Art Need help with vectors.

[DBZgirl88]

Is there a way to create your own custom shape in photoshop?

I would like to select the black words in an image and turn them into a vector graphic/custom shape, so that I can resize it without losing quality. Anyone know how to do this?

So far I know how to select the words using 'select ---> color range' but I don't know what to do from there. Please help!

Edited July 5, 2013 by DBZgirl

[Brasil]

It's been a while since I've had to work with vectors, but...apart from the "select color range" option...I don't think there's any way in Photoshop to do what you're looking to do. I know Adobe Illustrator has some fantastic vectoring tools (and outlining like what you want to do is so incredibly easy in Illustrator).

But as far as I can remember, Photoshop is pixel-based, so vectoring isn't something it's designed for. Closest you can get is selecting the white, then going "Inverse," or trying to manually isolate the black areas with the Polygon Lasso tool.

Now that I think about it, the polygon lasso tool is probably your best bet in Photoshop. That said, no matter how you select it in Photoshop, you're going to be losing image quality. For a really crude and rough explanation, It's going to be picking up the actual pixels, rather than the location of the pixels.

So...yeah. Unless someone knows some more tricks with Photoshop, I'm not sure you have many options when it comes to actual vectoring.

[DeadSeraphim]

[size=1][color=indigo][font=arial]It's kind of complex, but here goes.

Select the black. Select the free transform tool, and right click your selection -> Make working path. Delet the original layer, and resize the image to whatever size you need. Then go to the 'Paths' tab (in my Photoshop it's on the layers palette, after channels), right click the layer 'Work Path' and select 'fill path'. Should work, tell me if you have troubles.[/font][/color][/size]

[DBZgirl88]

[COLOR=#004a6f][QUOTE=Brasil]It's been a while since I've had to work with vectors, but...apart from the "select color range" option...I don't think there's any way in Photoshop to do what you're looking to do. I know Adobe Illustrator has some fantastic vectoring tools (and outlining like what you want to do is so incredibly easy in Illustrator).

But as far as I can remember, Photoshop is pixel-based, so vectoring isn't something it's designed for. Closest you can get is selecting the white, then going "Inverse," or trying to manually isolate the black areas with the Polygon Lasso tool.

Now that I think about it, the polygon lasso tool is probably your best bet in Photoshop. That said, no matter how you select it in Photoshop, you're going to be losing image quality. For a really crude and rough explanation, It's going to be picking up the actual pixels, rather than the location of the pixels.

So...yeah. Unless someone knows some more tricks with Photoshop, I'm not sure you have many options when it comes to actual vectoring.[/QUOTE]I played around with photoshop a bit and figured it out. You're right, the quality of the vector/path really sucks!

Actually, I do have illustrator, but haven't tried using it yet (stupid me). So can you tell me how to do it in illustrator?[/COLOR]

[Delta]

[SIZE=1]I heard Illustrator's geared mainly for photo manipulation (for color balance, hue/saturation and all that jazz, yeah?) so you'd probably be better off with Photoshop. "Make work path from selection" just wont cut it; you gotta use the Pen tool. Tedious work but it does the job really well.[/SIZE]

[DeadSeraphim]

[COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial][quote name='Delta][SIZE=1']I heard Illustrator's geared mainly for photo manipulation (for color balance, hue/saturation and all that jazz, yeah?) so you'd probably be better off with Photoshop. "Make work path from selection" just wont cut it; you gotta use the Pen tool. Tedious work but it does the job really well.[/SIZE][/quote]
Illustrator is for vectors [u]Photo[/u]shop is for photos. You got mixed up, yo.

On a side note, I attached the results of my tinkering with make work path from selection. It's somewhat angular, but I think it did a decent job of making a small image into a good high quality big image.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Brasil]

[QUOTE=Chabichou][color=#004a6f]I played around with photoshop a bit and figured it out. You're right, the quality of the vector/path really sucks!

Actually, I do have illustrator, but haven't tried using it yet (stupid me). So can you tell me how to do it in illustrator?[/color][/QUOTE] Like I said, it's been a while (about 2 years now). I have a vague memory of using one of the Pen tools in Illustrator and adding points around the image, both on the outer contour and inner contour. Then I think it's all a matter of going to a normal selection mode, and selecting the entire vector line shape. Just be careful to not accidentally grab one of the points and skew it all to hell by accident, lol.