The above image shows a custom shape tool applied using the current color of red. You can now, with Photoshop CC CS6, easily change the color of the shape via the fill and stroke settings dropdown along the top bar of Photoshop. You can also fill the shape with gradients as well as patterns and also apply a variety of different stroke settings to the design (though sadly not including the beautiful strokes from Illustrator - perhaps for another version ?). The shapes are all accessed via the custom shapes tool and the shapes palette. On graphicxtras, you can find up to 190 shapes sets for use with the application as well as a collection set of 12,000 custom shapes (all unique and not the same as the themed packs).

The custom shapes can be used as shapes in Photoshop but they can also be as an excellent source for Photoshop brushes and patterns. The above design was created using a single shape and that shape was filled with a gradient and then defined as a brush via the edit menu define brush command. The brush was then applied multiple times across an image. The image was also modified by the adjustments menu color lookup command to add a smokey finish to the image. As shapes are vector designs, you can use them to create brushes of any size - so much more useful than any brushes set which is forever stuck at it's original size and though you can increase the brush size, the quality generally goes down.

Date updated: May 26th, 2023

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