How to Draw Simple Geometric Shapes in Photoshop. How to Create Freeform Shapes or Shapes in Photoshop

We talked about drawing in Photoshop using a pencil and brush. Freehand lines are great, but it often happens that you need to depict an even geometric figure. Rulers and compasses are a thing of the past, and now you can do this using simple editor tools.

To select one of them, click the Shapes icon on the tool palette.

Regardless of which group tool you select, the following items, common to all shapes, will appear in the Options Bar.

• Select tool mode. Here you can choose one of three.

1. Figure. The value is set to the default, and it creates a vector geometric figure on a separate layer, that is, what you expect from the tool happens.
2. Circuit. The outline of the figure is drawn without filling.
3. Pixels. It creates not a vector, but a raster figure.

• Filling. Allows you to customize the color and type (gradient, shading) of the drawn figure.
• Stroke. Shape outline settings: thickness, type, color.
• Width and height. They allow you to clarify the size of the figure when it is impermissible to do this “by eye”.

As always, create a new document with a white background. The remaining parameters can be left as default or selected at your discretion.

Rectangle

Select the Rectangle shape and, to draw it, click on the canvas and then drag the pointer while holding down the mouse button. The point where you clicked will be the corner of the shape.

On the options bar, click the icon. The geometric settings window will open.

By default, the switch is set to Rectangle. If you set it to Square, then when drawing you will always get a shape with the same length of sides. A similar effect can be achieved without pressing the checkbox: to obtain a square while drawing a rectangle, just hold down the Shift key.

If the parameters of your rectangle are known in advance, set the switch to the Specified size position and specify the required values ​​in the fields. The figure will be completely drawn as soon as you click on the canvas with the mouse button.

After setting the switch to the Set proportions position, in the input fields that become available, you can specify the aspect ratio of the created figure.

The From Center checkbox allows you to draw a rectangle from the center, rather than from the outermost point.

Rectangle with rounded corners

The next item on the list of geometric shapes. It is clear that it differs from the usual one in the rounding of the corners. Accordingly, the settings for this figure and the rectangle are almost identical. The fillet radius can be specified in the corresponding field in the options bar.

Ellipse

The parameters are the same as a rectangle, only instead of a square you can draw a circle. To do this, in the geometry settings window, check the Circle box or hold down the Shift key while drawing.

Polygon

With this tool you can draw a triangle, dodecahedron, icosahedron, star, or any shape that contains from three to one hundred sides. Their number can be set in the Party input field located on the parameters panel.

The geometric settings window is noticeably different from previous figures.

• Radius. This field specifies the radius of the future polygon.
• Smooth outer corners. If the checkbox is checked, then the corners are rounded; if not, the corners are sharp, as in a classic polygon.
• Star. Check the box if you want to receive a star as output.
• Depth of rays. This input field specifies how long the rays will be.
• Smooth the inside corners. Check this box if you want the inside corners to be rounded, as shown in the image below.

Line

Use this tool to create truly straight lines - freehand is simply not practical. To achieve maximum accuracy, configure the geometric parameters in the appropriate window.

• Start. If the checkbox is checked, instead of a line you will get an arrow that will be drawn at the location where you clicked the mouse button.
• End. Select the checkbox to add an arrow to the end of the line.
• Width. Indicated as a percentage relative to the thickness (it can be set in the parameters panel in the field of the same name).
• Length. It is calculated in the same way as width - in relation to thickness, as a percentage.
• Curvature. The value ranges from -50% to 50% and determines how much the widest part of the arrow will be curved. The figure shows arrows with curvature of 0%, 30% and 50% (from top to bottom).

Free figure

In order not to create a separate tool for each of the dozens of remaining shapes, the developers have combined them here. All elements of the parameters panel are already familiar to you, except for the most important one - the Shape button, clicking on which opens the shape selection window.

If you click on the gear located on the right side of the window, a menu of additional options will open, containing categories of shapes.

Thanks to the tools discussed, you can literally draw a huge number of shapes in just two clicks, which would take quite a long time to create manually.

