Tools for working with vectors in Photoshop appeared quite a long time ago, but they began to be used in work relatively recently. This is due to the fact that they were “raw” for a very long time, etc. a vector in Photoshop is not a specialized tool for work, and it has not been modified. But everything changed with the release of Photoshop CC.
Why do you need a vector in Photoshop?
First I want to tell you why I use a vector in Photoshop. There are many proven vector editors. The most common are Illustrator, CorelDraw, Xara. Most often I do web design, which means my work is not the end result. Those. Before becoming a website, interface, or application, the layout will be sent to the layout designer. Most layout designers are fluent in Photoshop, but are very superficially familiar with Illustrator. Therefore, the desire to “stuff” everything into one file is quite logical. It’s great when the layout designer receives one PSD that contains a complete layout and even with the ability to edit elements. Change the color of a button, change the radius of a menu shape, increase or decrease a block without losing quality - in 2 clicks and 1 minute! Vector in Photoshop allows you to do this without any special skills.
Features of working with vectors in Photoshop
If you have worked in any vector editor before, much will seem familiar. But you'll have to get used to a lot. All work in Photoshop is built with layers, this also applies to all vector tools.
1. To easily edit a vector in Photoshop, you need to place each shape on a separate layer.
2. Operations of “merging”, “subtracting”, “overlaying” are best applied to no more than two objects.
3. After the operation of “merging”, “subtracting”, “overlaying”, the contours of the original objects remain available for editing.
4. Raster styles can be easily applied to all vector objects. It is very comfortable.
5. You can apply transparency to vector objects and apply filters to them.
6. Individual layers and groups of layers with vector objects can be easily cloned within a document or copied to another PSD document.
7. Label each layer and group layers - this will save a lot of time.
Basic primitives
As in any vector editor, a vector in Photoshop has ready-made primitives. Basic primitives:
“Rectangle”, “Rectangle with rounded corners”, “Ellipse”, “Polygon”, “Line”, “Freeform”. For each shape (at any time), you can set the thickness/type/color of the stroke and fill. Additional properties are available for specific primitives. For example, for a polygon you can set the number of corners, and for a rectangle with rounded corners you can set the radius of the rounding.
Basic Tools
To draw an arbitrary vector or edit an existing one (including the outline of primitives), you need to use the “Pen” tools (draw an arbitrary outline), “Pen+” (add new anchor points to the finished outline), “Pen-“ (delete anchor points from the finished outline), “Free Pen” (draw an arbitrary outline by hand), “Angle” (change the bends of the contour curves, set the types of connections between anchor points). 
To illustrate the process, a short video from which you will learn:
1. How to create a primitive
2. How to draw a free vector shape
3. How to edit the outline of a primitive
4. How to edit the contour of an arbitrary vector shape
Basic operations with vectors in Photoshop
There are 4 operations available in total: “Merge Shapes”, “Subtract Front Shape”, “Merge Shapes in Overlay”, “Subtract Shapes in Overlay”. All these operations are available through the main Top Menu Layers > Merge Shapes, or through the “Properties” toolbar (top menu Window > Properties).
Attention! Before you begin any operations to combine vector shapes, make sure that the layers of these shapes are selected in the “Layers” toolbar (turn it on F7 or Window > Layers).
Brief video illustrating the basic operations of “merging shapes” in Photoshop.
Change color, size and apply styles
Now we come to the most interesting part. A vector in Photoshop allows you to change the size both up and down without losing quality. To do this, select the desired layers in the “layers” toolbar, press Ctrl+T (or Command+T if you have a MAC) and drag the markers of the selected outline with the mouse to adjust the size. To change the size proportionally, you need to hold down the Shift key. 
Brief video:
1. Resizing the vector shape
2. Change the fill color of the vector shape
3. Add Style to the Vector Shape
Download example PSD (free)
To make it easier for you to figure out how to use a vector in Photoshop and see how these tools can be used in practice, I am posting an Infographic file made by me entirely using vector tools.
Ask a Question
If something doesn’t work out for you or you have any questions, write in the comments and I will help you figure it out. You can also watch the video using vector tools.
