Photoshop dashed lines help

[Charlie Croker]

Hi there - I have been trying to get CS5 to draw some dashed lines for me around an arrow. I have been trying with Path shapes and Marquees.

I know how to use brushes to create a dashed line of sorts, for example, when you want to simple have a brush to draw a line across the page.

I also know how to use brushes to with paths, right click and stroke path.

But what I can't get working is to do it with any finesse. For example, if you want a nice dashed line around an arrow, the effect isn't particularly appealing using the above methods. Where the dashed line breaks for the gap, the angle of the break isn't angular to the shape of the arrow. By adjusting the scale didn't approve things.

If I use a small square brush with even spacing, the effect around the arrow isn't particularly appealing, it seems uneven and doesn't produce the long line short gap effect.

Any experts out there? Here are some failures:

Dasshed lines should be more like this:

 

[autacraft]

The simple answer is dont use photoshop Im afraid! It does a really poor job of consistent spacing and cornering.

You'd be far better using illustrator for this, or InDesign/QuarkXPress will manage clean and precise dotted/dashed lines too.

If you don't have access to those, and you must use PS, the only options you have is to play with the spacing under "Brush Tip Shape" in the big Brushes Palette, and you could also tweak the Angle Jitter setting under Shape Dynamics.

"Direction" will cause the orientation of the brushtip shape to follow the direction of the line you'rre drawing or the path you're stroking.

Good luck!

 

[Charlie Croker]

I went over to Illustrator, which I was trying to avoid and produced this arrow. It's OK but wondered if you can move the origin of the dashed line starting position, because when it kicks off from a corner or point, it can end up leaving a gap at an important change. I also noticed a small 'crack' in the dashed line on the right of the arrow head - peculiar.

Any way, I'm still keen to find a quality Photoshop solution if someone knows how.

 

[autacraft]

Just bring up your 'stroke' commands box and alter the parameters such as dash and gap sizes (you'll find this drastically alters the flow of the line when you change the actual stroke line width).

Its a case of tailoring the 'fit' of the dashes until you are happy.

You can also try different 'corners' within the same commands box.