I’d like to point out that I loathe about Photoshop. When creating a line shape layer (or path) using Photoshop’s line tool, there is no option to snap to whole pixels. Curse you, subpixels. Curse you. If I explicitly set the weight of a line to be 1px then I damn well expect my line to be 1px wide!
Come on!
If I wore a pocket protector1, I’d be adjusting it for optimal pocket protection right now.
1 I felt linking to that ad was necessary, since there’s some Futura all up in there.
I’ve been slapped across the face with an epic, life-changing discovery in Photoshop. The time I’m going to save as a result of this one little checkbox is so amazing. GAHH!!
Problem: You like to make path-based shape layers because they’re easy to manipulate and are as close to vectors as Photoshop can get. Unfortunately, they tend to defy all reason and not stick to whole nice whole numbers, so you get a box that might be 50.6px tall and that produces the travesty you see to the right (zoomed in, 200%). Compounding the problem is that if you consider having a 50.6px box — you must also consider that its X,Y position may also contain decimals! Twice the pwnage.
My solution had always been to tweak the shape with the Direct Selection (A) tool. (I KNOW.) Once you start to amass a lot of shape layers it quickly becomes a daunting chore.
Turns out that all this time, there’s been a checkbox in the tool options that makes the pain go away. Check it, and your woes are vanquished. Oh how I wish I knew that sooner.
SNAP TO PIXELS.
Okay! This is my first tutorial ever so bear with me and leave comments if something doesn’t make any sense.
Out of boredom a few weeks ago I set about creating a sunset in Photoshop. I had no real reason to do it, but I wanted to make something that looked cool and now you can, too!
Here’s what we’re going to be making:
