Shape layer questions

I’m a web designer that’s used to using Illustrator for all my work. Recently many of my new jobs want me to work in Photoshop, so I’m getting back up to speed with it. I have a  few nagging issues that I haven’t been able to figure out:
With the direct selection tool, how do I select a small shape that’s overlapping a larger shape? For example, a small line on top of a large rectangle. When I try to do this Photoshop automatically makes me select the larger shape in the background. I have to zoom in super close and individually shift-select each corner of the smaller shape before I can move/transform/whatever it. This gets tedious and slow real fast!
Recently in a document I’m working in, whenver I make a new shape it automatically adds a bunch of layer styles like drop shadow, stroke, etc. These styles aren’t turned on, but it adds unecessary styles to my layers and my client is very strict about recieving only super clean .psd’s.
How do I make a line that is truly 1px stoke width? My lines seem to always start out as fuzzy 2px worms until I zoom in and surgically make them 1px. Again, what a waste of time! is there some sort of antialiasing setting that I need to turn off?
Thanks!

1. With smaller shapes that are difficult to select, try selecting their layer first. If you are not sure which layer, switch to the Move tool (V), hold Ctrl and click on the small shape. With the default behavior in Photoshop you should be able to select the layer and then use the Direct selection tool to select points on the vector path of the small shape. If you want to just move the entire shape when its the only path on a layer, aside form using the Path Selection tool (black arrow), you can just use the Move tool (V) to change the position of the layer. If you have to deal with a lot of shape layers that you just want to click and move, enable the Auto Select for the Move tool in the Properties bar. Then holding Ctrl while using the tool will toggle to its non - Auto Select mode.
2.On the Tool's property bar under the main menu, make sure the chain button is not pressed then click on the Style swatch or arrow to the right of the chain button to open the style swatch popup and from its menu there choose No Style. Next shape layer you make will not have the current style automatically applied. 
3. I'm using CS5 on a pc and creating 1 px straight line with the Line tool is buggy with its alignment to grid. The Line Tool draws lines in Shape mode as rectangle vector paths. The difference between the Rectangle Tool and the Line tool is that the Line tool aside from having a Weight attribute, it draws the rectangles starting from the middle if its side. In order to snap it to grid you have to set the grid in the settings to Gridline every 1 pix and Subdivisions 2. If properly working this is supposed to solve your problem if you enable snap to grid and draw your lines starting in the middle of a pixel. The problem is that this doesn't work properly with the Line Tool which does not snap perfectly to the grid. The work around is to draw your lines with the Line Tool in Fill Pixels mode which has an Anti-aliasing option that you can turn off.
Another alternative for drawing lines on raster layers without anti-aliasing is to use the Pencil tool and hold Shift while dragging with it. The Pencil Tool in Photoshop is the same as the Brush tool but without anti-aliasing. I think more proper name would be non - anti-alised brush.

Similar Messages

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    In a composition, I have a shape layer and the shape layer has a vector shape depicted by the pen tool. The constitution of the layer looks like below.
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    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1068528
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    hi hagmas! welcome to the forum, where there are plenty of existing answers
    but never for exactly what you seek.
    first off, every suite who's functions name start with AEGP, were actually
    created for AEGP's plug-ins use, but most of them (including the suites you
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    Thanks for your reply and sorry about my unclear question.
    I use the picture to describe my question. There is a shape layer include "Contents" and "Effects".
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  • AE CS5 - Shape Layer - Anchor point moves after position keyframe

    I am experiencing unintuitive (to me) behaviour with a brand new shape layer. Here are the steps to reproduce the issue. I have made a screen cap of the problem but can't figure out how to upload it to this forum.
    1. In an existing composition, I create a new Shape Layer
    2. By default the anchor point (center point) is in the dead center of the shape layer. Perfect.
    3. I turn on Position keyframing, and add a position keyframe at my current time
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    What am I missing or doing wrong? How can I add a position keyframe to a BRAND NEW LAYER that has no other animation on it, and still keep the anchor point in the dead center of my shape?
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    Thanks to Rick and Mylenium for your helpful answers. Rick, I'd prefer not to have to manually reposition, because I'm never going to be as mathematically precise as the software for positioning the Anchor Point dead center.
    Using the transform controls on the shape rather than the global container certainly did the trick! You guys are great. Thanks.
    [rant]
    In my defense as far as the constant exhortations to "RTFM", we all know that most veteran software users only go to the manual when there's a problem. You also know that Adobe's help system (particluarly in regards to search) has gotten worse over the years, not better. So when I run into a situation like this, I'm going to search through the help for what I believe the problem is: namely "anchor points", "transformations" and "keyframes", and maybe "shape layers". This is a fair amount of research, and it's exactly what I do as my first line of defense.
    The second line of defense that most tech savvy folk do, is a Google search; for example: "anchor point moves after position keyframe" or "After Effects shapes layer anchor point moves keyframe" etc. And you spend your time sifting through forums trying to find the relevant answers. I feel that THAT is my true due diligence, rather than reading the F'n Adobe manual that is so very very sparse.
    So after my due diligence, I turn to the experts communities, because there I know I will get educated, reliable help within a reasonable turnaround time. And because I myself contribute to these same forums in areas where I have higher than average expertise. The Adobe Forums have proven to be one of the great online resources.
    Finally, now that I have a great answer from two knowledgeable experts (thanks again!), I've also enriched the community, because of the way I have crafted my post title, hopefully the next poor ******* who has a similar problem and a similar methodology to finding resolution will stubmle upon my post because I've tried to overload the title with relevant keywords that will generate hits in google.
    Through my question, and your accurate answers, the global knowledgebase has improved.
    So forgive me for not memorizing the F'n Adobe online help. I go to the resources that are the most useful, expedient, and provide the greatest value as a whole.
    [/rant]
    Peace,
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  • Feather a shape layer

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  • Copying shape layer shape to mask shape problems

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  • 3D Shape Layer Stroke Animation

    Hi, I have created a 3D shape layer with a circle to animate a stroke on it. Now the shape layer comes with a stroke already, which has no start / end point to animate though, so I *** effects / generate / stroke ... now thing is I only see the stroke the shape layer comes with, but not the effect / stroke yet ... how do I get my animate able stroke turned on ? Just turning off the 1st stroke doesn’t help.
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    fhxfhx wrote:
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  • LACK OF FULL PEN TOOL FUNCTIONALITY WHEN CREATING A SHAPE LAYER

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