Expert: LizaL - 1/6/2006

Question
Dear Lizal,
  first of all in a thank you again for your incredible advice on how to use the pen tool.  I find it much more accurate than any of the lasso tools or the magic wand.  If you could give me a step by step explanations of the above two tools and their appropriate application free-form pen tool and the convert pen tool. I would be most grateful.  To refresh your memory I am using Photoshop No. 7 on Windows XP and and Epson 1280 printer a canon 4000 FS scanner.  My
Photos and liability to manipulate them has increased 100 percent since I started communicating with you.  I hope you are teaching graphics in a college or some sort of art school.  I look forward to your reply on the above mentioned two tools.  Also wishing you a happy and healthy new year.  Respectfully Stewart Arno


Answer
Hi Stewart,

First of all, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. Let's just say it's the "post-holiday rush," since the holidays are over! Hope you had a nice holiday season.

You're absolutely right about the pen tool. It is such an accurate way of defining a path. Some people don't like it because it's more tedious than the magic wand or the lasso, but it guarantees accuracy, and that's what I'm usually looking for.

Now about the freeform pen tool -- it lets you draw a path just as if you were drawing with a pen on paper. The anchor points are added to the line automatically as you draw. Now, you won't be able to determine where these points are positioned, but you can adjust them once the path is complete.

You can also draw single lines with the freeform pen tool. One application for this might be for drawing a line that you want to apply type to, so that the type follows that path.

And in addition to using it to create paths based on the contents of an image, you can use the freeform tool to draw your own shapes.

The freeform pen tool works like the regular pen tool. Just choose it from the tool palette, and draw. Then you'll see what I mean about it being so similar to a regular three-dimensional pen.

What are the advantages? Well, I think the freeform pen tool is good for what might be your first "pass" at drawing a path in conjunction with a photo; say, if you were needing to draw a path to isolate something like a mountain range. You could simply draw and make this "rough" path, knowing that points are being added as you draw (even though you can't see them), and then you can go back and tighten up your path.

Using this example, I drew a path that isolated part of some clouds in a photo -- and after I did that, with the freeform pen still selected, I pressed the Command key -- Alt key for you -- and turned my pen tool into the direct selection tool (the hollow arrow). This showed me the points of my path, and I was able to tweak their positions, and adjust the handles around the points. (Of course, you can always just choose the direct selection tool from the tool palette -- the selection tools are just above the pen tools. Holding down Alt is just a quick keyboard command.)

Like this:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/freeform1.mov

Now the convert point tool comes into play. See the path I drew, and how jaggy it is? The convert point tool lets me change the nature of a line by changing the points that make up the line. That is, I can take those jaggy, angular parts of the path I drew and by using the convert point tool, make them into curves.

In the example above, I drew my path, obtained the direct selection tool, and then tweaked by dragging points. I can go one better by selecting my path, then selecting the convert point tool, and clicking and dragging on the point(s) whose paths I want to alter into curves.

Like this:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/convertpoint.mov

Now, I made some exaggerated twists and turns there, but I wanted to show you how the convert point tool changes an angle into a curve. You can also see how it lets you pull out the handles on either side of a point, and you can pull those handles to curve the line.

One more thing to add about the freeform pen tool: You can make it "magnetic" by checking the Magnetic box in the options area at the top of your Photoshop screen. Once you do that, it acts like the magnetic lasso, really; it snaps to the strongest edge. You can change the way it does this, if you like, by clicking the arrow at the right of the shapes in the top of your Photoshop screen. For Contrast, enter a percentage value between 1 and 100 to specify the contrast between pixels that are required to be recognized as an edge. Use a higher value for low contrast images. For Frequency, enter a value between 0 and 100 to specify the rate at which the Pen sets anchor points. A higher value anchors the path in place more quickly.

Here's that tool in action:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/magneticpen.mov


Well, I hope this helps -- and as always, if you need me to clarify something, just post back!

Thank you for the nice things you've said; I'm glad to help you. BTW, I taught commercial art and graphic design at a college for 10 years, and within that realm taught Photoshop, ever since version 2. I teach privately now.

Best wishes for a happy new year!

Lisa