photoshop pen tool doesn't vector

First, the basics:

The Pen tool is a vector tool that creates vector data. However, the path is always rendered on screen as pixels, at the base document resolution, and that's what you're seeing. That's just how Photoshop, as a raster image editor, works. Any vector data in Photoshop will always ultimately be output as pixels.

In a true vector application like Illustrator, the vector data are always displayed at full screen resolution.

When you zoom in to 500% you will start seeing those image pixels. Each image pixel is now displayed by 5x5=25 screen pixels.

With all that said, I agree that this screen rendering doesn't look optimal. I'm traveling with just a laptop now, so I can't test this myself - but how does it look at 100% (1:1)? Or even 400%, an even ratio?

Any on-screen resampling is done by the GPU / GPU driver. I suspect these artifacts may be created by your GPU. It is in any case not in the original data - it's an on-screen artifact.

Could you please post screenshots of the entire window with the Layers panel expanded and visible? The top screenshot appears to lack anti-aliasing. I can not replicate Photoshop 26.4.1 on Win.

What exactly are we looking at in youur screenshots?  It looks like masks.

We can see that you are zoomed way in to 500%, and we can see some pixelation.

The screenshot below is also zoomed to 500%.

The layer filled with red has a vector mask, and its path is visible (I set the path to Black to show against the background)

The path is still perfectly smooth, but the masked pixels show anti aliasing, which is what you'd expect at to 500% zoom ratio.

Show us your entire workspace with layers and paths panels both visible.

Upload at full res so we can see what is happening.

BTW  If I show you the same thing at 100%, there are no jaggies.

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

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