On the Internet, I found an image of the logo. Is it possible to convert it from raster to vector in Photoshop, and automatically? No you can not. Alas, while vector trends in Photoshop are as follows, everything that was done in this direction remained unchanged 5 versions ago. Since then, it has not been touched, not changed, and nothing new has been added to the vector. Have you needed vector tools in Photoshop? Here they are, want more? Whatever else you forgot about Photoshop, master Illustrator. Approximately this line of thought motivated the developers who introduced the simplest vector operations into Photoshop. Now let's get down to business.
The raster is converted into a vector through selection areas. First, we create a selection, then we convert the selection lines into vector paths, then we fill the vector paths with fill layers, thus creating a vector mask. In order to understand all this not at the level of army commands - click here, click there, it is worth learning how to work with vector drawing tools, understand how vector contours can interact with each other, and learn how to create a vector mask. But don’t worry, you don’t have to sit down to read it until the weekend; you’ll already understand how to convert a raster into a vector in Photoshop if you read the article to the end.
Logo highlighting
I would especially like to note that in order for the translation into vector to be of high quality, the image itself must be large in size. This is true in the case of tracing in Illustrator, but for Photoshop it is even more important. My image is 1500 pixels wide, when we finish converting it to vector, I will show how Photoshop translates a small image and we will compare the results.
- Choose the Magic Wand Tool
- Set the Tolerance options to 20 or 30.
- There, click on the Add to Selection icon. I wrote in detail about their work in the article Add, Subtract, Intersect and Exlude in Photoshop where we talked about vector tools, but in selection these options work the same way.
To be honest, I don’t care how you select the logo, whether using a manual lasso or using the Color Range. It’s just that in this situation, specifically in this image, the easiest way to do this is with the Magic Wand Tool.
Converting the selection to a vector path
Don't switch from the Magic Wand Tool.
- Right-click on the selection area.
- From the menu that appears, select Make Work Path.
- In the window that appears, set the tolerance to 1.0. The higher the tolerance value, the smoother, stylized and imprecise our contours will be.
In the illustration below, I selected the Path Selection Tool and selected the path so that you can see it.
Saving a path in the Path palette
This operation is not required, but recommended.
- In the window that appears, enter a name and click OK.
Switch to the Path palette. If you can't find it, click Window > Path
Double-click on the path in the palette.
Creating a vector mask
The process of creating a vector mask is perfectly described in my article Vector Mask in Photoshop. We will carry out this process quickly and without details.
Make sure your kennel is selected in the Path palette
Select Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color from the menu
In the window that appears, select a color and click OK
That's all. Everything would be more accurate if it weren’t hronofag.ru Remember I told you that the smaller the image, the worse it will translate. I bet you have some kind of dirty scan on your hands, shoved into Word, which the customer demands to be converted into a vector? I guessed? In this case, the image is compressed with JPG compression, reduced, then enlarged, then again reduced to the size of the avatar, and ketchup was also spilled on it. Is it possible to efficiently convert such a picture into a vector in Photoshop?
First, take a look at our logo. Despite the excellent resolution and clear edges, Photoshop was unable to create good and even contours. The illustrator does it 100 times better, but the article is not about the illustrator. As you can see, the contours are not smooth everywhere, even in the rectangular parts of the logo. And the circles are completely oblique.
Now I will reduce the image by 2 times, then by another 2 times and show you the result of converting it into a vector.
Here is a clear example of how the size of a raster image affects the quality of tracing. And this despite the fact that the image is of very high quality despite the size. Well, I'll reduce the quality. Let's save the image in JPG at the worst quality.
Let's convert it to a vector. Excellent result, the only thing missing is ketchup. Just right for a satisfied customer, grunge or vintage treatment!
And yet I slightly manipulate the truth. The fact is that all this is reasonable for Illustrator, who creates a vector based on a picture. Photoshop doesn't create a vector based on an image, it creates outlines based on a selection. Logically, the better and smoother the selection, the smoother the curves will be. And a tool Magic wand, which we used to highlight these areas, will no longer be suitable for highlighting such creepy images. Yes, you will be able to make high-quality selections, using all the selection tools, you will even be able to enlarge them and create a more or less even outline based on them, which will still not be ideal. Going this way is simply a waste of time. The only working option is to draw the logo from scratch in Photoshop.
In this lesson we will talk about how to translate raster image into vector form in Photoshop. Of course, Photoshop is primarily designed to work with raster images, and the vector in it is some addition in the form of paths with a vector layer mask that is applied to the object and creates a vector shape. In such a vector form (Shape), the outline will be vector and the fill will be raster.
