7 Line Tool
Used for drawing
straight lines and arrows
Found at #25 in the Toolbar diagram at left
The line tool is grouped with the shape tools in the toolbox. If it
is not visible, click on shape tool icon to find the pop-up menu from
which you can select it.
Drag in the image to draw (perfectly) straight lines.
Note that line width is not chosen by selecting a brush size, but is set according to the Weight value entered in the line tool’s options bar.
To limit the a line to multiples of 45°, hold down the Shift key while dragging.
The color of the line drawn will be the currently selected foreground color. This is set by clicking on the foreground color square in the toolbar, or in the Colors palette.
The keyboard shortcut key for the line tool is the letter U. You cycle through all the shape tools by holding down the Shift key while pressing the letter.
The illustration below, is the line tool’s options bar. 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 a new line, be sure and choose whether you want
to create a new shape layer (button on the left), a work path (button
in the middle), or a pixel filled area (draw a raster/pixel line on the
current layer in the Layers palette). 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 Weight option determine how
the next path you draw will interact with the current path. When you have
the work path option chosen from the group shown above, the New Path option
is not available. As long as the original work path is selected, additional
paths will be interacting with it. When you have the pixel fill option
chosen, these buttons disappear from the options bar.
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 a variety of useful menus.
In the palettes above, if you click on the little down pointing arrow to the right of the custom shape (and left of the Weight box) you will find the Arrowheads box shown below. The percentage values are in relation to the line width value that you have entered in the Weight box, above. Concavity refers to how open the V at the back of the arrowhead will be. Values can be from minus 50 % to plus 50 % .
The checkboxes titled Start, and End determine whether the arrowhead appears at the starting point or end point of the drawn line.
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