P: Ability to snap to Pixel for shape/layer creation and transform

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would love the addition of 'Pixel' to the 'Snap To' family. It seems like this feature would have been a shoo in from the onset of Photoshop with it being a bitmap based image editor...

[marcbjango]

I assume you're talking about vector path/shape pixel snapping, as the bitmap tools mostly snap to pixel anyway? If so, then I'm all for it. Most of the time I want everything to snap to pixels.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Precisely. I think the default should be for everything to snap to pixels. It gets tedious having to make so many 3200% adjustments just because a path is off the pixel by a tiny bit.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Smart snapping to nearest pixel when resizing a shape would be particularly useful for icon design.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Snap to pixel is extremely useful for icon designers and would be great if it was available on all shapes.

[Garconis]

Good one. I can't believe this isn't available yet (I almost thought I read somewhere that it was?). I hate creating a vector box (with rounded corners usually -- but that's besides the point), and usually 2 edges aren't hard edges (i.e., aren't snapped to a specific pixel). Then I have to either nudge it a few times after zooming in, or create guides before I even create the shape (so that it will snap to the guide(s) I dragged out.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Exactly. It Becomes VERY time consuming when you have to adjust every element.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

By the way, here's a "hack" to snap to pixels in Photoshop when transforming: http://edwardsanchez.me/blog/text/126...

[Garconis]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that out tomorrow (until Adobe makes it easier). Also, the bit about having a second window for the same document/file is pretty neat too!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

As an added idea to this - is the ability to select nodes and choose "move nodes to nearest pixel"

Suggested implementation:
http://edw.me/1u0X3Z24180V0h1d0U05

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You do know that the rectangle and rounded rectangle tools already have an option to snap to pixels when you create them, right?

Image is not available

Could you be more specific about what tools and areas still need a snap to pixel option?

[Garconis]

When resizing, whether it's with selecting the edges and dragging, or just selecting the edges and nudging with the arrow keys. I want to be able to nudge a full pixel at a time, to keep a clean hard edge.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I know about that. But I'm talking about transformation. Often I'll draw a large icon, then when I resize it down I have to spend ages nudging the nodes to the pixel so the icons appear crisp.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@Chris Cox: Yep :)

Sure. Basically, almost all of the time, I want everything to snap to pixels; Vector, Type and Selection tools at least. Also when doing things like Transforming shapes, nudging points, etc.

Thanks for joining in on the discussions and caring about your product and your users 🙂

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I wish the direct select tool had an option to "snap to pixels," even when I zoom in. I still haven't found a use case when I would ever want to move a vector point half a pixel.

Photoshop is a raster/pixel based software, so it would be great to make everything snap the pixel grid. No more blurry edges for me please!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Snap to pixel is usually only desirable in the limited case of doing design for on-screen UI. For print and most other workflows, snapping to whole pixels is an undesirable feature.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Limited case?? Almost every web designer I know uses Photoshop as their primary design tool. As there is a snap to pixel option when creating a new shape, so it doesn't seem like a stretch to keep that as the default for other vector adjustments too

[J453]

I think Chris was trying to say it's not something a 100% of our users would want. Photoshop's largest customer segment uses Photoshop for photography, so in that sense, it's not the majority of users. He acknowledged that it would be desirable for on-screen design for UI (i.e. web design). We get that web designers want this. 🙂

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Think about how many people use Photoshop. Now what fraction of those are doing on-screen UI design? Only that limited set of users want snap to pixel behavior (and even some of them don't when they're designing for high res).
What you describe as "blur" is antialiasing (rendering fractions of pixels) - which is the right thing to do for the majority of work.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Nearly every web designer I know (and I'm sure a huge number I don't know) uses Photoshop... that's a lot of users. For every single one of them sub pixel shapes like that become an issue. You're right it is not the right behaviour in a number of situations, but it certainly is necessary as an option. Having 'snap to pixels' in the view menu would be a really nice start

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Took me a while to find this thread. I was beginning to think I was the only person that wanted this (And have wanted it since I started Web Design 10 years ago)!

The "Snap to Pixels" option is NOT available for the vector line tool.
Seriously, this is FUNDAMENTAL for Web-Designers and if your using the marquee/fill method of creating shapes/masking, then ... well, this is just not best practices.

If Adobe doesn't incorporate this into CS6, then, simply put, there are not paying attention. Adobe, if your listening. DO IT!!!!!!! It will not cannibalize Illustrator!

[chrisdpage]

I second this.

If i may add one more suggestion to this.

"keyboard movements"

currently if you move a PATH using the keyboard increments are dependent on how zoomed you are, and if you hold shift its a big jump. we need on more modifier. call it command+L/R/U/D to move 1 pixel.

I'm adding this a request to a separate thread as i think its a little different.

[J453]

This is now a preferences in Photoshop CS6: