How to use Photoshop’s Pen Tool

Posted on March 10th, 2009 by monsterguide

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Adobe Photoshop offers many useful tools for graphic design and image editing. Some people think of Photoshop as a very powerful imaging suite, with complete set of drawing tools and utilities. One of the most important tools in Photoshop’s set of tools is the Pen tool. Here are tips on you can use the Pen tool to your best advantage.

About the Pen Tool

Shortcut key: P
Alternate tools: Freeform Pen, Add/Delete Anchor Points, Convert Points

Uses of the Pen Tool

The Pen tool is a very versatile function in Photoshop’s Tools palette that you can use for all sorts of photo editing and graphic design tasks. Here are some of the uses of the Pen tool:

Drawing. Combined with other tools like the Brush, Pencil, and Polygon tools, the Pen tool is a very effective way to draw freehand objects. The Pen tool allows you to draw freeform shapes through anchor points that define the dimensions of the shape. The tangent lines and anchor points made by the Pen tool are great for making curves and shapes that are not found in Photoshop’s default gallery.
Building paths. The Pen tool is a very efficient and useful way to extract parts and pixels of a picture. You simply use the Pen tool to create anchor points around the selected area, and create a path. You can then create layer effects without affecting the rest of the picture, or extract the part of the image for use in another canvas or image.

Pen Tool Tips

Instead of using the Magnetic Lasso (L) tool or Extract (Ctrl+Alt+X) function of Photoshop to extract part of an image, use the Pen tool instead. Simply click on the edges of the image you want to extract using anchor points, and close the path. While it may take longer to extract an image using the Pen tool, you can get more control over what parts of the image are selected.
When drawing curved shapes, experiment with the distance of the tangent and distance lines. If you’re not satisfied with the result, you can always undo the process.
A drawing tablet is perfectly suited for the Pen tool, but you can always use a mouse. When using a mouse to use the Pen tool, always keep a steady hand to avoid having to redo or retouch paths or anchor points.

When used with other tools in the Photoshop tools palette, the Pen tool proves indispensable for creating freeform shapes and paths. With enough practice, the Pen tool will be at the top of your list for Photoshop tools you simply cannot do without.