How can I make the stroke around a layer a dashed line instead of a solid line?

Hi,

You can try the Dashed Strokes layer styles in photoshop cs4.

Though it's not easy to get it looking right, so you might try adjusting the Size and Scale to get it anywhere close to looking decent.

You could also use the Rectangle Tool to draw a path and stroke the path with one of the Square Brushes.

In the Brushes panel, one needs to adjust the Spacing and Roundness under Brush Tip Shape

and set the Angle Jitter to Direction under Shape Dynamics.

Still, i had to modify the corners with the pencil tool to get the below results.

I am not sure if this is available in CS4.

Have you tried using the Rectangle Tool (not the Rectangular Marquee Tool) and selecting Stroke with a dashed line?

Good day!

Not even in Photoshop CC 2015 has the Layer Style that feature, but Shape Layers have, so one could create a Path from the Layer’s transparency and create a Shape Layer based on that.

Your version is too old for that, but you may be able to create a Brush and apply that to a Path.

Regards,

Pfaffenbichler