There is no "correct" way to draw lines in Photoshop - every artist and designer eventually finds their own methods and chooses the tools that they are comfortable with. Whether you use the Line, Pen, or Brush tool, you can approach a creative project different ways and still get the same results. In this how-to tutorial, we'll show you how to draw straight lines in Photoshop using the many drawing tools available in the program.

Line Tool

To find the Line tool, click and hold your mouse button over the Rectangle tool in the main toolbar. A menu will open to select the tool shape. If you have any shape tools enabled, you can also select the Line tool in top menu parameters.

Why is the Line Tool considered a shape? Essentially, the Line Tool simply creates thin rectangles that look like lines because the Fill and Stroke colors are the same. If you want the line to be empty inside (like a rectangle), just turn off the fill.

The Line Tool makes it easy to draw straight lines. Simply click anywhere on the image and drag the line in the desired direction. If you want to draw a strictly horizontal or vertical line, hold down the Shift key as you drag and Photoshop will take care of the rest.

Once you've learned how to draw straight lines in Photoshop, you can experiment with advanced options and create dotted lines using dots or strokes. To find these options, click the Stroke Options icon on the left side of the Options panel, and then select More Options. Here you can set and save custom settings, turn on the dotted line and select the length of the strokes and spaces.

Brush tool

The Brush tool also allows you to draw straight lines, and unlike the Line tool, it allows you to create own styles brushes. The Brush tool is located on the main toolbar, separate from the shape tools.

To create perfectly straight lines in any direction, hold down the Shift key while drawing with the Brush tool. To create a shape from multiple lines, draw a line while holding Shift, release the mouse button, press Shift again, and then start drawing a new segment from the end point of the last line.

Like the Line tool, the Brush has a variety of stroke options that you can change in the top options bar, including hardness, opacity, and brush style. We recommend adjusting these settings before you start painting strokes because the changes won't apply to all the brush strokes you've already made.

Pen Tool

Finally, the Pen tool is extremely useful for drawing straight and curved lines. To select the Pen tool, click the pen icon in the main toolbar, then click on the image to set the starting point, and again to set the end point. Photoshop will automatically create a straight line between two points, no matter where they are located in the image. If you hold down the Shift key while specifying these points, you can create line segments at 45 and 90 degree angles.

Photoshop is not a program for creating drawings, but sometimes there is still a need to depict drawing elements.

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a dotted line in Photoshop.

Special tool for creating dotted lines does not exist in the program, so we will create it ourselves. This tool will be a brush.

First you need to create one element, that is, a dotted line.

We create new document any size, preferably smaller and fill the background with white. This is important, otherwise nothing will work.

Take the tool "Rectangle" and configure it as shown in the pictures below:

Choose the dotted line sizes to suit your needs.

Then click anywhere on the white canvas and, in the dialog box that opens, click OK.

Our figure will appear on the canvas. Don't worry if it turns out very small in relation to the canvas - it doesn't matter at all.

Give the brush a name and click OK.

The tool is ready, let's take it for a test drive.

Choosing a tool "Brush" and in the brushes palette we look for our dotted line.

Then click F5 and in the window that opens, set up the brush.

First of all, we are interested in intervals. Grab the corresponding slider and drag it to the right until gaps appear between the strokes.

Let's try to draw a line.

Since we most likely need a straight line, we will extend a guide from the ruler (horizontal or vertical, whichever you want).

Then use the brush to place the first point on the guide and, without releasing the mouse button, hold down SHIFT and put the second point.

You can hide and show guides using the keys CTRL+H.

If you have a steady hand, then the line can be drawn without a key SHIFT.

To draw vertical lines, you need to make one more adjustment.

Press the key again F5 and we see this tool:

With its help, we can rotate the dotted line to any angle. For a vertical line it would be 90 degrees. It is not difficult to guess that in this way you can draw dotted lines in any direction.

Here's a simple way we learned how to draw dotted lines in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop has a wide range of capabilities, thanks to which you can solve some applied problems, as well as fully work in one environment without switching to another. The program is intended mainly for raster graphics, but working with vector is also possible. Just one of interesting questions is to construct a dotted line in Photoshop SS. The task is not difficult at all, just follow the steps described below. In practice, it is often possible to use more than one construction method, but several.

