7 Freeform Pen
Used for drawing
vector lines or shapes
Found at #9 in the Toolbar diagram at left
In Photoshop 6, Adobe® reduced the magnetic pen to a checkbox on the options bar of the freeform pen. Now in Photoshop 7, they have moved all of the vector tools onto the same options bar. You now find all of the pens as well as the shape tools lined up at the left end of the same options bar.
The freeform pen is hidden under the pen tool in the toolbar. To select
it, click on the pen in the toolbar and choose it from the pop-up menu.
The pen, and its related group of tools are used for creating paths. These are vector outlines which can be used to make selections, or can be stroked and filled with color. Vector paths are mathematical formulas that do not print, and which contain no pixels. They are like a blueprint; from them you can make a building, but the blueprint itself is not a part of that structure.
I have a tutorial on learning to use the pen tool which is intended for total beginners. It’s called Basic Pen.
The freeform pen is supposed to allow you to draw as you would with a pencil, without any of the difficulties inherent in using the other pen tools. It really doesn’t work very well, but here it is. To use this pen, select it in the toolbox, set its options [see below], and drag in the image. If you want to continue an existing line, you need to position the pointer over the end point of the previous line, and then drag. To end an open path, release the mouse button. To close a path, drag over the starting point, until a small circle appears next to the cursor. Release. It sounds easy, but it doesn’t work that way. Try it.
The magnetic pen, which used to be listed in the toolbar as a separate tool, is now simply an option on the freeform pen’s options bar. It is a tracing tool, which snaps to distinct edges, as you drag along the outline of an existing object.
The illustration shown first below, shows the options bar when the freeform pen is chosen. To find any tool presets that have been made for this tool, click on the tool’s thumbnail at the left end of the options bar. To reset the tool to its default settings, right-click on the tool’s thumbnail and choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears.
Before you start drawing with the pen, be sure and choose whether you
want to create a new shape layer (button on the left), or a work path
(button on the right). A shape layer will exist on its own layer in the
Layers palette as well as the Paths palette. When this option is chosen,
the Style and Color options will be available on the options bar. Those
options are not available if you choose the work path option. A work path
only exists in the Paths palette and is lost if you create another path
before naming/saving it. Work paths are not visible unless you stroke
or fill them. The stroke or fill will appear on the currently selected
layer in the Layers palette.
The group of boxy icons to the right of the Magnetic option determine
how the next path you draw will interact with the current path. When you
have the work path option chosen (above), the New Path option is not available.
As long as the original work path is selected, additional paths will be
interacting with it.
They are (as shown above) 1) New Shape (no interaction), 2) Add to Shape,
3) Subtract from Shape, 4) Intersect Shape (only overlapping areas will
remain), and 5) Exclude Overlapping (overlaps will be deleted leaving
the nonintersecting areas intact).
If the little chain icon to the left of the Style and Color choices is selected (showing a white background) then Style and Color changes will affect the current shape layer. If the chain button is deselected, Style and Color changes will be applied to the next shape you make but will not alter the current shape.
To find out about Styles, go to the Styles page. Click on the color box to open the color picker where you can choose a new hue.
Right-clicking within a selected work path, or on a shape when its layer is selected in the Layers palette will get you the menu shown below the options bar. Notice that you can define a path or shape as a custom shape from this menu. You can also define new custom shapes by choosing Edit > Define Custom Shape. The new shape will appear at the bottom of the current custom shapes palette.
If you have doodled with a tool’s options and want to get back to the default settings, right-click that tool’s icon at the far left end of its options bar (in Photoshop 6, left-click). Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop’s .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
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