What's the Vector, Victor?

(or Raster vs. Vector Graphics)

You have heard about the "vector shapes"

capabilities of Photoshop, even if only on the
packaging that came with the program. What is
all of this and even more importantly, how will it
affect you and the way you work?

This tutorial, which is written with beginners in

mind, will show some of the attributes of
shapes in Photoshop version 6 or 7. Most of
this is good for Photoshop Elements 2, as well.

Along the way, you will learn about or practice

the following ideas and skills:

A. Vector graphics vs. Raster graphics

B. Making a Raster shape
C. Making a filled Shape Path (Vector shape)
D. Rasterizing a Vector shape

You will also work with these skills: Saving a

Though little of this will be directly useful to you file, Making a new layer; Naming a layer; Using
if your Photoshop is a version earlier than v.6, the color picker; Duplicating a layer; Using
you may want to read this anyway, to prove to some keyboard shortcuts; Making
yourself WHY you want to upgrade! transformations; Using the Pen tool; Playing
with Paths.

A. Vector Graphics? Raster graphics?

Raster graphics (called "simplified" graphics in
Elements) are what have been traditionally
associated with Photoshop. An image in raster
graphics is defined by its pixels. If you make a
star in raster graphics and then do a
transformation to make it bigger, Photoshop
will pull the pixels out as you tell it to, but then
it has to fill in the gaps. In other words, it will
give you a star, but the edges will be quite
blurred.

(An enlarged rasterized star point. When you

enlarge a raster graphic, you lose detail.)
Vector graphics are different from raster
graphics in some significant ways. A vector
graphic is a mathematical definition of an
image. It is independent of size or color. It is
just a definition of its shape. You tell it you
want a circle, it gives you a circle. You make it
bigger? Ok.. then you have a bigger circle. Still
crisp. Still a circle. Each point on the outside is
a fixed distance from the center. It is
independent of pixels.

This is why logos have to be made in vector

graphics.A logo on a matchbook and a logo on
(Vector star -- No matter what size you make it,
a billboard each need to be precise and crisp.
it will maintain this crispness)
Let's make some shapes to better illustrate the
difference between raster and vector graphics.
With Photoshop 6, you can do both!

B. Making a Raster shape.
• File -> New .. and make your new
canvas pretty big, but big enough that it
fits on your screen, maybe 500 pixels x
500 pixels. Choose RGB mode in the
box that comes up and 72 ppi for your
resolution. Contents? White.
• File -> Save As.. Leave your file in psd
format and name it rastervector or
something equally clever.
• Now choose the Ellipse tool in the flyout
from the Shape Tool or in the Shape
Option bar(See below).
• In the options bar at the top, you see,
after the reset button, the three little
buttons there together for new shape
layer, New Work Path, and Filled
Region. Let's do a Filled Region first, so
click on that.
The Layer Style selector there in the middle of the Shape Tool Options Bar also shows up in the options bar when you are doing a shape layer with the
pen tool. Layer Styles are a pretty neat topic all on their own, so I'll save that discussion for another tutorial.

* Experimentation *

• Make a new layer by clicking on the

"New Layer" icon at the bottom of the
Layers Palette. Opposite click (right-
click) this layer, choose Layer
Properties, name the layer
"experiments" and click OK.
• Put your cursor on the canvas and drag
out some ellipses.

• As you drag, try clicking the shift key on

your keyboard. What happens? How
about when you hold alt down as you
drag your ellipse? Experiment with this
a bit. After you have had your fun, Ctrl-s
to save, then turn off the eye on this
layer to make it invisible.

• Now click on the foreground colour on

the color picker squares and choose
your favourite colour.
•
• Make a new layer by clicking the New
Layer icon in the Layers Palette. Name
this layer "Raster."
• With the "create filled region button still
selected, drag out a small ellipse.
• In the layers palette, drag the Raster
layer to the New Layer icon. Now there
are two! Opposite click the top one and
change its name to "Raster - enlarged."

Ctrl-S to Save.
 • Now in the top menu choose Edit ->
Free Transform. You will see a bounding
box with handles appear around your
ellipse. Grab one of the corners and
hold shift down. This constrains your
proportions. Drag your ellipse as big as
you can so that it fits in the canvas.
Click Enter to apply the transformation.

Eeek! What happened to your nice crisp

edges?

Ctrl-s to Save.

C. Making a Vector shape.

• Now let's do this again, but with a

difference. Make a new layer as you did
before, naming it "Vector."

• Choose the ellipse tool again, but this

time, in the options bar, choose New
Shape Layer. Drag your ellipse out as
before, making it small to start.
Notice the tiny black line around the outside of
your ellipse? This is the vector path. You can
toggle the path off and on by clicking on the
right-hand box in your layers palette for that
shape layer.

• Ok.. but now here is one of the cool

things: Edit -> Free Transform Path and
hold shift as you drag your bounding
box out large as you did before. Toggle
your path off and look at our boy Vector
compared to Raster.

How are these two different? What is going on

here?

Actually, Vector just LOOKS like an ellipse.

What he actually is, is an editable path, which
only fills in when you tell him to! You can use
the arrow tool to select the path and then drag
handles out on the anchor points, drag the
anchor points, and mangle this thing all out of
its ellipseness. We will do that in Part H below
when we make it into a teardrop.

You can also change the color. Double click

the color thumbnail in the layers palette and
choose a different colour just to see how this
works.

Ctrl-s to save.

(You may have noticed that, after you did your

ellipse shape layer, there appeared a collection
of icons with little overlapping squares just to
the right of your ellipse in the options bar. We'll
explore those in another tutorial... soon!)

Ok, now pick your eraser from the toolbox and

erase a chunk out of the middle of your ellipse.
You can't? Why not?

Well then... grab a paintbrush and paint a rim

around it. .. Why is this not working?

I'll answer this one for you. <g> Here's why

not: Because the colored region of this vector
shape is still changeable; it does not contain
actual pixels till you tell them that you are done
changing the shape as a path.

There are some changes you can make either

to the SHAPE of the object or to the COLOR of
the object. But pixel changes like erasing and
painting, you can't do unless the shape is
rasterized!

D. Rasterizing the Shape.

You rasterize the shape by going to Layer ->

Rasterize -> Shape. (In Elements, you click the
Simplify button in the Options bar.)

Go ahead and do this and test out your

paintbrush to show yourself that it still works!

In Photoshop, the images you output will be

rasterized. That is, you will be outputting
pixels. However, your work in progress can be
in vector format. What's the advantage in this?

Well, suppose you have done a logo in vector

format. Once you have the vector art done,
you can enlarge it, shrink it, or even alter its
shape.... and then fill it with pixels, an outline,
or a layer style. This preserves the integrity of
your logo's outline, whether you are making
your logo for a matchbook or a billboard!
Vector shapes can also be made into Custom
Shapes for Photoshop. We'll learn more about
that in the third part of this tutorial, Using and
Creating Custom Shapes.

http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/shapes6/shapes6.htm