Shape Strokes

Quick reference

• 00:04 Along with some of the bigger features that arrived with Photoshop CS6,
• 00:08 there are dozens of smaller additions which you may find quite welcoming.
• 00:11 In previous versions of Photoshop, creating an outline or, as its called in
• 00:15 Photoshop,
• 00:16 'a stroke,' around an object was pretty limiting and it was typically done by adding
• 00:20 a stroke
• 00:21 layer style. This would allow you to create a solid colored outline,
• 00:25 a gradient outline, or a pattern fill outline.
• 00:28 Other than changing the thickness, there really wasn't much else you could do.
• 00:32 If you were working on a project that required a dotted or dashed line,
• 00:36 boy were you in for a chore. This would usually require creating a custom
• 00:40 brush
• 00:41 and a lot of customisation. And the worst part was that it was not vector:
• 00:45 if you decided to have a larger design, you either had to recreate the outline
• 00:49 or be stuck with a blurry result. Photoshop CS6 changes all of that.
• 00:53 With your Shape tool active, let's take a look at the Options bar.
• 00:57 Right beside the 'fill color' we have access to a new stroke option.
• 01:01 A white box with a line through it tells us there's currently no stroke on our
• 01:05 shape.
• 01:05 Clicking on this box, just like a Layer Style, we can choose from a solid
• 01:09 gradient or pattern strokes and, of course, our color of choice.
• 01:13 And to the right we can set the thickness. So how is this any different than
• 01:18 adding a Layer Style?
• 01:19 So far, it's really not - until you click on the next drop down.
• 01:23 This section allows us to choose from a solid, dashed, or dotted line.
• 01:27 Down below there are a few more options but to better understand what they do
• 01:31 let's hop into the 'more options' window. 'Align' tells Photoshop where to position
• 01:36 the stroke.
• 01:37 Your options are inside the shape on the center of the path
• 01:40 or on the outside: pretty self-explanatory. 'Caps' defines how you
• 01:45 want the ends a few dashes to appear.
• 01:47 The 'Butt' option will cut off the dash once it hits the length
• 01:51 that's defined by the dash field below. Round if you can't guess to create a
• 01:55 rounded end to your dashes.
• 01:57 'Square' will add a square cap to the end of your dash.
• 02:00 This will increase the length of each dash by a few pixels.
• 02:03 Finally we have corners. The different corners will usually only have an effect
• 02:07 on your dashes if they're positioned on the outside of a shape
• 02:10 with sharp corners, such as the rectangle. The 'miter' option is your typical sharp
• 02:14 edge corner.
• 02:15 'Round' will give you rounded corners and 'bevel' will add a slight edge to the
• 02:19 corners of your dashes.
• 02:21 Below these options we have a few text fields: the 'dash
• 02:24 field' defines the length of each individual dash. If I were to increase
• 02:28 this number,
• 02:29 each dash would get longer. The 'gap value' tells Photoshop how much space to put
• 02:34 in between each dash or dot: a higher value will add more space in between
• 02:38 each dash,
• 02:39 but may also reduce the amount of dashes that are present.
• 02:42 Now you may be wondering, why are there additional fields to the right?
• 02:45 This allows us to add additional dots or dashes of different sizes if you wish.
• 02:50 Entering a smaller value for the second dash gap will place additional smaller
• 02:55 dashes
• 02:55 beside the initial longer ones. Once you're satisfied with your outline, you
• 02:59 can save it as a preset for future use.
• 03:01 Now if you need to scale your shape larger or smaller, the outline scales
• 03:05 with it will have absolutely no loss in quality.
• 03:07 And that's an overview of the new stroke options within the Shape tools in
• 03:11 Photoshop CS6.

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