Construction methods

Not every method will be individually suitable for a specific situation. But, on the other hand, there is a universal approach that can create a dotted line of any geometric complexity. For all methods, you need to go through an intermediate stage - setting up the brush. In these settings there are some parameters that can change the spacing and change the thickness of the dotted line.

Setting up brushes

Every user of this graphical environment has used the Brush tool at least once. But not everyone configured it for various situations in which it was necessary different meanings settings.

So, before creating a dotted line, you need to select the "Brush" tool and call context menu settings. Here you should set the desired rigidity and thickness of the lines. After the procedure, go to the brushes panel, where the interval option is located. The interval slider can be moved to desired value, the optimal solution is considered to be 150%.

Pen tool

After all the transformations with the brush, you can proceed directly to drawing the dotted line. We will create our object using the Pen tool, which is located on the main quick access toolbar. The user can obtain the dotted line using the converted outline.

1. Activate "Feather" and put the first one - the beginning of the line.
2. We put the second point in the desired place where the geometric object will end.
3. The next step is to create a new layer, which can be added using hotkeys or in the layers control panel.
4. Now you should right-click on the resulting contour and in the window that appears, select the “Stroke the contour” item.
5. Another window will pop up showing the stroke method. The default value is “Brush” - confirm.

Any version of the program, for example Photoshop CS6, supports the dotted line. After all the steps completed above, we get a straight line, but, in addition to it, you can create a curve with a dotted line.

The operation for drawing a curve is no different from drawing a straight line. The only step that will change is creating and extruding the anchor points. Below are some additions:

1. We create reference point all with the same Pen tool.
2. Find the right place on the canvas and press it left button mouse - we try to convert the radius of curvature to the desired value.
3. You can continue creating the curve with new arcs, which are done in exactly the same way as in step 2.

Subsequent stages remain unchanged - the overall picture of the operations does not change, and everything is done exactly as in the case of a straight dotted line in Photoshop.

Other tools

Using graphic objects, it is possible to create a geometric edging of shapes in the form of dotted lines. All these graphic tools are located in one cell on the main panel. With their help you can create the most primitive shapes: line, polygon, ellipse; and arbitrary ones that were automatically loaded into the editor: arrow, star, dialog cloud and others. Whichever tool you choose, each has its own settings and parameters, which are displayed at the top of the program in its header. Stroke for a shape of any shape is done in almost the same way as with the Pen tool:

1. We select the necessary tool and recreate the object. Important note - the created shapes automatically have their own layer, which can later be rasterized.
2. We manage the settings and set the optimal ones that the user will need.

Right-click on the object and select "Stroke Outline". The usual dialog box will pop up where you need to select the “Brush” option.

Now a figure will appear on the screen, edged with a dotted line along the contour. New object You can continue editing as you wish.

Let me remind you that your brush or pencil should already be set up. After selecting the tool, click OK, and points will appear on the contour. Dots made with a brush turn out to be somewhat blurry, so after applying the dots, it won’t hurt to apply the Sharpen Edges filter and select the settings individually.

Here is an example of a drawing obtained using the above-described body movements:

The following brush settings were applied:
Text: type - pencil size (Size) 3 px, Hardness (Hardness) 100%, Spacing (Spacing) 180%
Underline: type - brush, size (Size) 3 px, hardness (Hardness) 100%, spacing (Spacing) 205%
Frame: type - pencil, size (Size) 6 px, hardness (Hardness) 100%, spacing (Spacing) 180%

Well, we seem to have sorted out the frames of dots.

Creating frames from dotted lines

Rectangular frames, i.e. consisting of vertical and horizontal lines do not cause any problems.
You can paint them using a rectangular brush from the default Photoshop set. Open the Brushes control panel and load them as shown in the picture:

With this brush you can draw a horizontal line. But it won’t work vertically, or rather, it will work, but it won’t be pretty:

To create a vertical broken line, you need to rotate the brush mark by 90 or 270 degrees:

Now you can safely draw a vertical dashed line:

But if I need a dotted line in a circle or along any curve, then this method is no longer suitable. If you ask the world mind, then he, the mind, will advise not to engage in nonsense with dotted lines in Photoshop, but to use Adobe Illustrator, create a layer with the desired line in it, and transfer it to Photoshop. I don't use Illustrator, and I need to create a circular dotted line in Photoshop. It turns out there is a way, and it’s quite simple. It took me ten minutes to invent it.

