Making Use of Shape Layers in Photoshop

In Version 6, Photoshop expanded its repertoire from just painting and added a whole slew of shape drawing tools — six to be exact. You can fill those shapes with solid color, gradients, or patterns. When you create a shape, it resides on its own unique shape layer. A shape layer contains a vector mask, similar in concept to the adjustment layer mask described earlier. If you look at the Layers palette, you can see that the Shape layer has two thumbnails: One is entirely filled with color, and the other contains the path of the shape, as shown in Figure 1-7.

To state it simply, the color is peeking through the path of the shape, and the rest of the layer is hidden or masked. The paths that comprise a shape are vector paths; when printed, they retain their smooth curves without the jagged edges you often see from bitmap editing programs. Although you can edit, move, and transform shapes, your ability to edit shape layers is limited. To apply filters and other special effects, you must first rasterize the shape layers —that is, convert the vector paths to pixels. You can also create shape layers with the Pen tool.

Using type layers
To create type, click your canvas with the Type tool (horizontal or vertical) and type your desired text. After you commit your text by pressing Enter on the numeric keypad or clicking the Commit button on the Options bar (it looks like a check mark), you’ve created a type layer. In the Layers palette, you see a layer with a T icon, indicating that it’s a type layer. The name of the type layer corresponds to the text you typed. Like shapes, the text in Photoshop is true vector type and, if left in that format, always prints smooth and without the jaggies. Another great thing about type in Photoshop is that it is live; you can edit the text at any time. You can also change the orientation, apply anti-aliasing (softening of the edges), create paths from the type, and even warp it into various distortions. You can also convert the type to a shape. And like regular layers, you can move, rearrange, copy, and change the layer options (opacity, fill, and mode) of a type layer. If, however, you want to apply certain special effects, such as filters, you must first rasterize (convert into pixels) the text.