Photoshop Tutorial for Fashion Design (Part 11)
Vector Modes, Path Editing, Reshaping Tools

Path tools have a number of modes to work in. For beginners and intermediate level users I suggest to work in either Patsh or Fill Pixels mode. So far we’ve been working in the Paths mode and I showed you different ways of using it. Let’s go over it in more details.

Before any changes could be made to the path it needs to be selected. To do so pick Path Selection tool from the tool box and click on the shape you want to select. All anchor points should get highlighted to indicate that the shape is active. Now let’s explore our options. Let’s go to the Paths palette. Click on the small triangle to bring up the options window and choose “Fill Subpath”. In the Fill menu you can choose what either color or pattern you want to work with: foreground, background or custom color. Click “OK” and click “OK” to apply the fill.

The second option allows you to outline the path. To outline choose “Stroke Subpath” and you can choose the tool from the drop-down menu. But before you apply the subpath, you have to make sure that the tool has the settings that you want. Let’s cancel out. I will use a Brush. I’m going to choose a different size, 21 for illustration purposes. More or less everything else will stay the same and I’m going to choose a different color, let’s say red. Click “OK”. Now I’m ready to outline my path. Stroke Subpath, make sure the brush that I wanted is here and click “OK”. Let’s do it again. Click on the shape to activate. This time I’m going to choose the Pencil tool, change settings and color and now I’m ready to outline. Stroke Subpath, choose “Pencil” from the drop-down menu and click “OK”.

And finally we can use the path to convert into a selection. Click on the path to select and go to the Paths option menu, or right-click for the same menu, choose “Make Selection”, choose the desired settings and click “OK”. And now we’ve converted our path into a selection that we can use with regular raster images.

You can also convert a selection into a path. It’s a really neat option if you want to preserve the selection to work with it in the future. Before you convert the selection into a path, make sure to save your current working path or it will be deleted. Highlight to activate, choose “Save Path”, name and click “OK”. Now we’re ready to convert selection into a path. To do so, go back to the option menu and choose “Make Work Path” Set the pixel tolerance. I prefer 1 pixel, and click “OK”. Whether you use your path for selections, fills or outlines Adobe Photoshop makes no changes to the path itself. It only uses path information to create raster based effects that are applied to the active layer. In addition, path will always be saved together with your file.

My other preferred mode is Fill Pixels but it only works with shape tools and it is not available with pens. As opposed to the Path mode, where you first create the path and then apply a raster effect of your choice, Fill Pixels mode allows you to create raster images directly. Keep in mind that no path information is recorded in this mode. In order to do any kind of changes to vector graphics you need to use vectors editing tools. You’ve seen me using some of the tools earlier. Let’s go through them one by one.

Hidden beneath the Pen tool, Add Anchor Point and Delete Anchor Point tools allow you to add or delete anchor points on the path. To add an anchor point, simply click on the desired area on the path. And to delete an anchor point, click on the anchor point you want to delete. Keep in mind that deleting an anchor point can change the shape of your path. Let’s undo this one. Convert Point tool allows you to convert points from angle to smooth and vice versa. Just click on the point to convert it to angle. Click and drag to set the curve handles to convert point to smooth.

Path Selection tool selects, moves and copies shapes or path segments. To use, select the Path Selection tool and click on the desired path to select. Click outside the shape to deselect. Click and drag to move the path. To copy, first press the Option [ALT] key on the keyboard, wait for the plus sign to show up. Then click and drag the path holding the key. To place the copy, first release the mouse and then the Option [ALT] key. To transform the path, click to select with the Path Selection tool Then go Edit > Transform Path. You can also check “Show Bounding Box” in the option bar. You can stretch, scale, and rotate the path. Click to apply the transformation if you’re happy. To delete the path click to select the path with Selection tool and use the Delete key on the keyboard.

Direct Selection tool is used to edit path shape. You can reshape the path by clicking and dragging anchor points to a different position. Click and drag on the path segment or anchor point handle to change the curve. To select more than one anchor point click and drag around anchor points you want to select. Hold the Shift key to move it perfectly horizontally. And to deselect click outside the shape. You can also select multiple anchor points holding the Shift key. Click on the first point, hold the Shift key to add to the selection or subtract from the selection. Use your keyboard arrow keys to move selected anchor points. To delete a path segment with Direct Selection tool, click on the segment between anchor points and use the Delete key on your keyboard. Let’s undo this one. Or click on the anchor point, press the Delete key to delete attached segments.

If you are not familiar with Illustrator or any other vector programs vector graphics can be overwhelming. Don’t sweat it: fashion designers rarely use vectors in Adobe Photoshop. So all you need to remember is how to use vector shapes in suggested Pixels and Path modes. And just to remind you: shapes created in the path mode can be modified, outlined, filled, converted into a selection and vice versa.