Hello, dear readers of my blog. The easier the task, the more difficult it is to solve in Photoshop. There are a thousand articles about or creating the effect of black eyes, but how to draw a circle, square or rhombus - go figure it out! Today I will solve this injustice.

You will find a comprehensive article about geometric shapes for Photoshop - how to draw them yourself, what additional tools you can download for a more impressive result, as well as a lot of other equally interesting and useful information.

We draw ourselves

Adobe Photoshop has several tools that allow you to draw shapes. Just some of them hide some secrets. Now I will tell you about them. So, I If you want to learn how to do it like in my drawing, then I recommend the article, there is nothing easier than making the same one.

So, in the toolbar on the left you can find a rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line or any shape. You may not see additional tools, but you found one of them, just hold down the left mouse button for a split second or click once on the right mouse button. A menu with additional shapes will immediately appear.

To start, I'll select a rectangle. As soon as I finish drawing, an additional menu will pop up on the left. Here you can select the size by width and height if you need to maintain exact dimensions. Just below is a menu with a fill for the shape itself - you can choose no fill, a solid color, a gradient or a pattern.

A little to the right is the stroke menu - you need to determine its width and whether it will be present at all; if you want, make it monochromatic, fill it with a gradient or, again, with a pattern.

To turn a rectangle into a square you need to hold down the Shift button while drawing the shape.

Pressing the Shift button turns an ellipse into a circle.

Also in the list there is such a figure as a polygon. You decide the number of sides yourself. You can enter any value - 3 to make a triangle, 7, 10 and so on.

I won’t pay much attention to the lines; this thing is not difficult to figure out on your own. The only thing worth warning is that holding Shift makes the line strictly vertical or horizontal.

Free figure

We are left with an arbitrary figure. What it is?

On the very right side of the top menu you can see ready-made shapes. Various arrows, squares, lightning bolts and so on.

To use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T.

How to add new ones

Adding new shapes is not difficult. A lot of free figures can be downloaded from the site photoshop-master.ru . There are about 400 sets with figures - people, patterns, spiders, abstraction, cars, chairs, fire, flowers and much more.

I’ll show you how to install them using “Media” as an example; they will be useful to me in the future. So, I download the file.

Just wait 15 seconds. No pre-registration is required.

Now open the archive and drop the file in CSH format somewhere where it can be easily found.

Now open the shapes in Photoshop and click on the nut on the right side. In the list that opens, select “Load Shapes.”

Now find the file that you unzipped not long ago. By the way, after you're done, the file can be deleted from your computer. You won't need it anymore. Everything was copied to the desired folder.

You can use shapes. Don't forget about the fill, thanks to which you can change the color of the shapes, as well as the stroke.

In addition to shapes, you may also need brushes. They can also be downloaded from the website Photoshop-master .

You can load the required set in the same way as when working with shapes. Open your brushes.

Click on the nut and select “Load”.

Work with them yourself. There is nothing complicated here. They are slightly different from the figures.

Google to the rescue

Another way to draw a figure is to take advantage of the work of others. You'll need Google and its Images section. You will find out why exactly he is very soon. In order for the figure to have a transparent background and fit harmoniously into your composition, it is required. This is what you need to look for: png triangle, circle, oval, and so on.

If you are doing work for yourself, then, in principle, you could use Yandex, but if the project is being created for commercial purposes, then Google will be very useful. Open “Tools”, then “Use Rights” and select the desired type - use or use and change.

Next, open the picture after you have found something suitable. This is an important condition. The drawing should be located on this square-checkered background. If it's just white, then it's not a png. You will understand the difference when you download. In principle, there is nothing wrong with learning from your mistakes.

This is what the PNG will look like. The checkerboard filled with my background.

If you want to learn more about the program, I can recommend the course to you « Photoshop from scratch in video format » . It is suitable for complete beginners. There is a lot of useful information here about the tools and when each is suitable.

The Internet is full of lessons that you can learn from, but it is one thing to blindly repeat after the author and quite another to meaningfully achieve a goal, knowing what you will have to use for this. This is a completely different level.

