What's new
By:
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Evenly spacing objects


L

Lynny

Well-Known Member
Messages
71
Likes
0
Hi Guru's,

Here's a problem that I just can't find an answer to.

I want to make a calendar, and want the squares for the numbers evenly spaced. How would I first make the lines, then make them evenly spaced. I know I could use the guildlines, but figure there must be a better quicker way.

Lynny
 
Make your rulers visible,make a new layer then using your line tool with black on white {turn off anti aliias setting} make your square shape you want with its sizing,then copy the layer and use the move tool and nudge into position beside the first one.Now merge layer 1 and 2 and copy the merged layer,position merge and copy again.It should not take you to long this way Lynny to get all the squares that you want :) ....thats the quickest way I can think of at the moment.


Stu.
 
Ok thank you Stu, in PhotoImpact, which I started graphics in you selected all the layers, and could rightclick(Or do something) and choose to align evenly.... was hoping there was something like that....

How's Dunedin tonight, I've moved to Ch-ch and it's a nice warm evening up here.

Lynny
 
Oooh ya PS has aligned to link,I think thats what its called :)



Ya it was nice and warm last night here as well.What I cant get over is one day is 25 - 28 degrees and the next is 9,then 20+ again?......but oh no theres no global warming eh,the ice caps in the Antartic have just decided to commit mass suicide on us :)



Stu.
 
There are other methods too. Alien methods (heheee [slick] ). Methods from the Dark Side 8[ ... Explaining is longer than doing.

First decide how big your calendar has to be. I take in my example squares of 100 pixels. I need six rows and seven columns. Then open a doc with exactly that size, 700x600 and with a transparant background.
And have your layers palette ready. Double click on the background to make it a layer.

Press D to set your foreground colour to black (assuming you want it black squares. If differently, choose one of your colours), Ctrl+A to select all and then Edit>Stroke to apply a thin stroke to the doc.


When you press M to take the selection tool, officially called the Marquee Tool, you can see in the Option Bar that there is a box for the Style. Click on the little arrow pointing downwards and choose Fixed. Now set the size of your square, here 100 vertical and 100horizontal.

Now click somewhere near the top left corner of your workspace, outside the doc. A selected square will appear in the top-left corner of your doc. Press Alt+Delete to fill it with black (or your foreground colour). Keep it selected.

Copy this layer.

Go to Filter>Other>Offset and fill the double of your size in vertically (here 200). A second black square appears as by magic.
Copy this second layer and press Ctrl+F to reapply the offset filter. You now have five rows: three black ones, and two white ones in between. Correct? No: you also have a third white row below the last black square.

Now click the arrow top-right of the layers palette and choose Merge Visible. Your three squares are on one layer. Copy this layer. Go to the offset filter dialog and fill in the size of your square for horizontal and vertical. (here 100 and 100) You now have a second row of your checkerboard.

Once again you merge these two visible layers and now you apply the offset filter 200 horizontally. Copy this new layer and press Ctrl+F once again, and repeat this a fourth time. The last squares fall outside the document.

To get rid of all the layer info that falls outside the doc, press Ctrl+A to select all, Inverse Selection and Delete.

Create one more layer, fill it with the colour of your fancy and place it at the bottom of the lot. Then Flatten Image.



Another method would be to make a pattern, but that is something someone else can explain. Patterns may be quicker, but this method I described is quick, and you do practise a lot of uncommon tricks.

Have fun!
 
You're right, Erik... the explaining takes longer than the actual doing! Good method too, using the offset filter. One I had never thought of! :)

I've made many calendars and have always simply used guides, along with the single row/column marquee tool. ;)

Good Luck Lynny! :)
 
It becomes very funny when you Make a checkerboard like this with simple black and white. Then copy it to the clipboard.

Now open a photograph of the same size (or resize in PS), and then a second one. With the move tool drag the second photograph on the first one. see that they are adjusted.

Now press the second icon from the left at the bottom of the layers palette to add a layer mask. Alt-click on the mask icon to show the (now white) mask. Now just Ctrl+V to paste your checkerboard on the mask, re-activate the normal layers (click on the icon) and whooshhh: you have a checkerboard of two photographs...

Ahhh...and suppose you have made black squares on your layers, and you want to change their colour: just lock transparancy in the layers palette, and you gan paint and doodle with the balck without affecting the transparant other squares.

etc etc etc...
 
Wow, thank you. It sounds complecated, but I'll try it one step at a time and see how it works out, thank you so much for explaining

Lynny
 
Hi Again.... well I couldn't get what you said to work BUT...... I used the offset in a same way on the stroke, and when it appeared used the magic wand and selected the background, hit delete, and them copied the stroke line that was left and did the offset thingy, it took a bit of mucking around, but eventually I got equal lines down and across, then merged it. so I had what I wanted, so thank you :righton: And as a bonus found a use for the offset option.

Lynny
 
I like it even more that you found your own solution. being creative is the only way to grow.
Apart from that: I assumed you were looking for a way to make some kind of checkerboard...

Indeed: a pattern or a brush would have been much easier here...
 
The academic way of aligning and distributing objects is to make them on their own layers, then link the layers, select the move tool[V]. On the option bar, you see options to align on top, middle, and bottom, ditto for the left& right, then distribute top edge, vertical centers, etc...

Another solution is to make a line on a new layer, then do a transform copy [ALT/option+CRTL/command+T ], move the copy with the arrows, or with the hand.

Now use the repeat transfrom copy [SHIFT+ALT/option+CRTL/command+T], it will repeate the displacement you made. do it several times, voila! Evenly spaced lines!
 
Pierre, consider yourself cyber kissed, and reading back Kiwi too...... thank you so much, I never played with these
" On the option bar, you see options to align on top, middle, and bottom, ditto for the left& right, then distribute top edge, vertical centers, etc..."

This is what I was looking for......

Lynny
 
The shortest way is using a pattern.

You do have to do some calculation: how big do you want your squares, and how big will the raster be?

I chose 50pixels for the square, and 300 for the raster.

Open a transparant doc of 50x50 pixels (the size of your square) and drag guides to the top and left side. View>Snap is on.

Set your foreground colour and take the pencil tool. Click in the top-left corner and shift click in the bottom left corner. This makes a vertical line of 50 pixels. Now click in the top-left corner and then shift-click in the top-right corner. This makes a angle (see image).

Go to Edit>Define Pattern. Give it a name.

Now Open a new doc with the size of your grid. (in my case: 300x300). Take your paint bucket tool and in the toolbar you choose for Fill "Pattern" instead of Foreground. Click on the Pattern Iarrow and you will find your grid pattern. Select it and simply click with the paint bucket inside your doc.

To make the frame: Ctrl+A then Stroke with some pixels.

By the way: this is a transparant gif, so you can use it if you want to.
 
Theres a chequer board in the native PS textures folder as well I think :)



Stu.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top