Thread: Drawing borders/Hypenated lines in PS?

Originally Posted by Galendae

Hello,

How do I draw a hyphenated line in Photoshop? Trying to define borders for countries on a map. Can I draw a solid line then hyphenate it with PS? Can't figure out how.

Well, really the term is "dashed". I don't know about Photoshop, but in The GIMP, you would use the Path tool to set up a path, and then "Stroke Path" and set up the options you want for how the line should be drawn, including dash patterns. I believe Adobe calls their path tool the "pen tool" instead, just to be different from everyone else.

If you want to be able to manipulate lines as lines more easily, you could try a vector graphics editor like Inkscape. You can load up your map, draw vector objects on top and style them, then export back to a raster image you can use in Photoshop.

in photoshop, if you want a dashed line, press F5 to bring up the brush menu, choose a hard square brush, select the 'brush tip shape' sub menu and by dragging the handles on the picture of the circle with the arrow, flatten the square into a rectangle. check the spacing button and drag the slider up to taste. Next open the 'shape dynamics' menu. Set the angle jitter to 0 and the control to 'direction'. All other values at 0%. That should give you what you are looking for. I only have CS4 but I think that 7 may have the same controls.

PS7 has the same controls... I still can't bring myself to upgrade This is how I do dashed lines.

(Confirmed PhotoShop 7 Referance)

Thanks for asking this question, by the way, because I just learned something! I've always just used paths in gimp (the method Hai-Etlik gave) and then imported them into photoshop after the fact if I needed them there.

Thanks for the info guys! It worked, not well, but worked. I will try Gimp, see if it comes out how I want.

Galendae

Thanks from me, too Gonna try it now!

You can also use the Pen tool to create a path, then stroke it with your dashed-line brush. That might make a somewhat cleaner line, and you can edit the line with the Direct Selection tool to get it exactly where you want it before you stroke it.

To make the stroke, activate the Direct Selection tool, and right-click. Choose "Stroke Path." You may also wish to save your path for later use if you decide you want to change the line later on. Go to the Paths palette and drag the "Work Path" down to the New Path icon. The path will still be editable, too.