Create a dashed line in Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop has a wide range of features, thanks to which you can solve some applied problems, as well as fully work in one environment without moving to another. The program is mainly intended for raster graphics, but working with vector is also possible. Just one of the interesting questions is the construction of the dashed line in Photoshop SS. The task is not difficult at all, just follow the steps that will be described below. In practice, you can often use not one method of construction, but several.

Construction methods

Not every method will be individually suitable for a specific situation. But, on the other hand, there is a universal approach that can create a dashed line of any geometric complexity. For all methods, it is necessary to go through an intermediate stage - setting the brush. In these settings, there are some parameters that can change the interval and change the thickness of the dashed line.

Brush settings

Each user of this graphical environment has used the Brush tool at least once. But not everyone tuned it to various situations in which different settings were needed.

So, before creating a dashed line, you need to select the Brush tool and call the settings context menu. Here you need to set the desired stiffness and thickness of the lines. After the procedure, go to the brush panel, where the interval option is located. The interval slider can be moved to the desired value, 150% is considered the optimal solution.

Pen tool

After all the transformations with the brush, you can proceed directly to drawing a dashed line. We will create our object using the Pen tool, which is located on the main quick access panel. The user can get a dashed line using the transformed contour.

1. We activate the "Pen" and put the first reference point - the beginning of the line.
2. We put the second point in the desired place where the geometric object will end.
3. The next step is to create a new layer, which can be added using hotkeys or on the layer control panel.
4. Now you should click on the resulting path with the right mouse button and in the window that appears, select the option "Outline contour".
5. Another window pops up where the stroke method will be displayed. The default value is "Brush" - confirm.

Any version of the program, such as Photoshop CS6, supports the dashed line. After all the steps above, we get a straight line, but, in addition to it, you can create a dashed curve.

The operation for constructing a curve is no different from drawing a straight line. The only step that will be changed is to create and extend anchor points. Below are some additions:

1. Create the anchor point with the same Pen tool.
2. We find the right place on the canvas and hold down the left mouse button - we try to convert the radius of curvature to the desired value.
3. You can continue to create the curve with new arcs, which are made in exactly the same way as in paragraph 2.

The subsequent stages remain unchanged - the overall picture of operations does not change, and everything is done exactly as in the case of the straight dashed line in Photoshop.

Other tools

Using graphic objects, it is possible to create a geometric border for shapes in the form of dashed lines. All these graphical tools are in one cell on the main panel. With their help, you can create like the most primitive shapes: line, polygon, ellipse; as well as arbitrary ones that were automatically loaded into the editor: arrow, star, dialog cloud, and others. Whatever tool you choose, each has its own settings and parameters, which are displayed at the top of the program in its header. The stroke for a shape of any shape is done in much the same way as with the Pen tool:

1. Select the desired tool and recreate the object. An important note - the created shapes automatically have their own layer, which can then be rasterized.
2. We control the settings and set the optimal ones that will be necessary for the user.

Right-click on the object and select the option "Outline contour". A familiar dialog box pops up where you need to select the Brush option.

Now a figure will appear on the screen, surrounded by a dashed line along the contour. You can continue editing the new object as you wish.