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Lee James
Known Participant
January 10, 2018
Answered

Pen tool shapes: How to change the default fill and stroke settings?

  • January 10, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 13590 views
Every time I make a new layer to draw a new shape, the fill and stoke settings always revert to these really strange default colors (a red gradiated fill + a huge black and white stripey stroke). No matter how many times I change these settings, they always come back whenever I make a new layer.

How can I change these defaults? (Ideally I want the default to be no fill and no stroke - so I can see what I'm drawing first, then add the color later.)

Better still, is there any way to simply stop Photoshop from changing the settings when I make a new layer, and to just keep the settings I was already using before I made the new layer.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler
Ideally I want the default to be no fill and no stroke - so I can see what I'm drawing first, then add the color later.

You could set the Tool to »Path« instead of »Shape« and create the Shape Layer only after having edited the Path.

Ideally I want the default to be no fill and no stroke - so I can see what I'm drawing first, then add the color later.

With no Shape Layer selected and the Tool selected you should be able to change the Fill and Stroke.

2 replies

Ares Hovhannesyan
Community Expert
Ares HovhannesyanCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 10, 2018

Try reseting preferences

  • Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.
L
Lee JamesAuthor
Known Participant
January 12, 2018
https://forums.adobe.com/people/Ares+Hovhannesyan  wrote
Try reseting preferences
  • Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.

Resetting prefs makes me nervous as I have all the prefs set up just the way I want it. I'm also not sure if it would affect my panel positions or keyboard shortcuts.

c.pfaffenbichler  wrote
 
You could set the Tool to »Path« instead of »Shape« and create the Shape Layer only after having edited the Path.

Not a bad idea, but then I'd have to keep constantly switching between Path and Shape, and when I switched to Shape, I would have the same problem of having to fix the stroke and fill settings.

c.pfaffenbichler  wrote
 
With no Shape Layer selected and the Tool selected you should be able to change the Fill and Stroke.

Oh! To my total surprise, that worked! All I had to do was select a non-shape layer, open the pen tool, change the settings, and these settings become the new default!

Thanks

By the way, does anyone know why the formatting has been broken on the above quotes? It looked fine when I created the message.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
January 10, 2018
Ideally I want the default to be no fill and no stroke - so I can see what I'm drawing first, then add the color later.

You could set the Tool to »Path« instead of »Shape« and create the Shape Layer only after having edited the Path.

Ideally I want the default to be no fill and no stroke - so I can see what I'm drawing first, then add the color later.

With no Shape Layer selected and the Tool selected you should be able to change the Fill and Stroke.

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