Adobe Photoshop is widely used for working with images, providing a truly wide range of possibilities. Most users use Photoshop for photo retouching, but, in addition, the program allows you to create: drawings, paintings, graphics - of varying degrees of complexity. Photoshop has several tools designed for creating drawings. The first step is to learn how to draw simple elements like triangles, lines, ellipses and others, since they are used very often when creating various types of drawings. In this article we will take a closer look at how to draw simple shapes in Photoshop. Let's figure it out. Go!

Let's understand the basics of computer graphics

With Adobe Photoshop open, look at the Tools panel. To go to the shapes, click on the rectangle icon. In the pop-up window you will see the following tools:

• "Rectangle";
• "Rectangle with rounded corners";
• "Ellipse";
• "Polygon";
• "Line";
• "An arbitrary figure."

The editor offers several classic and free forms

There are three drawing modes in total:

1. A new shape is created, for which you can make a fill layer or a vector mask.
2. An outline of the figure is created and painted over with some color.
3. Pixel mode. In this case, the images are raster and not vector.

For each selected figure, geometric parameters are set, in other words, proportions. To draw a rectangle, select the appropriate tool, set the necessary outline settings and fill color. Now just place the cursor at the point on the sheet from which you want to start drawing. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the rectangle as needed.

There is nothing easier than drawing a line. The tool of the same name is used for this.

For a circle, use the Shift key or the additional settings menu

Let's move on to how to draw a circle in Photoshop. Here everything happens in a similar way. Select the Ellipse tool and decide on the color and thickness of the outline. If you want to get a circle rather than an ellipse, hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard or set “circle” in the geometric parameters section.

We draw a beautiful composition using standard tools

Now let's figure out how to draw a triangle in Photoshop. In this case, everything is not so obvious, but at the same time it is not at all more complicated. All you need to do is select “Polygons” and in the small “Sides” window, set the number of angles. Accordingly, to get a triangle, enter the number “3”. Then everything is done exactly the same as in previous cases. Using the Polygon tool, you can create a shape with any number of angles. If you need a right triangle, draw a square and then cut off half diagonally.

Arrows at the beginning or end can be set in the tool properties

Let's look at how to draw an arrow in Photoshop. There are two ways to do this. The first is that you need to select the “Line” tool, then in the parameters window mark which side of the line the arrow will be on (at the beginning or at the end), then you need to set the thickness of the arrow in pixels. Place the cursor at the desired point and start stretching the line with the mouse. The second method is to select “Custom Shape”. On the top panel there is a table with templates, among them there is an arrow.

Templates included in the standard application package

Drawing tools let you create and edit vector shapes. They make it easy to create various elements for web pages.

The next family of tools allows you to create geometric shapes of different shapes.

Rectangle (Rectangle)() - accordingly, allows you to draw a rectangle (and with the key pressed - a square), filled with the foreground color.
Rounded Rectsngle square)— creates shapes similar to those described above, but allows you to set the radius of rounding the corners of the rectangle.

Ellipse- creates ovals (in combination with a pressed key - circles).
Polygon- allows you to create geometric shapes with an arbitrary number of angles, as well as multi-beam stars. By default creates a convex pentagon.
Line— draws straight lines of arbitrary or specified length, thickness, color and direction.
Custom Shape— allows you to create a geometric figure of any shape and save it for later use.

Create a new training file.

Left click on tool - shapes - on the toolbar, the tool selection window will open:

Here are the basic shapes we can use. Select any one and look at the options panel:

For any shape you can choose:

• drawing mode:
  • Shape layer. The figure is created in a separate layer. A shape layer consists of a fill layer that defines the color of the shape, and an associated vector mask that defines the shape's boundaries. The outline of a shape is a path that appears in the Paths tab of the Layers panel.
  
  
  • Outlines. This mode allows you to draw outlines of shapes that can be filled or outlined with any color. Paths appear in the Paths tab of the Layers panel.
  
