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toms91946814
Participant
July 15, 2017
Answered

How do I get my line tool back?

  • July 15, 2017
  • 8 replies
  • 108856 views

I did something and all of a sudden the only line tool I have available is an arrow. Can someone please help me find the line again? Or maybe there's a website where I can download a new TPL file?

Thanks!

Correct answer barbara_a7746676

Select the Line tool. Right click on the line tool icon on the left of the Options bar and choose Reset Tool.

8 replies

Inspiring
March 3, 2023

Great to have stumbled on your post. Adobe photoshop is everyday less and less intuitive. Who ever is responsible for making this UI more convoluted should be fired as we are many navigating this support forum more and more because things that should be self-explanatory with the UI are not . More steps involved and more complexity. Not a good future "path" for Adobe future.

Participant
November 27, 2024

Yes it's getting harder to use basic functions of the Adobe software we use every day. We shouldn't have to be Googling and YouTubing fixes for something as simple as drawing a line. Adobe, stop the madness!

Participant
July 13, 2022

Hello, 

I reset my line tool and everything and it's still limiting me to an arrow! Help! 

 

Thank you, 

Lizzie 

peterm52969353
Participant
March 5, 2022

Thanks good question-good answer- that was so annoying!!

 

Participant
September 10, 2021

thanks!

Participating Frequently
January 30, 2021

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/143011/line-tool-not-working-in-adobe-photoshop-2021

If  the issue is that you cannot find a line after you drew it with the new line tool, just set the line stroke to Center in the Properties menu.

If the line stroke is set to Inside it will not show. If it is set to Outstide, it will be 2px wide for a 1px stroke.

Participating Frequently
November 16, 2020

Since the latest Photoshop update I can't select 'Pixels' for my Line Tool. Only 'Shape' & 'Path' are live?

 

Any suggestions please?

Inspiring
November 18, 2020

Same problem. However you can just draw the Shape and then 'Rasterize Layer'. Same thing, but two steps instead of one. I've just wasted 40 minutes trying to draw a stupid line with arrows. Really not a good change. And just saying 'draw a rectangle' is not helpful. Since the rectangle doesn't have arrows.

To summarize what you need to do to get the same thing the old line tool did effortlessly:

 

- Unlike all other 'shapes', the Line tool creates a path, not a shape. It wasn't clear the 'shape' was a path that needed to be stroked. All other shapes need to be filled. Why even have the Path option in this case?
- So... Change both your Fill and Stroke colors to the color you want the line. It took me a while to figure out that the Stroke is what controls the line color and it defaults to black. Since I was on a black background, it was invisible (sort of).

- The Fill seems to only apply to the arrowheads. However, they are also always stroked unless you set Stroke to 0, but then the line disappears. So if you want the arrowhead to be a different color than the line, you need to draw the line and arrowheads seperately. Brilliant.
- If you want pixels (for applying layer styles or bc you think using a Shape for a line is stupidly complicated for drawing a line), as far as I can tell the only way to do it is to draw a shape layer then Rasterize Layer. If anyone has insight as to why the Pixels option is always grayed out, that'd be awesome info.

barbara_a7746676
Community Expert
barbara_a7746676Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 15, 2017

Select the Line tool. Right click on the line tool icon on the left of the Options bar and choose Reset Tool.

Participant
August 26, 2018

Thank you!

JJMack
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2017

an you identify which Photoshop version and provide a screen capture of the Line tool tools option bars setting options...

JJMack