Divide A Shape Evenly?

[soundweave]

Is there a way to divide a shape equally? I'm just trying to divide a rectangle into 7 different equally sized sections. I want to be able change the color of each section. I've been trying for a while now and I'm getting really frustrated because I'm guessing it's pretty simple.

Please note, I can't copy and paste multiple small rectangles to make one large one because the whole thing needs to fit in a certain pre determined area. (I would have to know precisely how large to make each piece, and that sounds like a pain to find out)

Thanks!

[Zeno Bokor]

7? getting it evenly divided in an even number of sections would be hard, but in uneven numbers? there's no way to do it other than getting a pen and paper and start drawing to figure out the exact position and size of each section.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I suspect one might be able to Script something like this, but actually I’m not sure what »this« is exactly.

Once again a screenshot or a sketch might have been hugely beneficial to communicating the issue …

[tfkelly42-tHy2tE · Accepted solution]

Presuming you want to divide it in to strips, either vertically or horizontally, i think it would be best to set up some guides.

ctrl + click on your rectangle shape in your layers panel to load it as a selection.

drag some guides from your rulers (ctrl +r to make them visible) to touch each side of your shape (they should snap to the selection)

double click on a ruler to change the units to pixels.

F8 to get your info panel to show the dimensions of your shape.

divide the width of your shape by 7.

with the rectangle marquee tool change the style from normal to fixed size and enter the width as the seventh of the original shape, keep the height as the original shape).

now click and you'll have a strip one seventh of the width - you can move this to snap to your previous guides and then drag out a new guide down the side -move the selection again and drag out a new guide. Repeat this 6 times.

Hopefully this will work, does't take as long as you may think.

[Zeno Bokor]

If it's just vertical/horizontal then make guides around the entire object, select the Slice tool, click on Slices from Guides then select the Slice Select tool, select the slice containing your rectangle and click on Divide. If you have View->Snap to->Slices selected then you'll be able to quickly make selections with the Rectangular Marquee tool that will snap to the slices that you just made.

[emil emil]

soundweave wrote:

....

Please note, I can't copy and paste multiple small rectangles to make one large one because the whole thing needs to fit in a certain pre determined area. (I would have to know precisely how large to make each piece, and that sounds like a pain to find out)

Thanks!

Why not? I think that's actually the easiest way to do it.

You should already know the size of the total rectangle encompassing all or have a layer with that size.

Then, first make sure that in the View menu there is a checkmark in front of Snap and Snap To > Layers.

Then just create a random rectangular shape. Duplicate it and snap it by moving it with the Move tool (V) and holding the Alt key. Also holding Shift key after you start dragging constrains the moving. Repeat this for the number of divisions you want. Then select all layers with these rectangles  by clicking on the first shape layer in the Layers's palette, holding Shift, and clicking on the last shape layer. Then press Ctrl + T and drag the transformation handles at the corners of the transformation box to snap to the layer with the total size rectangle . If you don't have a reference layer, type the dimensions for W and H in the options bar after choosing the desired reference point. If you need to change the units, right click in the entry fields and pick another unit.

[soundweave]

thanks guys! I'm still totally new at photoshop and the most helpful parts of the explanations are the little shortcuts you guys give

[erkutacar84]

oh u want to slice it one way.. u might try drawing 1px lines in seperate layers and aligning them.. this should give u an equal space between each line..

[erkutacar84]

i guess u flunked geometry in school? how can u divide a rectangle into 7 equal peaces? u better do 8 pal or 6

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The easiest way would be 7 colums (or lines).

But if, as I interpreted it, »I'm just trying to divide a rectangle into 7 different equally sized sections.« means that the resulting sections should be of the same square footage but not shape, one could add variance and cumulate x columns (x >= 2) and divide the resulting area into x parts but cut in the other direction.

Then one could apply this operation to on any pair or higher of the resulting segments again.

And this is keeping the shapes rectangular, which is not even explicitly implied in the term »sections«, I guess.

But I might be misunderstanding something.

[Silkrooster]

A rectangle can have odd divisions.

For example a rectangle divided into thirds. You only have to set the guide lines to 33% and 66 %

[erkutacar84]

align didnt work but i just had another idea u can try linear halftone

[Semaphoric]

This sort of thing is so much easier in Illustrator: slap a few guides up there, select them like any other object, and click on Distribute.

[erkutacar84]

im not at home so i dont have photoshop here.. ill try to find u an answer when i get back in couple hours