photoshop pen tool

[aitek]

hey guys, im trying to get some vector lines going in photoshop like illustrator style, now when i create a shape it fills it, i just want the line with anchors, is there any way to do this? thanks

 

[sfm]

I think you may have shape layers selected rather than paths (see image)
sfm

 

[aitek]

ok although that does work, they only way for me to make a line out of it is to stroke the path that it creates, and that leaves a rough line, not a nice smooth vector line like illustrator, am i doing something wrong?

 

[wbiss]

You're not doing anything wrong aitek. Remember, PS is a "raster" program and, although it does have vector tools, you'll never get the clean lines that you get out of a true vector program, like Illustrator! :\

[shhh] If you could, why would Adobe have two different apps that accomplish the same thing?

 

[Guest]

It seems that a lot of people are confused about the differences between Photoshop's vectors and those in Illustrator. There are differences between Illustrator and Photoshop in the way they approach vectors but that's the only difference. There is no 'quality' difference. You always have to look at the output. Even if the vector tools in Illustrator are more advanced... in the end they will end up as pixels or dots and that's where Photoshop and Illustrator meet.

The fact that there are two programs has two reasons;

- Marketing; Photoshop's vector tools are still kept very simple, forcing many users to buy Illustrator. Lots of users have both Photoshop and Illustrator; count the cash $$$
- Vector images and bitmap images don't really work together in one work area, since bitmaps are based on pixels (resolution) and vectors are based on mathematical formulas.