While Photoshop doesnt offer a dashed line option, such as that found in

Illustrators Stroke palette, you can easily simulate them by editing a brush in
the Brushes palette.

The key to dashed lines is the Spacing option. Combined with Roundness in Photoshop
7, you can change a square brush into a dashed line quickly. Heres what you need
to see in the Photoshop 7 Brushes palette:

Remember that you need to open the Brushes palette from the Palette Well or the
Window menu (or the F5 key). The small Brushes palette found at the left end of the
Options Bar is for brush selection, not brush editing or creation. 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).

Reducing the Roundness makes a square brush flat. Increasing the Spacing moves each
instance of the brush tip imprint farther apart. (Think of Photoshops 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 doesnt
need to be at 50% roundness.

Dont forget that you can make vertical dashed lines rather than horizontal by
changing the Angle setting in the Brushes palette to 90 degrees.

In Photoshop 6, you must first define a small rectangle as a brush and then adjust
the spacing. (Photoshop 6 doesnt 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. You can use the Rectangular Marquee tool
to create the shape-make sure that Feathering is set to zero in the Options Bar.

Give the new brush a distinctive name, one that reflects both its size and purpose.

Once youve created your dashed line, you can use it with any brush-related tool.
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.

Remember, however, that these dashes will not follow the paths of the cursor, but
instead stay oriented to the page. This figure shows the difference between a
dashed line created in Photoshop (top) and one created in Adobe Illustrator
(bottom). The Illustrator dashes follow the path no matter how it curves.

The orientation of the dashes to the path in Photoshop is insignificant when a

symmetrical brush is used. A round brush, for example, never seems to be mis-
oriented.

When you do need to curve a dashed line, remember the Shear filter (Filter>
Distort> Shear). You can bend and twist a straight line. To save a step, draw the
line vertically (the filter works only horizontally). Its also usually a good idea
to have the dashed line on a separate layer and have no active selection.

The Shear filter enables you to bend and twist. Click on the vertical line in the
preview window to add an anchor point and drag. You can place several points as
necessary. And if youll be working close to the edge of the window, click the
button for Repeat Edge Pixels.

After applying the filter, the bent dashed line can be rotated and otherwise
transformed.

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