  
  • Pixel Fill . When working in this mode, not vector, but raster images are created, which can be processed in the same way as any raster image
  
  
• style and color of the figure


• set parameters specific to this figure

Drawing rectangles

Let's select the first shape - a rectangle. On the panel we will select mode - shape layer. Select a style by clicking on the triangle on the right.

Choose any one you like. By the way, if you click on the triangle in the circle (on the right), you can select additional styles in the context menu that opens. If you do not want to use a style, then select a white square crossed out with a red line.

Now you can set the geometric parameters:

• Arbitrarily - as you draw, so it will be.
• Square - when you stretch the shape with the mouse, the width and height will always be the same.
• Specified size - you can set the width and height of the rectangle (in cm) and click on the canvas. A rectangle with the specified dimensions will appear.
• Set proportions - you can set how many times the width will be smaller (or larger) than the height. When stretching the figure, the proportion will be maintained.
• From the center - draws a rectangle from the center.
• Snap to Pixels - the edges of the rectangle are snapped to the pixel boundaries.

Now select -arbitrarily- and stretch your rectangle on the canvas with the mouse. For example, this is what I got when using styles: Button, Glass Buttons and Web Styles.

Quite a useful tool for creating buttons and menus for your web pages, isn’t it?

Draw rectangles with rounded corners

Let's select the second shape - a rectangle with rounded corners. In the panel, select the mode - shape layer, corner radius - for example, 15 and color (you can style it as you want). The geometric parameters are the same as for a rectangle.

Here's what I got with different combinations of radius and style.

Why not news blocks and menu buttons?

Drawing circles

Let's choose the third figure - an ellipse. In the panel, select the mode - layer-shape, color and style. The geometric parameters are the same as for a rectangle, with the only difference being that you can choose a circle instead of a square. Select -randomly- and stretch the ellipse. If you want there to be a circle, then hold down the Shift key or select -circle- in the geometric parameters.

Here's what I got:

Drawing polygons

Let's choose a shape - a polygon. In the panel, select the mode - shape layer, the number of sides in the range from 3 to 100 (for example, 3 for a triangle, 6 for a hexagon), color and style. Let's consider the geometric parameters:

• Radius - radius of the polygon.
• Smooth outer corners
• Star - with the checkbox unchecked, the polygon is convex, with the checkbox ticked, the polygon is concave.
• Beam depth - if the polygon is concave, then its vertices seem to form rays. This parameter shows what part of the polygon radius will be occupied by rays. The higher the %, the longer and sharper the rays.
• Smooth outer corners - with the checkbox unchecked, the corners are sharp, with the checkbox checked, the corners are rounded.

For example:

The first hexagon has a radius of 3 cm, the rest of the boxes are unchecked.

The second hexagon has a radius of 3 cm, a checkmark at -star-, the depth of the rays is 25%, the rest of the checkboxes are unchecked.

The third hexagon has a radius of 3 cm, the depth of the rays is 50%, all the boxes are checked.

All have a style applied to them.

Drawing lines

Let's choose a shape - lines. In the panel, select the mode - shape layer, line thickness (in pixels), color and style. Let's consider the geometric parameters:

If all the checkboxes are unchecked, there will be just a line, the parameters are set by the arrows at the ends of this line.

• Start- arrow at the beginning of the line.
• End- arrow at the end of the line.
• Width- proportions of the arrow as a percentage of the line thickness (from 10% to 1000%).
• Length- proportions of the arrow as a percentage of the line thickness (from 10% to 5000%).
• Curvature- determines the degree of curvature of the widest part of the arrow where it meets the line (from -50% to +50%).

For example:

The first line has all checkboxes unchecked, width - 500%, length - 1000%, thickness - 2 pixels.

For the second line, everything is the same, but there is a checkmark at -beginning- and the curvature is 5%.

For the third line, everything is the same, but the -end- is checked and the -beginning- is unchecked.

The fourth line has both checkboxes, width - 500%, length - 1000%, curvature - 15%, thickness - 5 pixels.

All have a style applied to them.