Select a round brush, set the print diameter to 9 pixels, and the spacing to 170%. We create an outline and trace the outline, as in the case of dots.
Next, right-click on the outline and select “Make Selection” with a feathering radius of 0. Here is an enlarged fragment of the drawing:

Then go to the Selection tab --> Modification --> Border (Select --> Modify --> Border), set the width to one or two pixels.

Now you need to invert the selected area by pressing the key combination Ctrl+Shift+I. We remove unnecessary things by pressing the Delete key.
I ended up with a nice dotted circle like this:

There are, of course, small artifacts left here and there, but they can be corrected with a few clicks of an eraser.
Thus, a dotted line can be drawn on any contour, for example, circle

Good day, dear readers of my blog. It would seem, what does it cost to draw a straight line in Photoshop? Hold down Shift and there you go. Nevertheless, this can be done in as many as three ways. Everyone's result will be different.

In this article you will learn three ways to draw a straight line in Photoshop. Which filter to use to create a wave. How to do this using another interesting tool. I'll show you how to achieve a dotted line and draw at a certain angle.

A lot of information awaits you. Let's get started?

Line Tool

First, I'll show you how to use a tool that's designed to create straight lines. In this place you can have a rectangle, oval, ellipse or polygon. Just hold down the left mouse button for a few seconds to open a menu with additional tools.

First things first. One of the most important parameters– thickness. Thanks to the line, you can even draw rectangles. You just need to make it fatter.

Next comes “Fill” and “Stroke”. Click on the color block to the left of the inscriptions and select a shade. If you want to make a stroke, enter its width. Now, my screenshot shows the option without it. The no color icon looks like this. Gray line crossed out in red.

You can see the settings and the result in this screenshot. It's not very visible, but the thickness here is 30 pixels. In a large picture, 30 pixels may look like a modest stripe. Everything needs to be adjusted to your own dimensions.

This is what the line will look like if you select red for the stroke.

The next button will allow you to create a dotted stroke.

If you reduce the thickness and remove the fill, you will just get a dotted line.

Here you can align the stroke to the inner edge, outer edge, or center of your outline.

And round the corners. True, it will not be so noticeable.

If you press Shift while you are drawing a line, Photoshop will automatically create a straight line. Horizontal or vertical. Depending on where you are taking her.

If you need a line at a certain angle, then the easiest way is to look at what the information window shows and adjust it manually, pointing it in a certain direction.

Well, now I’ll show you another one.

Brush Tool

I drew these rectangles using lines drawn with a brush.

Choose the type and size that suits your brush line.

Place a dot at the expected beginning of the line, hold down Shift and left-click where the strip should end.

There are two lines in front of you. The yellow one was painted using the Line tool, and the purple one was painted with a brush.

How to make a wave

No matter what tool you use, the easiest way to create a wavy line is to use a filter. Go to this category, find “Distortion” and select “Wave”.

Based on the preview picture, you will quickly understand what's what and how to set it up. The amplitude should be approximately the same. If it doesn’t work, you can just click on “Randomize” until a suitable one appears.

To the last applied filter there is always fast access. I apply it to the layer with the yellow stripe drawn with the tool.

This is the result I got. As you can see, it is different.

Pen Tool

To be honest, I still can’t use a pen professionally. I know that you can draw anything with it: smoothly, quickly, fun and cool, but it takes me a lot of time and the result is not always at the level I expected. And yet I can even draw straight lines with a pen. It's worse with curves, but I'll try. I select “Feather”.

I put a dot, then a second one. While I haven't released the mouse button, I adjust the smoothness.

I do the same thing with each new point.

After all the manipulations are completed, right-click and select “Stroke outline” from the menu that appears.

You can choose several tools: pencil, brush, stamp, pattern, and so on. Now let this one be a brush.

I press the right mouse button again and select “Delete outline”.

This is the result I got.

Well, don’t forget that you can always use your collage making skills. Read the article about how to take a line from any picture and insert it into your image.

If you want to learn how to professionally use the pen and other tools found in Photoshop. I can offer you a course " Photoshop for beginners in video format ».

Lessons created by professionals will teach you everything you need to know about this program. You will save a lot of time searching for answers to this or that question. Ideas will spontaneously appear in your head on how to complete the task.

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