7 Path Selection
Used for selecting
path components
Found at #8 in the Toolbar diagram at left
These two tools are grouped together in the toolbar. If you can’t
see the one you want, click on the visible tool, and choose the other
from the pop-up menu.
Both these tools are used for working with paths. For more information on editing paths, see the Paths palette, the Pen tools, and the Shape tools.
The path selection tool will select any path component, including one which is part of several other components. Select by clicking anywhere inside the path component you want.
The direct selection tool will select a single path segment. Click on an anchor point, or drag a marquee around the segment you want, to select it. The direct selection tool can be used for moving, and reshaping segments in a path.
The keyboard shortcut key for both these tools is the letter A. Press the Shift key and the shortcut key to toggle between the two tools.
The illustration below is the path selection tool’s options bar (the black arrow). The direct selection tool (the white arrow) has no options.
On the right half of the options bar, you’ll find twelve little buttons used for aligning and distributing objects. You need at least three paths or objects selected on the same shape layer to use the distribute buttons. The numbered options are 1) align top edges 2) align vertical centers 3) align bottom edges 4) align left edges 5) align horizontal centers 6) align right edges 7) distribute top edges 8) distribute vertical centers 9) distribute bottom edges 10) distribute left edges 11) distribute horizontal centers 12) distribute right edges.
If the Show Bounding Box checkbox is selected, your layer’s
contents will be surrounded by a box with handles that looks like this.
Note that this screen shot shows a black square on a white background.
The white was not part of the layer being moved and transformed.
Any of the square handles you see can be dragged to resize, skew, rotate
or sheer the layer contents. The minute you drag on one of them, the direct
selection tool’s options bar changes to the transform options bar,
shown last below (cut in two because it’s so long). Select one
of the dots in the multi dotted square at the left end of this options
bar to set the origin around which the transformation will occur.
From left to right, the items on the transform options bar are the tool icon, the transform origin selection dots, two text boxes for setting x and y position, followed by two text boxes for scaling the size of the layer contents. Check or uncheck the little chain link between the height and width boxes to constrain proportions or not. Next is a single text box for angle of rotation, and last are two text boxes where horizontal or vertical skew values can be entered.
You can enter values in any of the text boxes to transform by numbers, or simply drag on the handles of the bounding box. Your cursor will change to indicate which type of motion will happen depending on which handle you drag. In the illustration above, the rotation cursor is shown. If you don’t like your transformation, click the big X at the end of the options bar. You will be returned to the direct selection tool options bar with no transformation applied.
The pathfinder buttons on the options bar, shown at larger scale in the
can be used to determine how the new shape interacts with any other shapes
that it overlaps. They are:
1) Add to the Shape Area
2) Subtract from the Shape Area
3) Intersect Shape Area
4) Exclude Shape Area.
If you have doodled with a tool’s options and want to get back to the default settings, right-click that tool’s icon at the far left end of its options bar (in Photoshop 6, left-click). Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop’s .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
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