Select the Line tool
Create lines and arrows using the Line tool in Photoshop.
Watch the short video below to learn how to draw lines and arrows in Photoshop.
Read the full article to understand the step details. Start with selecting any of these topics to learn more:
The Line Tool allows you to draw a two-point line on the canvas. Lines can be drawn as vector shapes, paths, or pixels. Choose Shape mode if you want to make a non-destructive, scalable line that you can edit at a later date. Choose Pixels mode when working with rasterized content such as pixel art.
Follow these quick steps to draw a line:
Select the Line tool
From the toolbar, click and hold the Shape tool () group icon to bring up the various shape tool choices. Select the Line tool.
Set the width of your line
Shape mode:
Set the width of a shape line with the Weight settings in the options bar. For best results, ensure the Align setting in the Stroke options is set to Center or Outside. The stroke weight will not be visible if Inside alignment is selected.
Set the color and thickness of the stroke in the options bar. You can also set the width of your line without a stroke.
A. Set stroke thickness B. Set line width
Path or Pixels Mode:
Set the width of your pixel line in the options bar by setting the Weight.
Pixels mode and Weight are not available for the Line tool in Photoshop version 22.0-22.2
Click and drag
Click on the canvas, drag, and release to create a line. To constrain the line angle to a multiple of 45 degrees, hold down shift as you drag and draw the line.
A. Set various attributes and properties of the line tool by clicking on Stroke Options B. More Options
Line Mode
Fill color
Stroke color
Stroke width
Weight
More Options
Line Mode
Mode
Opacity
Weight
Click the gear icon () on the Line tool options bar and select Live Shapes Controls to enable on canvas transform controls. This allows you to rotate and resize lines from the canvas. This will also scale the arrowheads.
Transform and Appearance settings can also be set from the Properties panel. This can be enabled on the main menu from Window > Properties.
To create an arrow, you simply add arrowheads to a line. After creating a line and setting the stroke color and width, click the gear icon () on the Line tool options bar. To add an arrow at the beginning of your line, Check Start; to add an arrow at the end of your line, check End. To add arrows to both ends, check both Start and End.
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