I want to draw a circle. I select a color, then draw my circle using the shape tool.
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Can I later change the color of that circle?
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Is there a way to draw several circles and ensure that they are the same size?
Thanks!
mmm
For number 2 I believe you can draw one, then copy and paste.
If you have every circle on a layer, you can go to Layers - Style - Color Overlay and it will change the color of everything in that layer to whatever you chose.
Your best bet is to make a black circle of whatever size you want, then copy - paste it to a new layer, then add color overlay to each one to make them whatever color you want.
Photoshop is not a good tool in which to create elements and then try to change their characteristics. You *can *do it, in several ways, but if you want editable elements, you want something more like Illustrator.
Thanks all.
Let me ask this slightly differently.
I want around 30 circles, all the same size, in three different colors.
So, 10 red, 10, blue, 10 yellow.
This can be done in three layers, yes?
Thanks again,
mmm
ETA: I have Photoshop but not Illustrator. I also have Publisher - not sure if that would be better?
Once you have one circle drawn of each color, you can cut and paste copies of them, either to one layer, one layer for each color or one layer for each circle. The last would let you move the items around most flexibly.
Generally, Photoshop is to manipulate whole layers of imagery at once, while Illustrator is to manipulate individual elements easily. Neither does the other job very well but you can work around each’s limitations to some degree if you have to.
Publisher is not a very good tool for anything but slightly fancier newsletter layout than Word permits.
If I understand what you’re after, there’s no need to draw your circle more than once. All you need is the elliptical shape tool. It’s much easier than the volume of text required to explain how to do it below might suggest!
To draw a circle (instead of a random oval):
At the desired center point of your circle, click and hold your mouse without moving it.
Press and hold down the Command, Option and Shift keys (yes, all three together!).
Then (while still holding keys down), drag your mouse/cursor till the outlined circle is the desired size.
Release your mouse, and the circle will be automatically filled in with whatever your foreground color is.
** Remember that you have to click & hold your mouse before you press the triple keys, or you won’t get a circle. **
To change the color:
On the layers palette, double-click the color on your circle’s layer, and the pull color picker will appear.
Click the color you want, et voilá! The change is immediately reflected in your circle, so you can try out different colors, before you finalize your choice by clicking OK.
Two ways to copy your circle:
- Select the layer your circle is on. Click Command-j and an identical adjustment layer with a new circle will be created above the first one.
2… Select the layer your circle is own. On the Layers drop down menu, go down to “Rasterize” and click “Shape” in the side-menu which appears. You will end up with a flat circle on an ordinary layer. To copy it, just press Command-j as before, or select/copy/paste the circle wherever you want it.
Whichever option you use, your new circles will end up on their own separate layers, where you can move them around individually. If you want to combine multiple layers, just select all the ones you want to merge, and press Command-e.
You can probably do all this & more using the vector mask/shape layer initially created by the shape tool, but I personally find working with adjustment layers a little confusing.
Hope that helps. I’ve discovered more time-saving operations in response to basic questions asked of other users, than I’ve ever learned from Adobe. Seeking answers on their website support pages is the stuff of nightmares.
The only problem with Photoshop shapes is that they’re fairly primitive, and I can never seem to get very far before they have to be rasterized, losing their unique capabilities. But for drawing a pattern of 30 circles, yeah, they’ll serve.
What, finally, do you want to do with these circles? Print them? Add them to a document? Add text? Just save them? The method you use to create them depends on how you’ll use them.
This is just for a logo that will appear on a screen, unlikely to be printed.
Thanks to all, especially JM Hanes for going above and beyond.
mmm
Aside from the fact that it’s an Adobe app, my pet peeve is the abysmal way Photoshop renders plain old typed text (which actually seems to have gotten worse than it used to be). I can hardly remember the last time that basic legibility didn’t require remedial work. Other apps do it better, of course, but I use PShop because I work with, well… photos.
Mean Mr. M.
Glad to be able passalong some of what’s been passed along to me!
It is actually simpler than that:
If you haven’t done so already, create a new layer
- Select the ellipse shape tool
- Place your cursor where you want to start your circle and hold down just the shift key
- Click and hold your mouse and the Drag it down diagonally
Voila. Perfect circle.
The advantage of using the triple key combo is that it locates your cursor at the center point of the circle, which remains fixed as you drag outward. This is particularly handy if you’re trying to work with concentric circles, or draw a circle around something else, or represent something like the arc of a swinging door.
In shift dragging, the circle only expands in the direction your cursor is moving, and the center point travels accordingly, as the circle gets bigger. That means you can’t mark a center point before you drag – or find one ex post facto either, alas. I assume that method has its uses, but it’s always seemed counterintuitive to me.
Yes, I know all of that, and I am sure the OP appreciates having an understanding of the method you described, but if all he wants to do is draw a circle for subsequent manipulation, the method I described is quick and simple; no concerns about multiple key combinations. Anyway, both methods achieve the same result of a circle in a layer that can be duplicated, after all.
I did not know that.
I have been using Photoshop for over 15 years and there are still basic functions that I have never discovered.
Photoshop isn’t for rendering plain old typed text. If you’re going to hate on “Adobe apps” at least hate on each of them for their real flaws and not because InDesign does shitty video and Fireworks garbles audio tracks.
Two tips:
(1) Reread the sections of the manual or online help that list all of the menu options, shortcut keys etc. every so often. Each time, you will find at least one thing that improves your daily usage of the tool - something that didn’t make sense or seem useful the last time you read it.
(2) On any large project, aim to learn one new command, technique, shortcut or process that’s different from your usual toolbox.
These add up to long-term mastery of the non-obvious tools and capabilities.
I just want to add that after you make the first circle, switch to the Move Tool (v) and then alt-drag the first circle to copy it exactly. It’s usually faster than copying and pasting.
There’s no reason to mess with adjustment layers because the circles are already created as vector objects. You can select one or more of them with the move tool, and then switch back to the ellipse tool, to change their color whenever you want. It may not be Illustrator, but it’s still a functional vector tool.
If you were going to do a lot of these (more than 30) you could also make the circle into a “brush” and “paint” with it all over the canvas, but that’s more effort than is necessary in this case.
This is true. Although it’s worth mentioning that there are a half-dozen or so type rendering options for those times that setting text is unavoidable. I have yet to find the situation were at least one of those options doesn’t get the job done.
I know a lot of amateur through occasional users will typeset blocks of text as part of a photo or composition, and while PS has tools for that purpose, they are optimized for high-resolution printing and not screen or 300dpi laser output. Small type created in PS as part of a 150-300dpi image is going to be soft at best and jagged the rest of the time.