Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 Pen tool

[bmorse123]

I recently bought Photoshop elements 10, and cant sem to find the Pen Tool. I know its stupid and simple but could someone tell me where it is?

[Guest]

A "Pen" tool refers to a tool used to draw vector lines, and does not exist in PSE.

PSE does have the "Pencil" tool which will draw hard-edged bitmap lines.  It's part of the Brush tool icon set -- hold down your left mouse button to reveal the other tools:

Ken

[bmorse123]

Well is there anything like the pen tool in PSE?

[Guest]

No.

Ken

[Barbara_B_]

There is text on a path, which is about as close as it gets.

[Guest]

Or the various shapes, and modifying them with the selection tools, but that's really clunky if you're wanting to hand-draw the equivalent of a vector shape.

Ken

[Jeff Arola]

There is a Freeform Pen Tool (Text on a Custom Path Tool) that has some of features that the Freeform Pen Tool in photoshop has, but not a true pen tool per se.

You can even use it to modify shape layers and stroke paths with some of the painting tools like the brush tool.

I guess it depends on how want to use it, whether you find it suitable or not.

stroked path with the brush tool

[Kalevana Faradae]

How do you do this? No matter what I do to create a path, the instant I click anything else, the path vanishes and my work is gone forever. I've looked in Windows > Path, and no such option exists in my PSE. If I can't use some kind of controllable stroke tool this program is a complete waste of money for me because I have tremors in my hands that make freeform drawing impposible for me.

If I double click the path, it creates a text layer, but if I click that layer the path immediately disappears.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get the Paths panel to show up?

[Jeff Arola]

Default Banner Shape 5

after

[Jeff Arola]

Photoshop elements doesn't have a true Pen Tool or a Paths panel, so this is more akin to using the Freeform Pen Tool in photoshop.

After you draw out the path using the Text on Path tool, click on Modify and you'll see some points on your path

Now you can click and drag on any of the points to move the path

There are other things like pressing the Alt (option) key to delete points or the Shift key to add points.

You can draw straight lines by starting a path then pressing the Alt (option) key to draw straight lines, though it's a little tricky to get it to work.

Also if you click off the path and it disappears you have to go to Window>History and go back one step from Delete Path.

Honestly you'll never get the precise control you desire using photoshop elements, so i would suggest looking at Photoshop cc or Illustrator for actual Pen Tools and losts more control.