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Pen tool jagged lines?


Aesthete18

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I was watching a tutorial on making something with Photoshop and he used pen tool to make a box. He pressed shift to draw a straight 45 degree angle line but when I do it, the sides are jagged. Am I missing something here?
 

MrToM

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Could you post one of the whole UI please?

Regards.
MrTom.
 
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MrToM

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Thats the ticket! :thumbsup:

Well, the 'Pen' tool isn't even selected so whats that on the canvas?

Pixels?

Not sure what you think you're looking at but it isn't the 'Pen' tool.

Regards.
MrTom.

PS.
UI = User Interface.....PS.
 

Aesthete18

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This is mine. I clicked the move cursor thing to move the shape so the jagged edges are more visible.
 

Aesthete18

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Pen Tool Problem.JPG

Is this better?

All i know is the guy in the video placed an anchor above the canvas then said to press and hold swift then click at the right bottom outside the canvas. I did the exact same thing but his came out straight mine didn't.
 
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MrToM

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This is mine. I clicked the move cursor thing to move the shape so the jagged edges are more visible.

Shape?

I thought you were having trouble with the 'Pen' tool...snapping to 45° and being 'jaggy'.......not a shape.

I can see from your history that you have filled a closed path but then you deleted it.....so what exactly are you trying to do?

Sorry, but none of this is making any sense.

For the record its impossible to have a 'jagged' line when using the pen tool....its a vector.
If you are trying to stroke a 'path' then that's one thing but if you are trying to fill a 'path' then that's something else.....as is filling a 'Shape'.

Paths and Shapes are two completely different things.

Just clarify what it is you are trying to do and we should get it sorted sooner than later.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

MrToM

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...All i know is the guy in the video placed an anchor above the canvas then said to press and hold swift then click at the right bottom outside the canvas. I did the exact same thing but his came out straight mine didn't.

OK.....no worries.

Give me 2 seconds to fire up CS3 and I'll be right back.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Aesthete18

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Okay sorry I don't know the terms and stuff. Here's what I do:

Click pen tool > click above canvas (12 o'clock position) > hold swift + click bottom right (5 o'clock position) > repeat steps to complete the shape > right click + fill path. That's all I did. Anti Aliasing is checked in the fill path box.
 

MrToM

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What are the pixel dimensions of the document?

If you are unsure follow this and post the dimensions from the info box...

document_Dimensions_01.png

In fact do this regardless.....its far more informative than the filesize on disk.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

MrToM

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Not very big then!

In a pixel based image editor the more pixels the better.

Make the document larger, and the shape obviously, and see if that improves things.

You'll never have a 'straight' diagonal with a grid of square pixels, its just not possible, but if you have enough of them then your image will 'look' much better.

When producing images in PS always aim to make it as big as your system will let you....within reason...you can always save the image out to any size you want AFTER you have created it.

There is no reason to work on such a small image, 300 x 100 would be considered a 'thumbnail' size by todays standards.

As to the anti-aliasing not working.....turn OFF 'Preserve Transparency' in the 'Fill' dialog box.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Aesthete18

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I see. So it's because of the size? That would make sense since the tutorial guy was using a bigger canvas, thus, it may not be visible. Is there a workaround? Maybe with another tool? It is for a signature tag, I'm limited by that size. Saving the image in a smaller size after creating? Will that affect the quality? Like if I did it on say 1080x1980 then output it into 300 x 100, will that affect anything? Working on a bigger canvas will definitely make things easier for me but I wouldn't want to find out at the end of the project if there's a problem.
 

MrToM

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...Like if I did it on say 1080x1980 then output it into 300 x 100, will that affect anything?...
Well, make life easy for yourself and keep the ratio the same....so 600 x 200, or 900 x 300, or 3000 x 1000....whatever......but not just any old size.....think ahead!

When you come to save it out save the job as a PSD file first, then use 'Save For Web' and change the image dimensions FIRST, (to 300 x 100), before anything else.

Its a good move to use the '2-up' feature to compare the original and the 'optimised' versions of your image.....there can be a big difference between formats.

Then choose your format.....png, jpg, etc.......changing any settings you may need.....none I shouldn't think really, then save it.

You can always open the PSD file again if you want to make any changes.....then save out again to 300 x 100.....or whatever.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Aesthete18

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Thank you so much Tom for the help and response time. I'll bookmark this page and refer back when I do the next one. I'll check out this 2-up feature as well. Thanks again!
 

MrToM

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Just in case you got lost with all that...

Save For Web and Devices...2-Up, image size set to 300 x 100, (Note the percentage...10%...this is because the DOCUMENT I created was 3000 x 1000.....the canvas size.....nice and big but still at the same ratio, (proportions), as the final image I want.

SFW_01.png

And this is the result of that Save For Web and Devices procedure...

300x100_02.png

Regards.
MrTom.
 
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MrToM

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Thank you so much Tom for the help and response time. I'll bookmark this page and refer back when I do the next one. I'll check out this 2-up feature as well. Thanks again!

No worries...

Looks like we both posted at the same time!

I keep forgetting just how different CS3 is to CC 2014 so ive had to go through the motions before hand to make sure it works instead of just off the top of my head.......so, sorry for the delay.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

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