Drawing arbitrary shapes

Let's choose a figure - an arbitrary figure. In the panel, select the mode - layer-shape, color and style. The geometric parameters are the same as for a rectangle. But here there is a choice of the figure itself:

Drawing multiple shapes in one layer

The principle here is the same as with the rectangular selection tools (in the first lesson we made a non-standard selection area using the tools in the options bar: add to selection, subtract from selection, etc.). The same tools are available in the Shape Options panel.

For example, create a rectangle shape, now in the options bar click on the "add to shape area" icon, and now select the ellipse shape. Move the mouse cursor to the upper border of our rectangle, press the left mouse button and, without releasing it, stretch the ellipse. It should look something like this:

If the ellipse is not stretched as desired, you can correct it. To do this, select from the toolbar contour selection tool-

Move the cursor to the border of the ellipse and, while holding down the left mouse button, drag the ellipse where it should be. Using all these tools, you can draw shapes of varying complexity.

Saving the shapes

Let's say we liked the last shape we created and want to use it in the future. To do this, you need to save it. For this menu Edit -> Define Custom Shape. Give the new shape a name.

Now our shape has appeared in the drop-down custom shape selection panel.

There is an interesting tool in Photoshop - "Free figure". In practice, this tool is rarely used, but it still has a number of interesting features. In this lesson you will get acquainted with arbitrary shapes, and also learn how to independently add your own sets of such shapes into Photoshop.

There is a group of similar tools on the toolbar (shortcut U). These include: rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line and arbitrary figure.

There is a window on the attributes panel where you can select a shape from among the standard ones. To do this, click on the small arrow to the right of the thumbnail. Look at the screenshots:

What is a free figure?

It is a vector image, which means it has no size restrictions. Therefore, it can be stretched as much as you like without losing quality.

The shape does not have its own color (other than the one we choose before creating), volume, shadows, border strokes, or anything else. In this way, it resembles a brush, where you set the color yourself, everything else will have to be painted on your own.

How to use?

To draw a custom shape, select it from the drop-down list, then left-click in your open document and move the mouse to the side. You will see that the outline of the future figure has appeared. By moving the mouse in different angles and directions, you adjust its size and shape, i.e. it can be wide or narrow. Don't forget to first choose the color you want and then paint.

Hold down the Shift key to draw the figure perfectly straight, without distortion in any direction.

How to install your shapes in Photoshop?

You can install a set of figures into your program yourself. The same principles apply here as, for example, with or. To install them, first, download a set of figures to your computer. Such sets have the extension csh.

After that, open the shapes menu. You will see these 4 commands:

Selecting "Load...", a dialog box will open in which you need to specify the path to the file with the extension csh, for example like this:

This set will automatically be added to the end of the list of all shapes. Let's say you had a set with animals on the list, and you loaded arrows. The result is a list consisting of animals and arrows.

Selecting "Replace...", everything will be the same, except that new figures will not appear at the end of the list, but will completely replace those that already exist. For example, you initially had sets with animals and arrows loaded in the list, and you decided to open with a replacement set of ornaments. As a result, only ornaments will be on the list.

And if you have loaded several sets, delete any individual figures using the command "Delete…", in general, if you have made a set for yourself, you can save it with the command "Save custom...". In the future it will be possible to download it in the same form or transfer it to someone via the Internet.

Last command "Restore arbitrary..." allows you to return everything to default.

Please note that in the same menu there is a huge list: Animals, Arrows, Nature, Objects, etc. These are standard sets that were kindly provided to us by the Photoshop developers.

Second installation method with additional benefit

Arbitrary shapes can still be installed directly into Photoshop system files.

This is a little more difficult to do, but the main advantage of this method is that your set will appear in the list that I described above (Animals, Arrows, Nature, Objects, etc.). If you intend to use this tool often, then this installation method will reduce time, and you will be able to select the desired set in two clicks.

To do this, you need to copy the file with the extension csh to the photoshop system folder "Custom Shapes", usually her address is like this: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5\Presets\Custom Shapes.

If you notice an error in the text, select it and press Ctrl + Enter. Thank you!