Unlike the other selection tools, the Pen tool doesn’t initially produce a selection marquee. When you select the Pen tool and start clicking and dragging around your image, you create a path. Paths have three components — anchor points, straight segments, and curved segments.
Curved paths are called Bézier paths (after Pierre Bézier who, in the 1970s, invented the equation used for CAD/CAM programs), which means that they are based on a mathematical cubic equation where the path is controlled by direction lines that end in direction points (often referred to as handles. The length and angle of direction lines control the pitch and angle of the Bézier curve.
The following list introduces all the different kinds of anchor points that Photoshop puts at your disposal and show you exactly what they do. You can use some or all of these anchor points in a single path:
-->A true corner point has no direction lines. Use corner points when selecting objects with straight sides, such as stairs or barns.
-->A smooth point has two direction lines pointing in opposite directions but dependent on one another. Use smooth points when selecting objects that have alternating curves, such as a sea of rolling waves.
-->A cusp point has two direction lines that are independent of one another. Use cusp points when selecting an object with curves going the same direction, such as the petals on a daisy.
-->A point between a straight segment and a curve is a corner point with only one direction line.
After you create a Bézier path, you can then edit the path by moving, adding, deleting, or converting anchor points and by manipulating the direction lines. You can also transform paths by choosing Edit➪Transform Paths.
The path hovers over the image in its own space, and is controlled via the Paths palette where you can save it, duplicate it, stroke it with color (apply color to the edge only), fill it with color or a pattern, and most importantly, load it as a selection. I say “most importantly” because nine times out of ten, you are going to painstakingly create a path as a means to an accurate selection marquee. There’s one other time you may use the path as a clipping path: to hide a part of a layer or part of an entire image. I cover clipping paths in the last section of this section.
Curved paths are called Bézier paths (after Pierre Bézier who, in the 1970s, invented the equation used for CAD/CAM programs), which means that they are based on a mathematical cubic equation where the path is controlled by direction lines that end in direction points (often referred to as handles. The length and angle of direction lines control the pitch and angle of the Bézier curve.
The following list introduces all the different kinds of anchor points that Photoshop puts at your disposal and show you exactly what they do. You can use some or all of these anchor points in a single path:
-->A true corner point has no direction lines. Use corner points when selecting objects with straight sides, such as stairs or barns.
-->A smooth point has two direction lines pointing in opposite directions but dependent on one another. Use smooth points when selecting objects that have alternating curves, such as a sea of rolling waves.
-->A cusp point has two direction lines that are independent of one another. Use cusp points when selecting an object with curves going the same direction, such as the petals on a daisy.
-->A point between a straight segment and a curve is a corner point with only one direction line.
After you create a Bézier path, you can then edit the path by moving, adding, deleting, or converting anchor points and by manipulating the direction lines. You can also transform paths by choosing Edit➪Transform Paths.
The path hovers over the image in its own space, and is controlled via the Paths palette where you can save it, duplicate it, stroke it with color (apply color to the edge only), fill it with color or a pattern, and most importantly, load it as a selection. I say “most importantly” because nine times out of ten, you are going to painstakingly create a path as a means to an accurate selection marquee. There’s one other time you may use the path as a clipping path: to hide a part of a layer or part of an entire image. I cover clipping paths in the last section of this section.
Introducing Paths in Photoshop
![Introducing Paths in Photoshop]()
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