Tutorial: combining paths in Photoshop

Cat's a bit of a wiz on Illustrator but can sometimes get frustrated when trying to use that
programme's equivalent tools in Photoshop. Take the pen tool; a great device for creating beautifully
curved lines. But why oh why doesn't it act the same in Photoshop as it does Illustrator? For example,
when drawing a curved line, if you want to turn a sharp corner instead of continuing the curve, in
Illustrator you have to click on your node to lose a bezier handlebefore continuing with the line. In
PS, you have to alt+click. It took Cat quarter of an hour to find this out, trawling through a very
lengthy, but informative, pen tutorial.
Follow up:
Deciding to use a combination of the pen tool and CS5's brilliant magic wand Cat hoped to create an
accurate path with which to precisely cut a beetle from its background. She diligently created a path
around the beetle's body (path shown yellow) then, using the wand selection, selected its antenna
(path shown red) and then its legs (path shown blue). By using different methods of selection, she
ended up with several different paths. Having created and named her three paths, she wanted to
combine them, like a virtual beetle drive. After another hour of internet research she eventually
found what she was was looking for. To save you the frustration, here it is. Please note: the paths
have been coloured for reference, you won't see them like this in your version of Photoshop.

Combining paths in Photoshop

Click on one of your paths in the paths palette. Copy it (edit>copy or Cmd/Ctrl+C). Then click on
another path in the paths palette and paste the first path into it (edit>paste or Cmd/Ctrl+V). Both
your paths will be on the same path. Continue until all of your paths are in the same path. You can
see that they are by checking the paths' thumbnail and you will also be able to see the paths on your
image. (You can increase the size of the thumbnail by choosing 'Panel options' from the right-hand
menu - click on the tiny arrow). Cat has coloured the paths magenta in the screen grab below (so you
can see them) and renamed the path thumbnail 'outline'.

Now combine the paths. This is where PS and Illy do coincide. Use your path select tool (the black
arrow) and drag it across all of your paths to select them. Choose the first option in the pathfinder
options (see below) and then click the 'combine' button. Et voila, your paths are now a single path!

Press Cmd/Ctrl+click to select the path in the paths palette then go back to your layers palette. You
should see the 'marching ants' walking along the edge of your shape. Making sure you are in the
correct layer, click Ctrl+C to copy the image and Ctl+N to create a new document and Ctrl+V to paste
your cut-out image. Or invert the selection and delete the background. Add a touch of gradient
overlay and create a whole new species!

Published: 19th December 2010 by Cat.

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Categories: How to

4 comments
Comment from: Jason Fonceca
This helped a lot, like Jess above, I was spending time trying to figure it out, thanks!
23rd September, 2014
Comment from: cat
Thanks for your comment, bijutoha. The new selection. add to selection, subtract from selection
and intersect with selection work the same whether youre in lasso or pen or other selection tool.
Hope that helps.
23rd August, 2013
Comment from: bijutoha

Nice information , Just I have a doubt about Pathfinder Options . As I know these options are included
with Shape and Pen tools, but while I select the Selection and Lasso Tools (under the Move Tool) I
saw Pathfinder Options available there also .
So could you tell me please how to use them by Selection and Lasso Tools ?