- First, open Photo Shop and create a new document. Since we are working with vector shapes dimensions don’t matter to much but give your self plenty of room to work.
- To start I created the letters “4″ and “S” with the Adobe Garamond Pro font at 200 pt for reference. I also changed the color to a light gray to make the letters easy to trace.
- Now, switch to the Pen Tool and change it’s options to shape layers. There is a way to automatically convert text to workable shapes but it does tend to be sloppy so we will create our own points.
- To start, I trace the letters with the pen tool using as little point as possible. I found that it is easiest to create as little points as possible and not try to manipulate to much until the next step. Look at the below image for reference.
Tip: It is possible to change the opacity of the shape layer while using the pen tool in the Layer Pallette to make tracing below layers easier.
- Now that all the points are in place switch to the Convert Point Tool in the pen tool menu.
- This tool does take some getting used to but look over the following to get a better understanding.
| Clicking on the control point and dragging out with your mouse gives the point handles which gives control over the curvature of the point. |
| Clicking on a control points handle lets you change the curvature of the handle independent of the rest of the point and opposite handle. This allows you to also have a curvature into a control point and a hard edge out of the point. |
| Clicking once on a control point that has handles will remove the handles and create a hard point. |
| Holding the “CRTL” key switches the tool to the Direct Selection Tool which allows you to easily move points around. |
- To add some detail to the letter use the Add Anchor point tool which is the same subset as the pen tool. I simply added a few points, adjusted handles, and moved surrounding point around the additional anchor to add some smooth detailing.
- Now that some detail is in we will add some off set lines. Switch to the Direct Selection Tool which is circled in the above image.
- In this case I will off-setting the lines on the right side of the letters. All you need to do is select the lines between the anchor points with the direct selection tool and do a copy/paste and move them a few pixels to the right . After the lines are pasted select the anchor points that are intersecting with the originals and move them into a better position. Don’t worry about the look of the image because they will not display correctly for the moment because the copied lines are not full shapes yet.
- Select the pasted offset line segments by the anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool and do a copy/paste and move them to the right a few pixels. Like before, a few of the anchor points will have to be moved so they do not intersect the original lines.
- To close the lines switch to the Pen Tool and select a open end point and then select it’s corresponding close point. The pen tool icon is very helpful in showing what action will be performed so pay attention for the pen icon with a small circle signifies a closing point.
- After closing all of the lines the Convert Point and Direct Selection Tool can be used to fix any anchor point handles that might need adjusting. I also went ahead and moved some of the Anchor Points to the right a few pixels to add more styling.
- The last thing I always do with my vector shapes is save them to the PS custom shape library so use the Path or Direct Selection tool to Highlight the whole object. Once selected go to the Edit menu and select define custom shape so the letter can be easily accessed and reused.
- The final image below has a default drop shadow and Bevel and Emboss layer style added to it.
I hope this tutorial was useful and we always enjoy comments and questions and will always keep suggestions to improve the 4 sided polygon content and site in mind. Thank You………..
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