In this installment, we'll look at the Paths
palette and take a glance at the Freeform and Magnetic Pen
tools.
Last week's column explained the basics of
vector paths, as well as how to manipulate their Bezier
curves. If you're not familiar with the Pen tool and its
capabilities, it's a good idea to take a quick peek before
continuing.
THE PATHS PALETTE
The Paths palette is one of the keys to
working with paths. Let's take a look at its key features.
To the left is the palette itself, to the
right is its menu. In the palette, you can see a single
path, named Work Path. By default, when you start a new path
in an image, such a work path appears in the Paths palette.
As long as you continue to keep the path active, you can
manipulate it or add to it. However, if you deselect it
without saving and start another path, it's gone.
When a path is active in the Paths palette
and use the Pen tool to start a second path, the two become
subpaths of the work path. As you can see by the Path
palette's thumbnail in the next figure, the three paths are
all components of a single work path.
To save a path, use the Path palette's menu
command Save Path. This opens the dialog box seen below.
When there is no work path in the Paths
palette, the Save Path command is replaced in the menu by
New Path. You'll also see a New Path button at the bottom of
the palette.
When the New Path command or button is used,
a path is listed in the Paths palette but, as you can see
from Path 2's thumbnail, there is not yet a path. Until you
create a path using the Pen tool, the path remains empty in
the Paths palette.
You can also create paths using techniques
other than the Pen tool. Any selection can be turned into a
work path using the Make Work Path button at the bottom of
the Paths palette. If you have a feathered edge or the
selection was made with a gradated mask, the path will fall
at the point where pixels are 50 percent selected. If you
use the palette's menu command rather than the button, a
dialog box opens, allowing you to specify how closely the
path should follow the selection.
When a very intricate selection is being
converted to a work path, a low tolerance will produce a
more accurate, but more complicated path. If a selection has
rather jagged edges, using a higher tolerance can smooth the
path.
The Paths palette allows you to stroke and
fill paths using either buttons or menu commands. If the
Stroke Path button is used, the tool active in the Toolbox
(if it can be used to stroke a path) will be used with its
current settings. If the active tool cannot be used to
stroke a path, the tool last selected using the Stroke Path
command will be employed.
Most Photoshop users (who are aware that
paths can be stroked) think in terms of Pencil vs.
Paintbrush. But the list of tools that can be used to stroke
a path is rather impressive:
• Pencil, Paintbrush, Airbrush, Eraser
• Background Eraser, History Brush, Art History Brush
• Clone Stamp (Rubber Stamp), Pattern Stamp
• Dodge, Burn, Blur, Sharpen, Sponge, Smudge
When you think about it for just a second,
you can see some of the potential. Getting exactly the right
burn around the edge of an image... blurring a specific
line... creating an outline from an earlier history
state.... And when you consider that any selection can be
turned into a path at the click of a button (the Make
Selection button to be exact), the Stroke Path command
starts looking pretty powerful, and drastically underused.
Similar to the Stroke Path command is Fill
Path. While not as powerful in some respects, Fill Path does
have more creative potential than simply dumping in the
foreground color. The figure below shows some of the
choices.
In addition tto using the Make Selection
button at the bottom of the Paths palette, there is, of
course, also a command to turn a path into a selection. It
opens the dialog box seen here.
(Before we turn from the Paths palette to
the specialized Pen tools, I'd like to mention that the
palette's menu command Clipping Mask will be discussed in a
future column.)
THE "OTHER" PEN TOOLS
Photoshop 5.5's Freeform Pen and Magnetic
Pen tools have been rolled into one for Photoshop 6. The
functionality is also improved in the new version, adding a
couple of capabilities. In both versions, look under the Pen
tool in the Toolbox to find them.
In short, the Freeform Pen tool creates a
path as you draw, automatically placing anchor points
according to the sensitivity selection in the tool's Options
palette (PS 5.5) or the Options Bar (PS 6). You end a path
by releasing the mouse button. The Magnetic Pen is a
separate tool in Photoshop 5.5, and a checkbox on the
Options Bar with the Freeform Pen tool active in Photoshop
6. Like the Magnetic Lasso, it will follow an edge in an
image. Both the Freeform Pen and Magntic Pen tools are
well-suited for use with graphics tablets.
One of the big changes for these tools in
Photoshop 6 is the choice of creating a new Shape layer or a
work path. (Shape layers will be discussed in the next
column, along with the Shape tools.) A new layer's style and
blending mode can be chosen right in the tool's Options Bar.
The Options Bar also let you enable Auto
Add/Delete. This capability allows the tool to automatically
switch to the Add Anchor Point tool when positioned over a
path segment, or the Delete Anchor Point tool when
positioned over an anchor point. You'll also decide in the
Options Bar how multiple paths will interact with each
other.
Look for mini-tutorials on the
Freeform Pen and Magnetic Pen tools in a column in the
future. Next week, though, we'll be looking at Photoshop 6's
new Shape tools and Shape layers.