black triangle pointing to the right (4) Click on it and this will open the options menu for your tool preset menu which gives you the chance to customize how the menu looks and how things are sorted in it among other options but maybe the most important is the first option “ New Tool Preset” which allows you create a new tool preset Based on your current settings for the tool you are currently using
Shape Layers and Paths
If you chose Shape Layers (1) anything you draw using the pen tool will be treated like a filled path while anything you draw with the Paths (2)Chosen will be treated like an empty path, to make it even more obvious its better to use the pen tool to draw three points while choosing the shape layers and then using the pen tool to draw three points while choosing the Paths option. If you still haven’t figured out the difference read along for more screenshots and more clarification.
While choosing the paths option draw three points (1,2 and 3) as shown in the image below, you will see that these points are joined by a line only and the area between them is not filled by any sort of color, and the line isn’t really filled with any color either.
If you do not have the Paths panel open go to the top of the page and go Windows>Paths and in the paths panel you will see the path you have just created (See image below). In the image I have used the pen tool twice on the same document, one having chosen the Shape layers option and the other having chosen the paths option, you can see from the image below that the path I drew using the shape layers (1) is called Shape 1 Vector mask by default and it clearly tells you we have created a vector shape (as we have explained earlier) while the other one we have drawn using the Paths option is called Work path (2). Work paths usually offer you more control over what you want to do with the path you have just created.
Select the path you want to work on from the Paths panel and right click on it (In the paths panel) to access its options which offers you a few things to do to your path (see image below), you can delete a path or make a selection out of it but the two most important options are “Fill path” and “Stroke Path”
Stroke path will fill the stroke of your path (That is the path itself) using your choice of tool, you can also use it with other tools like the blur tool for example to blur the outline of an image etc … the stroke path option takes the settings from your current tool so you might need to know what tool you will be using before hand and set its settings right for use , I usually use it with the brush tool and the pencil tool, the pencil is more effective if you just want to make an outline
You can change the tool used using the drop down menu as shown in the image above.
If you choose Fill path you will be met with another window with fill options for your path, once filled the path will usually resemble in shape a path drawn using the “Shape Layers” option but it still proposes more customizable characteristics.
The fill options windows shown below allows you to select what you want to fill your path with : foreground color, background color, a color of your choice , a pattern, etc … It also allows you to set a blending mode for how the new fill will blend with the layers behind it including opacity.
Last but not least you have the “make selection” and “Delete path” option, the make selection makes a selection out of your path you can use to cut images while the Delete Path does exactly what it says, it will delete the path
you can save layers by clicking on that little black triangle in your paths panel at the top right of it (See image below) and later you can load it back
While working with the “Shape Layers” option selected the options you get granted will be trimmed down to just two “ Make Selection” and “Delete Path” so that’s why I usually prefer to work with paths rather than shape layers, because they give you more room to work with later
A little note on how the Shape layers option works and why its called Shape Vector Mask , If you drew a triangle using the red as your foreground color and using the Shape layers option you will see a red triangle on the screen, but what happened if you delete the Path you drew from the paths panel ?? you will be left with a big red screen because what the path you drew was making was actually filling the layer with a color (In this case red) and then masking parts of the screen to give it whatever shape you drew (In this case triangle), deleting the path will mean you have deleted the mask and thus are left with just the background
At the bottom of the paths panel you will see six options (Image above) , some of which emulate options available in the right click menu of any path. some of these options might be available to paths while others to shape vector mask and vice versa , the first one is “Fill Pat with foreground color” which does exactly that and the second is “Stroke path with brush” that also does just what it says.
The third option is “Load path as a selection” which turns the path into a selection and the fourth is “make work path from selection” its very helpful if you have an precut image and you want to turn into an outline , you select it and you can turn the selection into a path, the path will have the look of the outline of the selection you made, the other two are new path and delete path
Now that we have an idea about paths we can go back to our Path selection tool with its keyboard shortcut (A), you can use this tool to select a path and then move it around just like you would normally with any layer, you can transform it as well using the normal transform tool (Ctrl+T)
This post was more than just about the keyboard shortcut to the path selection tool (A), it was more than just knowing what does the A on your keyboard do and more than just what the path selection tool does, it was just an example of how one thing you learn might fit with another thing you learn a year from now, and how knowing how to fit the pieces together makes a good graphic designer or an average one. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did and hope you keep on checking back for more posts from the “ABC of Photoshop” Series.
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