There is no "correct" way to draw lines in Photoshop - every artist and designer eventually finds their own methods and chooses the tools that they are comfortable with. Whether you use the Line, Pen, or Brush tool, you can approach a creative project different ways and still get the same results. In that practical guide We'll show you how to draw straight lines in Photoshop using the many drawing tools available in this program.

Line Tool

To find the Line tool, click and hold your mouse button over the Rectangle tool in the main toolbar. A menu will open to select the tool shape. If you have any shape tools enabled, you can also select the Line tool in top menu parameters.

Why is the Line Tool considered a shape? Essentially, the Line Tool simply creates thin rectangles that look like lines because the Fill and Stroke colors are the same. If you want the line to be empty inside (like a rectangle), just turn off the fill.

The Line Tool makes it easy to draw straight lines. Simply click anywhere on the image and drag the line in the desired direction. If you want to draw strictly horizontal or vertical line, hold down the Shift key as you drag, and Photoshop will take care of the rest.

Once you've learned how to draw straight lines in Photoshop, you can experiment with advanced options and create dotted lines using dots or strokes. To find these options, click the Stroke Options icon on the left side of the Options panel, and then select More Options. Here you can set and save custom settings, enable dotted lines, and select the length of strokes and spaces.

Brush Tool

The Brush tool also lets you draw straight lines, and unlike the Line tool, allows you to create your own brush styles. The Brush tool is located on the main toolbar, separate from the shape tools.

To create perfectly straight lines in any direction, hold down the Shift key while drawing with the Brush tool. To create a shape from multiple lines, draw a line while holding Shift, release the mouse button, press Shift again, and then start drawing a new segment from the end point of the last line.

Like the Line tool, the Brush has a variety of stroke options that you can change in the top options bar, including hardness, opacity, and brush style. We recommend adjusting these settings before you start painting strokes because the changes won't apply to all the brush strokes you've already made.

Pen Tool

Lastly, the Pen tool is extremely useful for drawing straight and curved lines. To select the Pen tool, click on the pen icon in the main toolbar, then click on the image to set the starting point, and again to set the end point. Photoshop will automatically create a straight line between two points, no matter where they are located in the image. If you hold down the Shift key while specifying these points, you can create line segments at 45 and 90 degree angles.

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Now just right-click on the resulting path and in the context menu click on the “Stroke Path” item. A new window will open where you can select the Brush tool and click OK. And our simple dotted line will be created. Now you can delete the Work Path or use it further to create new lines. You can move, scale the outline, change its shape, rotate, add anchor points, the dotted line will repeat all changes to the outline. Just remember to stroke the outline on a new layer.

Creating a Dashed Curve Line in Photoshop

This method is used to create more complex curved paths. It differs from the method described above only in the shape of the contour. In the first case, we drew a straight line with the Pen, but to create a dotted curve, we need to draw a contour in the form of the desired curve, set up the brush as described above, and stroke the contour:

How to Create a Dotted Circle in Photoshop

As you've probably already noticed, you can draw a dotted line in Photoshop of any shape.
Only to create a contour in this case you need to use not the “Pen Tool”, but the contour tools. To create a circle we use the Ellipse Tool, to create rectangles and squares we use the Rectangle Tool, to create contours of complex and custom shapes we use the Custom Shape Tool, etc. .:

All you have to do is set up a brush, create a path with one of these tools, and then stroke the path with the brush:

Note. Photoshop CS6 and later has a stroke option for outline shapes. Learn more about creating dotted line shapes in Photoshop CS6.

Let me remind you that your brush or pencil should already be set up. After selecting the tool, click OK, and points will appear on the contour. Dots made with a brush turn out to be somewhat blurry, so after applying the dots, it won’t hurt to apply the Sharpen Edges filter and select the settings individually.

Here is an example of a drawing obtained using the above-described body movements:

The following brush settings were applied:
Text: type - pencil size (Size) 3 px, Hardness (Hardness) 100%, Spacing (Spacing) 180%
Underline: type - brush, size (Size) 3 px, hardness (Hardness) 100%, spacing (Spacing) 205%
Frame: type - pencil, size (Size) 6 px, hardness (Hardness) 100%, spacing (Spacing) 180%

Well, we seem to have sorted out the frames of dots.

Creating frames from dotted lines

Rectangular frames, i.e. consisting of vertical and horizontal lines do not cause any problems.
You can paint them using a rectangular brush from the default Photoshop set. Open the Brushes control panel and load them as shown in the image:

With this brush you can draw a horizontal line. But it won’t work vertically, or rather, it will work, but it won’t be pretty:

To create a vertical broken line you need to rotate the brush mark by 90 or 270 degrees:

Now you can safely draw a vertical dashed line:

But if I need a dotted line in a circle or along any curve, then this method is no longer suitable. If you ask the world's mind, then it, the mind, will advise not to engage in nonsense with dotted lines in Photoshop, but to use Adobe Illustrator, create a layer in it with the desired line, and transfer it to Photoshop. I don't use Illustrator, and I need to create a circular dotted line in Photoshop. It turns out there is a way, and it’s quite simple. It took me ten minutes to invent it.

Select a round brush, set the print diameter to 9 pixels, and the spacing to 170%. We create an outline and trace the outline, as in the case of dots.
Next, right-click on the outline and select “Make Selection” with a feathering radius of 0. Here is an enlarged fragment of the drawing:

Then go to the Selection tab --> Modification --> Border (Select --> Modify --> Border), set the width to one or two pixels.

Now you need to invert the selected area by pressing the key combination Ctrl+Shift+I. We remove unnecessary things by pressing the Delete key.
I ended up with a nice dotted circle like this:

There are, of course, small artifacts left here and there, but they can be corrected with a few clicks of an eraser.
Thus, a dotted line can be drawn on any contour, for example, circle

Author Oleg asked a question in the section Other languages ​​and technologies

How to make a dotted line in Photoshop? and got the best answer

Answer from Dagpress-Media[guru]
Select the Pencil tool. Double-click the second smallest brush in the Brushes palette. Intervals (Spacing) up to ~250%. Now just draw a line with your pencil and you will get a dotted line. To make a line straight, hold down the SHIFT key while you draw the line. Another way is to click at the starting point, then SHIFT-click at the end point of your line. Photoshop will create a dotted line between these two points. To get a variety of dotted lines, you can change the brush size and increase the spacing. Also, you can download a set of square brushes.
Link to lesson.ru/2011/11/blog-post_2336.html

Answer from Lud@Mila[guru]
In Corel this is done through the outline (outline pen). maybe in Photoshop, something similar.

Answer from Fiery[guru]
can be drawn in Illustrator, copied and pasted into Photoshop

Answer from Akimov Gleb[guru]
And CS6 already supports this feature; you can immediately select a ready-made dotted stroke.