Working with shape tools

Despite being a pixel editing application, Photoshop CC allows us to draw vector shapes quickly and edit them indefinitely.

Though Illustrator CC may have a more comprehensive toolset for drawing and refining vector shapes, you can still build complex shapes from simple ones very easily in Photoshop CC.

Let's take a look at how we can use shapes to transform this image into a stand out banner ad, quickly and easily.

Here I've got some text, but it could use an elegant vector shape to contain it.

Let's start by selecting the Rectangle tool from the Toolbar.

Since we'll be combining several basic shapes together, let's also head up to the Options bar and click this icon to switch to "Combine Shapes" mode.

Now we can click and drag on the canvas to draw our first rectangle.

You can also hold the Spacebar to adjust the position of the rectangle.

Keep an eye out for the pink smart guides that appear to indicate when we're aligned with another object.

Let's click and drag a second, slightly taller and more narrow rectangle to create a more complex beveled shape.

Then lastly, a third, even taller rectangle.

For this one, we'll head over to the Properties panel and click and drag any corner radius icon until we have two completely rounded sides.

Just be sure the link icon is selected to ensure that all four corners are constrained to share the same change in value.

Looking good.

To reposition a shape, you can switch to the Path Selection tool, then click to select a shape and drag it around to move it.

Alternatively, the Direct Selection tool allows us to select individual points on a shape to freely manipulate them.

By holding Shift to select multiple points, we can use the arrow keys to quickly nudge the size and shape of one of our rectangles.

And just like with images made up of pixels, we can press Command T to free transform vector layers or individual shapes.

Now that we've got the shapes nailed down, let's style it.

We'll head up to the Options bar and set the Fill color to "None".

Then let's add a solid Stroke color and click here to bring up the full Color Picker.

Then, we'll move our cursor over the background and click to sample a nice green color.

Let's brighten it up a bit on the Color Picker so it stands out from the background.

Our stroke is much too thin, so we'll bump up the size until we see a nice thick border appearing.

To achieve even more of a cohesive blend with the background, let's also change the blend mode of our shape to "Overlay".

And press 8 on the keyboard to reduce the opacity to 80 percent.

Looking good.

I've also gone ahead and created a second thinner frame inside using the same technique.

Now, we're ready to save a copy as a JPEG so we'll head up to "File", "Save As...", and change the Format to JPEG, then hit "Save".

The final result looks great.

And we created it using basic shapes and simple techniques like combining them.

Now you can explore the other functions on the Options bar for overlapping shapes, like subtracting, intersecting, or even merging your separate life shapes into a single path.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.