By Chris Malinao

As it turns out, there’s an easy way to understand and use the Pen Tool in Photoshop. For years, I struggled with it and had been frustrated trying to use it, until I found the easier way to understand the pesky Pen Tool. Once I understood this, I can use the Pen Tool confidently to draw complex paths and shapes with it. If you grasp this, you will become master of the Pen tool.

But first, why was it so difficult? It was Adobe’s fault that they presented it in a confusing way. But then again maybe they had to, to show it up front, for completeness, for technical reasons, or whatever; perhaps they felt they had to present the Pen Tool and its many functions. The gross thing they did was to present the Pen Tool along with all of its boisterous gang: The Pen Tool itself, then the Freeform Tool, Curvature Pen Tool, Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool, and the Convert Point Tool. Perhaps Adobe felt we have to learn about all those, too, in one go. Of course, those are all functions of the Pen Tool, but what they should have done, in my opinion, was to just present only the Pen Tool itself. And then, show that in conjunction with the CTRL and ALT keys, that darn Pen Tool can do all those other functions!

I tried for years to use it and gave up, picked it up again and gave up again. Why? It was just so confusing. When I expected it to do one thing, it did another. When I clicked on a point, that point disappeared! So, yeah, I feel yah. I will shortly tell you the secret to mastering the Pen Tool.

Let’s backtrack a little and tackle this: What is the Pen Tool and why should we use it? The why is particularly important. While Photoshop has advanced enough to razzle-dazzle users with its new selection methods (which still fall short), it is still with the Pen Tool that we can create perfectly accurate selections. So, that is why we need to learn this. The Pen Tool is still the best tool for creating selections. It can be used to draw complex shapes; it can select areas where it’s impossible with the usual tools. Can you automatically select a subject when that subject has blended with its background in terms of color and luminosity? The Pen Tool can!

So, what is the Pen Tool? The Pen Tool is the rock star for creating complex paths and shapes in Photoshop. These paths and shapes can then be duplicated and manipulated to create complex selections, masks and objects. Its origin is the Bezier curve technology, named after the French designer Pierre Bézier , who used it in the 1960s for designing curves for the bodywork of Renault cars.

In Photoshop, the Pen Tool is unlike the Brush and Pencil tools which draw pixels onto your image. The Pen Tool creates vector paths that appear as either Work Paths or Shape Paths in the Paths Panel.

So, what is the secret to using the Pen Tool easily? It is this: Ignore all those other tools that came with the Pen Tool and use only the Pen Tool itself. Then, use it in conjunction with the CTRL and ALT keys. With the Mac, those are the CMD and OPT keys. Knowing when to use just the Pen tool, and when to use it with the CTRL or ALT is the key. This is the secret to using the Pen tool successfully. You don’t have to bother with the Freeform Tool, Curvature Pen Tool, Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool, and the Convert Point Tool. They are visual distractions in Photoshop’s tool bar. Except for the Freeform Tool, those other tools come up when we use the Pen Tool together with either the CTRL or ALT keys.

So, the thing to do is use only the Pen Tool itself and know when to press the CTRL and ALT keys while using it. Knowing this is like knowing how to use those other pen tools themselves. The important thing is to understand the basics and know that complex curves are just a collection of simple curves.

The basic moves are these:

1. Clicking on Point A then clicking on Point B creates a line.
2. Clicking on Point A then click-dragging on Point B creates a curved line at B.
3. Click-dragging on another point, Point C, continues that curve from Point B.
4. Click-dragging the Pen Tool creates control handles, those pairs of straight lines with little round heads; the longer you drag, the longer they become. They are indicative of how deep your curve will be at that point.
5. While creating the lines, where you click are your anchor points, indicated by small squares. Your lines are anchored on these points.
6. At Step 2, after click-dragging for Point B (but not letting go yet) you hold down the ALT key and drag to a different direction, you are breaking the node at Point B, making a sharp angular turn to that direction, no longer a smooth curve.
7. The last anchor point you made will always be the active anchor point, meaning, things continue from there. When you hover on an anchor point it turns from inactive white to active blue, ready for your click. Notice the sign that accompanies your cursor: If it’s a minus (-) sign, you will remove/delete an anchor point when you click on it; it’s acting as the Delete Anchor Point Tool. Notice also that you can hover anywhere in the curve, and a little blue square is seen, and your cursor has a plus (+) sign, meaning, you can add an anchor at that point; it’s acting as the Add Anchor Point Tool. An anchor point will always have two handlebars, its control handles.
8. When you go back to the first anchor point you created, your Pen Tool cursor will have a small circle with it, indicating that you are about to close the path when you click on it.
9. How to manipulate control handles? Press the CTRL key while click-dragging on the little circle (the small round ends) of a control point and you can manipulate the curve at that point. Notice that as you drag one control handle, its partner handle moves in accordance with the one you control, until you also press down on the ALT key where now you are breaking their link and the one you are controlling moves independently of its partner handle. You do this when you want a sharp turn at that point and/or you want to control the depth of a curve on one side independent of the other side.
10. How do you move or control anchor points? Holding down the CTRL key while clicking on an anchor point activates that anchor point and its control handles. Click-dragging while holding down the CTRL key will move that anchor point. Click-dragging on the control handles while holding down the CTRL key will adjust the curve. This is how you fine-tune a path.
11. Holding down the ALT key, meanwhile, while clicking on an anchor point will delete its control handles. The Pen Tool is acting like the Convert Point Tool at this instance, and the cursor looks like an inverted letter V standing on one foot. Clicking on that anchor point again with this Convert Point Tool will restore its control handles.

So, really, it’s just a matter of when to use the Pen Tool with either the CTRL key or the ALT key. At this point you realize it’s just the Pen Tool – just one tool – and you make it behave differently when you press either the CTRL key or the ALT key and it becomes the Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool, and the Convert Point Tool.

Then, there’s the Curvature Pen Tool. Look at this tool as the simpler version of the Pen Tool. The Curvature Pen Tool does not bother you with control handles initially. But it does not give you enough control either when you’re trying to trace a complex shape. Think of it as a quick Pen Tool that you can use to quickly draw hearts, stars, or other odd shapes. Don’t bother with it for now. Just learn the more powerful and precise Pen Tool only and know when to use CTRL or ALT key with it. That’s all we need.

There’s also the Path Selection Tool and Direct Selection tool in relation to the Pen Tool. The Path Selection Tool (with the black arrowhead) can move the whole path you drew to another place by click-dragging, much like the Move Tool. The Direct Selection Tool (with the white arrowhead) will activate the anchor points and control handles when you click on a path. So yes, you can click on a path you created with the Curvature Pen Tool and fine-tune its curves if you wish to bother with this now.

Remember, up to this point you have been creating paths – vector paths, that is – with the Pen Tool. Its use in Photoshop is to create very precise selections by drawing vector paths that you can fine tune according to the subject you are selecting. We need to convert these paths into selections by going to the Paths panel in Photoshop and clicking on the third icon at the bottom which says “Load path as a selection” when you hover on it. When you do, the path you created with the Pen Tool becomes a selection in the Layers panel and you can use such selection as you would in Photoshop.