Written by Steve Patterson. When it comes to making selections in Photoshop, there’s really two types of people – those who know how to use the Pen Tool, and those who struggle. Most people put off learning how to use the Pen Tool for as long as possible, while others never get around to learning it, believing it’s just too confusing, too complicated, and just plain unnatural. Ultimately, their work in Photoshop suffers for it, since they’re stuck relying on the Lasso Tool for just about everything they can’t select with the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee Tools. In thisAdobe Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to put an end to the suffering. We’re going to learn just how easy it really is to make selections with the Pen Tool.
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Now, when I say "easy", I don’t mean you’re going to read this tutorial and be instantly transformed into a Pen Master. Learning how to use the Pen Tool is a lot like learning how to ride a bike. Once you’ve learned, it will seem completely natural and you’ll wonder how anyone could possibly not know how to use something so simple. But getting to that point requires a little practice and effort, and while reading every book there is on how to ride a bike may teach you the fundamentals of how the pedals, gears and brakes work, it’s not until you’re on the bike struggling to keep your balance that the real learning begins.
One of the great things about the Pen Tool is that it’s not something that’s exclusive to Photoshop. Far from it! Virtually every popular photo editing, graphics and page layout program uses the Pen Tool in one form or another , so once you’ve learned how to use it in Photoshop, you’ll already have a good understanding of how to use it in lots of other programs as well!
Where Do I Find The Pen Tool?
Before we start talking about what the Pen Tool is or how to use it, we should look at where to find it in Photoshop first. You’ll find the Pen Tool in the Tools palette, grouped in with the Shape Tools, the Type Tool, and the Path Selection (the white arrow) and Direct Selection (the black arrow) Tools (see the image on the left).