Let There Be Lines pg 2: Production Graphics with Wendy Peck at webreference.com

Let There Be Lines 2: PhotoShop Lines

OK, Wendy. So you select the line tool and set your foreground color. In the Line Options window, set line thickness and turn off anti-aliasing. Click and drag with your SHIFT key pressed, and you have a line. We need a whole section of this tutorial for this?

Well, yes we do. If I was really to let my imagination run free, I would need the entire tutorial for this subject, but we have other programs to cover.

All red lines are 1 pt with anti-alias turned off.

Shadow line settings:
Top: 1 pt line, light gray, anti-alias off, Fade Line 37%. Second: 1 pt line, light gray, anti-alias on. Third: 2 pt line, medium gray, anti-alias on. Bottom: 2 pt line, medium gray, anti-alias on, Fade Line 37%.

The instructions above tell the whole story to create a plain line in PhotoShop. But as valuable as a plain line can be in design, that is just the beginning. Suppose you want to add a little depth to your page by placing a drop shadow under your line. Try creating a hairline and adding a shadow with the Layer Effects. Pretty dismal? No matter how much you tweak the settings, you do not get a subtle 3D appearance.

Try this manual shadow method for much more control. On a new layer (lines), create several 1 pt lines, with anti-aliasing turned off. Create a new layer (shadow), and move it below the lines layer. Change your foreground color to gray. Set the line tool to anti-alias. With the Shadow layer active, draw a shadow line one pixel under the original line. Repeat using different line widths, settings, etc., until you find an effect you like. See under the illustration for the settings used in the sample. With the shadow layer still selected, and the Move Tool active, use the Right Arrow key on the keyboard to move the layer one pixel to the right (or as page light direction dictates). Merge the lines layer with the shadow layer when you are satisfied with the result.

1 pt line with graduated fill, selected with the fixed size marquee option for accuracy.

Identical 2 pt graduated fill lines with varying end points for fill.

Filled Lines
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to use all of PhotoShop's filters and fills on lines? You can, with one of two methods. The easiest is to use a fixed marquee size. This makes creating your line quick and easy, but most of the filters will not work with very narrow selections. We can work around that though.

To start, let's look at the fixed size marquee function. Double click the Rectangle Marquee tool to open the Marquee Options window. Choose Fixed Size for the style and enter the desired size of your line. Click where you would like to place the top left corner of your line and a marquee will be placed according to the dimensions you specified.

Fill with any color or graduated fill. The samples shown here all have the same selection size and identical graduated fill, but the fill is set with slightly different positions and end points. I have shown a sample of a preset selection above. Imagine trying to select this without the power of a fixed size marquee.

Carry on to the next page to learn how to use filters for lines, and the ever popular dotted line.

Next page

Let There Be Lines Tutorial Index

Let There Be Lines Start
PhotoShop Lines
PhotoShop Lines (part 2)
PhotoShop Quick Grids
PhotoShop Scan Lines
PaintShop Pro Lines
PaintShop Pro Grid/Scan/Dots
CorelDraw and Freehand Lines
CorelDraw Grid Tool
Gallery and Resources