Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Digital Photography

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Photoshop Elements: Straight Lines, Dotted Lines and Borders

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Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6

August 28, 2008

Use the Shift key with the Line tool or the Brush tool to draw a straight line. Use the Shift key with the Brush tool to create a dotted line or a decorative border.

Straight line

Draw a Straight Line

You can draw a straight line with the Line tool or the Brush tool.

To draw a straight line with the Line tool:

  1. Select the Line tool.
  2. Click-and-hold where you want the line to begin, then press and hold the Shift key.
  3. Drag the line in the direction you want it to go.
  4. Release the mouse button first, then release the Shift key.

To draw a straight line with the Brush tool:

  1. Select the Brush tool.
  2. Select a small hard square brush.
  3. On the options bar, change the size of the brush, if desired.
  4. Click where you want the line to begin, then press and hold the Shift key.
  5. Click where you want to line to end, then release the Shift key.

Dotted line

Draw a Dotted Line

To draw a dotted line:

  1. Select the Brush tool.
  2. Select a small hard round brush.
  3. On the options bar, change the size of the brush, if desired.
  4. On the options bar, click the paintbrush icon at the far right to open the Brush options dialogue box.

  5. In the Brush options dialogue box, select the following options:

    1. Set Fade, Hue Jitter, and Scatter to 0.
    2. Set Spacing to 125% or more. Spacing is a percentage of the brush diameter and determines the distance between brush marks. Increase this setting to increase the distance between dots.

    Brush options
  6. Click where you want the dotted line to begin, then press and hold the Shift key.
  7. Click where you want to line to end, then release the Shift key.

Hearts border

Draw a Decorative Border

You can use decorative brushes to create a straight border for your creations. This example uses a heart brush that was created from a custom shape.

To draw a decorative border:

  1. Select the Brush tool.
  2. Select a decorative brush.
  3. On the options bar, change the size of the brush, if desired.
  4. On the options bar, click the paintbrush icon at the far right to open the Brush options dialogue box.

  5. In the Brush options dialogue box, select the following options:

    1. Set Fade, Hue Jitter, and Scatter to 0.
    2. Set Spacing to 125% or more. Spacing is a percentage of the brush diameter and determines the distance between brush marks. Increase this setting to increase the distance between dots.

    Brush options
  6. Click where you want the decorative line to begin, then press and hold the Shift key.
  7. Click where you want to line to end, then release the Shift key.

Tips

You can define a new brush that is preset to create a decorative border. To learn how to create a custom border brush, see Make a Brush From a Custom Shape. To learn how to save brush sets, see How to Save Brush Sets.

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Updated on August 4, 2011