This figure shows the difference between a dashed line created in Photoshop (top) and one created in Adobe Illustrator (bottom). Remember, however, that these dashes will not follow the paths of the cursor, but instead stay oriented to the page. In addition to the Brush (Paintbrush in Photoshop 6), Pencil, History, Art History, and Eraser tools, you use brushes with the stamp, focus, and toning tools. Once you’ve created your dashed line, you can use it with any brush-related tool. Give the new brush a distinctive name, one that reflects both its size and purpose. You can use the Rectangular Marquee tool to create the shape-make sure that Feathering is set to zero in the Options Bar. (Photoshop 6 doesn’t allow you to change the Roundness value for non-round brushes.) Create a rectangle of the size of your dashes, fill with black, and use the menu command Edit> Define Brush. In Photoshop 6, you must first define a small rectangle as a brush and then adjust the spacing. (Think of Photoshop’s brushes as applying the brush tip many times close together as you drag, rather than as a continuous stream of color, like an ink pen.) And, of course, the “dash” doesn’t need to be at 50% roundness.ĭon’t forget that you can make vertical dashed lines rather than horizontal by changing the Angle setting in the Brushes palette to 90 degrees.

Increasing the Spacing moves each “instance” of the brush tip imprint farther apart. Reducing the Roundness makes a square brush flat. And what if the Brushes palette is grayed out and unavailable? Switch to a brush-using tool, such as the Brush tool (press B on the keyboard). The small Brushes palette found at the left end of the Options Bar is for brush selection, not brush editing or creation. Remember that you need to open the Brushes palette from the Palette Well or the Window menu (or the F5 key). Here’s what you need to see in the Photoshop 7 Brushes palette: Combined with Roundness in Photoshop 7, you can change a square brush into a dashed line quickly. The key to dashed lines is the Spacing option. While Photoshop doesn’t offer a dashed line option, such as that found in Illustrator’s Stroke palette, you can easily simulate them by editing a brush in the Brushes palette.

Square brush in photoshop