How to Draw a Line on Photoshop: Draw & Combine Straight/Curved Lines

– How to Draw a Line on Photoshop-

How to Draw a Line on Photoshop: Photoshop is a versatile software providing powerful capabilities. The app allows the user to draw shapes, using multiple methods like straight and curved lines.

The method you choose largely depends on your choice and the bigger aim behind your drawing and media project.

Regardless, drawing a line in Photoshop with the arsenal of drawing tools available inside the software is simple.

In Photoshop, there’s no “right” way to draw lines — every artist and designer develops different methods over time, and they choose tools that feel comfortable.

Whether you are using the Line, Pen, or Brush tool, it can approach a creative project from a variety of different ways, and still come up with the same results. I

n this practical guide, we’ve shared how to draw straight lines in Photoshop, using the plethora of drawing tools included with the software.

How to Draw Lines Using Different Tools

The Line Tool

To find the Line tool, click and hold your mouse over the Rectangle tool in the main toolbar. This will bring up a submenu with more shape tools.

If you have any of the shape tools enabled, you can also select the Line tool from the top options menu.

So, why is the Line considered a shape tool? Essentially, the Line tool is just creating skinny rectangles, which look like lines because the Fill and Stroke colors are the same.

If you want your line to look hollow (like a rectangle), just turn off the Fill color.

Drawing straight lines is easy with the Line tool; just click and drag in any direction to create a new line.

If you’d like to draw a perfectly horizontal or vertical line, you can hold down the Shift key while dragging and Photoshop will take care of the rest.

Once you’ve learned how to draw straight lines in Photoshop, you can start experimenting with some advanced line options to create dotted or dashed lines.

To access these options, click the Stroke Options icon located on the left side of the Options bar, and then choose “More Options”.

Here, you can save custom line presets, enable dashed lines, and choose how long to make each dash and gap.

The Brush Tool

Next, the Brush tool is just as effective at drawing straight lines, and it offers more versatility than the Line tool if you want to create custom brush styles.

You’ll find the Brush tool in the main toolbar, located in a separate area from the shape tools.

Holding down Shift and drawing with the Brush tool allows you to create perfectly straight lines in any direction.

To create a shape with multiple line segments, you can hold Shift and draw a line, release the mouse, hold down Shift again, and then draw from the last line’s endpoint to create a new segment.

Just like the Line tool, the Brush has a variety of stroke settings that can be adjusted in the top options bar, including hardness, opacity, and brush style.

We recommend tweaking these settings before you start drawing any lines because the changes won’t apply retroactively to any brush strokes you’ve already made.

The Pen Tool

Finally, the Pen tool is extremely useful for drawing straight and curved lines. Click on the pen-shaped icon in the main toolbar to select the Pen, and then click once in your image to set a starting point, and click again to set an endpoint.

Photoshop will automatically create a straight line between the two points, no matter where they’re on the image.

If you hold down the Shift key while setting these points, you’ll create line segments with 45- and 90-degree angles.

Draw Straight Lines in Photoshop

Drawing a straight line is deceptively easy once you know how to. Here’s how to do it.

Open your image or a new blank document in Photoshop.
Select the Pen Tool from the toolbar or press P.
Select Path from the Options bar at the top.
Make sure Rubber Band is unchecked in Geometry Options.
Make sure Auto Add/Delete is checked.
Select Combine Paths.
Click once where you want your straight line to begin.
Move your cursor to where you want your straight line to end and click once.

You can also Delete them Individually Should you need to:

Select the Delete Anchor Point tool within the Pen tool on the toolbar.
Single-click the anchor point you want to remove.
Repeat for any others you want to remove.

You can add them the same way, just select Add Anchor Point instead of delete and click where you want to add it.

Draw Curved Lines in Photoshop

Select the Pen Tool from the toolbar.
Select Path mode again.
Click once on the page where you want your line to begin.
adjust the cursor slightly to one side and click and drag in the direction you want the curve to go to one side and click and drag in the direction you want the curve to go. You should see a line with two anchor points appear on either side of the main anchor point. You use these to change the angle of the curve.
Add points using the same process until your shape is complete.
Hold Ctrl and click to complete the path.

Drawing curved lines takes a little more practice than straight lines but once you get the hang of it becomes second nature.

Once you complete the path and hit Ctrl and click, the pen tool should change to have an asterisk next to it. This means it is ready for an alternative path.

Combine Straight and Curved Lines in Photoshop

Now we know how to create a straight line in Photoshop and a curve, let us combine the two. Again, it’s a straightforward process that becomes simple once you know how to.

Select the Pen Tool from the toolbar.
Select Path mode.
Draw a straight line using the technique above.
Set the cursor to where you want to draw a curve and hold down Alt or Option.
Click once and drag the cursor in the direction of the curve.
Press Alt and drag the cursor to draw more curves.
Press Alt but click once where you would want a straight line to appear.
Click once while holding Alt where you want your straight line to end.
Hold Ctrl and click to complete the path.

You can apparently use Shape instead of Path to create lines in Photoshop. Hopefully, this helps you too!

Drawing a line, either straight or curved on photoshop is really easy. This is really one basic of photoshops (How to Draw a Line on Photoshop).

You can use any tool which seems easier for you and you’re good to go, enjoying your photoshop experience.

There is never a time that isn’t right to help. If this information was useful to you, do well to share it with friends and loved ones.

It’s your turn to help other people. You can share this article on your favorite social media handle.