Legacy custom shapes in Photoshop 2020

[Daehith]

Anyone know how to get to the legacy custom shapes? I don't really need a silhouette of a gorilla, but some of those geometric shapes and word bubbles were things I used all the time and now they seem to be gone. Thanks!

[Wilson Laidlaw]

Scroll down to the bottom of the menu in window/shapes and you will see the lowest item is "Legacy Shapes and More". If you can't see it then your version of Photoshop is corrupt. Delete it and reload from the Creative Cloud part of Adobe's Website. 

[PECourtejoie]

Which version of Ps are you using (check in help>System info...)

Are you looking in the shapes panel, found in the windows menu, or are you looking in the pop-up menu of the option bar?

[Kurt21833020uft5]

tried them all - cannot find it

[RishikaKhemani]

Thankyou so much for this answer. I too have been beating my head aroubd thins since a while.

[Kurt21833020uft5]

No matter how many times I looked I could not find a legacy file to upload.  what a stupendous waste of valuable time

[jbinco]

Yes, the "Legacy Shapes and More" option is still here in Photoshop 23.2.2.  It is ridiculously difficult to find.  After opening the "Window" => "Shapes" menu, you must click the inocuous little grey box in the top right corner of the menu.  Then, you will see another fly-out menu with the "Legacy Shapes and More" option.  CLicking that will add it as a new group under shapes.  It keeps adding it again and again everytime you click it too.

This design and default settings choice makes zero sense to me.  But I've only been using Photoshop for 30 years so what do I know.

Also, you can right-click and delete those four completely useless default groups.  In 30 years of editing photos I have never, ever, not once needed the custom shape of a boat, a tree, a giraffe or a flower.

[jane-e]

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@jbinco wrote:

... the "Legacy Shapes and More" option ... is ridiculously difficult to find.  After opening the "Window" => "Shapes" menu, you must click the inocuous little grey box in the top right corner of the menu. 

The "innocuous little grey box" that you drew an arrow towards is called a panel menu and almost all panels have them. It's not actually a box — it's a hamburger menu icon.

https://stock.adobe.com/images/hamburger-menu-icons-set/103556331

If you are not using the panel menus already, give them a try. Each one has things you can do inside that particular panel and they are very useful.

Jane

[jbinco]

Functionally that box works as a hamgurger menu.  But best practice UX design is to use three horizontal lines.  Hence the "hambuger" name.  That little square is too non-descript and too small.  There are multiple threads of multiple experienced users reporting difficulty locating this menu.  I would suggest re-evaluating the design and going with a normal looking "hambuger" (3-line) icon rather than the little box.

[jane-e]

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@jbinco wrote:

I would suggest re-evaluating the design and going with a normal looking "hambuger" (3-line) icon rather than the little box.

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To make suggestions to the product developers, create a new post and tag it as "Ideas" instead of "Discussions".

Jane

Forum volunteer

[Jeff Arola]

One thing i did was put all the shapes that ship with photoshop into one folder.

[Wilson Laidlaw]

On the latest update which was released a few days ago, Adobe has added a category of shapes called "Arrows Abundance". If you add the shapes to your workspace as a tab group from the Windows pull down menu, it now allows you to rearrange the shapes categories which appear when you open the shapes group from your workspace. You can then drag Arrows Abundance up to the top of the list of categories. Like you I have never used any shape except arrows in the 20+ years I have been using Photoshop. After you have rearranged the categories in your workspace, this then carries through the change in category list to the top bar menu for shapes, when you click on custom shapes from the left hand tool bar. Hope this helps. It was driving me up the wall as well. 

[happy_care98A7]

Thank you @Jeff Arola

[Ash2425]

Blown away someone that works for Adobe thought it was a good idea to hide all the shapes. Who makes these calls? Why would anyone need the random animal shapes but hide all the geometric shapes? Who ever is making these calls clealry never uses the app

[Semaphoric]

They are not hidden. The organization of them is what's new, and once you get comfortable with it, it is way superior to the old Preset Manager, particularly if you have many of your own custom shapes of differing types.

[Travel-Images-Photo-Tours]

So, which year are Shapes scheduled to be sorted alphabetically? I'm concerned because my demise is likely in the next 10 years.

Also, instead of hiding Shape collections and making users search for a Shape subject, how about the complete list be available after every update?

[perezg1986]

Looks like this was removed for 2024 version of Photoshop. (See attached)

[perezg1986]

Wait I just came to this page and saw the instructions above. (cursing removed)

[InfiniteWhale]

I just cannot understand why they would make it a pain to enable the basic shapes we need, but the useless ones are front and centre.  Adobe's decision making continues to be completely inexplicable. 

[PECourtejoie]

Please vote on the feature request I posted 5 posts earlier in the thread. 

[Travel-Images-Photo-Tours]

You mean your post from 3 years ago? Re-posting your link would be more helpful because I just spent 10 minutes looking for it. It is not '5 posts earlier'.

In any event, is Adobe likely to alphabetize Shapes and/or add a search button yet? Seriously, what do Adobe designers do between updates besides make it harder to find the most useful tools?

[Semaphoric]

As I said earlier, the new system is more powerful, but the implementation is terrible. That goes for all the preset panels. I use the Pattern and Gradient panels a lot, and notice items properly set up in the panel often don't show up in the Options. Many people don't realize all the power is tucked away in a drawer, so to speak, and get frustrated by the lack of options in the Options.

A preset manager that is actually user-friendly would be nice. Even when you're used to it, looking for that blue bar to flash gets old fast.

[jane-e]

@Travel-Images-Photo-Tours 

We are volunteers and don't know what Adobe will or will not do. What you can do yourself is to use the Shapes Panel (Window menu) to rearrange, delete, rename, move them in and out of groups, etc., the shapes. I've pulled the ones I use out of the "Legacy" group and moved them to the very top. You can reorder them so they are alphabetical.

There is also a search box at the top where you can type in part of the name of a shape and find it quickly. I can't remember if that is on by default or if you have to enable it from the panel menu.

Jane

[Travel-Images-Photo-Tours]

Thanks for your suggestions.

There is also a search box at the top where you can type in part of the name of a shape and find it quickly. I can't remember if that is on by default or if you have to enable it from the panel menu.

I searched meticulously, again, and no such search feature under Shapes is to be found, and I have version 25.4. . . . . the latest release.

Like many users state, 'hiding' features, as in making it difficult to enable them, is an Adobe trademark as it were.

Since 1996 I've spent many hours Googling solutions to Adobe errors, which has really added up over those 27 years. Very frustrating, and not at all user friendly.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, because, like most users do (because we've done this for years, you're not doing anything bad) you are looking in the option bar, or on righ-click, or in properties, and not in the new dedicated shapes panel.

That's maybe the fix that needs to be done, pop up the panel instead of the reduced functions dropdown, that lacks the legacy presets, the search bar.

[PECourtejoie]

Sorry, I'm using linear view, here it is: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/add-legacy-shapes-patterns-gradients-swatch...