In this lesson we will cover the following steps:
Creating a Document and Drawing an Object
First, create a new document of any size and a layer.
Now let's draw any image. Take the Brush tool with unblurred edges and full opacity. Let's draw some simple geometric figure, for example, as shown in the image.
Selecting a raster object
To translate a raster image, you must first select it with any Select tool. Now select the drawn object either using the Wand Tool, or click on the layer with the left mouse button while holding down the Ctrl key.
Convert a selected object to a vector path (Path)
Using any tool of the Select type, we call context menu. To do this, point the tool at the selected object and press the right mouse button. In the menu that appears, select “Make Work Path...”.
A window will appear where you will need to enter the tolarence parameter, which determines how many control points the vector shape will contain; the more there are, the smoother the vector object will be, but the quality of the control points will be low.
Creating a vector mask for a layer from a vector path
Go to the Paths tab, where the vector path we just created should appear.
Double click on it to give it a name.
Then from the main menu select “Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color...”. You can name the new layer something, then click “ok”. Select a color for the future shape in the color selection dialog.
Now a new layer with a vector mask should appear in the Layers tab.
How to Save a Vector Object to a Vector Shapes Library in Photoshop
You will then be prompted to name the new vector object. Click "ok" and then check new object in the library using the Custom Shapes Tool.
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Despite the fact that Photoshop is a raster graphics editor, its toolkit also includes some vector tools. Vector tools are intended primarily for creating editable curves - contours. In order to refresh your memory, let us remind you that the difference between raster and vector graphics lies in the method of storage and description graphic information. Vector drawings are stored in the form of mathematically described curves, which do not lose quality when scaled, and can be easily and flexibly edited at any time. First, let's look at the principle of constructing vector curves.
Vector contours are built on segments that have key nodes and control points. Key nodes limit the segment on both sides, and control points allow you to control the bending of curves.
Group tools are used to create curves Pen. Tool Pen Tool designed to create curves at key nodes. The principle of operation of this tool is to indicate the key points of a contour segment. If, when specifying a control point, and without releasing the mouse button, move it, then a segment containing control point. Further mouse movements directly affect the control point, and, in turn, the bend of the segment. The next left click will set the next control point, and so on.
The Pen tool can work in two modes - creating curves and creating so-called shapes - closed vector areas. Switching between these modes is done with the buttons - contour creation mode, - shape creation mode. If you work in the shape creation mode, then the contour you create will always be considered closed and, as a result, filled with the color you selected. Physically, a layer mask is created in the Layers palette based on a vector drawing. The layer itself is filled with the color of your choice (you select the color in the properties palette).
The principle of working with a vector mask differs slightly from the principle of working with a raster mask; only the means differ. If, when working with a raster mask, you changed it using drawing tools, then in this case changing the shape of the mask occurs using vector tools.
In order to convert a vector mask into a raster one, you need to call the context menu of the vector mask and select the item Rasterize Mask. The result is a regular layer mask. Otherwise, working with a layer mask in the vector version is no different from working in the raster version.
Vector drawings are convenient because you can very conveniently change the shape of the curves of this drawing at any time. There are a number of tools for this. For example, the tool (adding key points - nodes) - adds key points on the curve at the place where you click. The tool can delete extra points on a path by clicking on the point to be deleted. In fact, switching to these tools is not at all necessary. Pay attention to the switch Auto Add/Delete on the Properties palette. If this mode is enabled (checked), the Pen Tool will automatically switch to the add point tool (when you place it above the path) and the delete point tool (when you place it above the already existing point). If the mode is disabled, then deleting and adding points will only be possible when using the appropriate tools.
The bending of curves is controlled through control points. To select a control point, use the tool Direct Selection Tool. Selecting the node to edit (clicking with this tool on the edited node). Then by moving the control points you influence the bend of the curve in the area of the selected node. You can also move selected nodes using this tool. Tool Path Selection Tool designed to work with the curve as a whole, as with an object - for movement and transformation. For vector objects, the Free Transform mode is used, exactly the same as for raster areas.
An important tool for working with key nodes is a tool called Convert Point Tool. The purpose of this tool is to transform node type. In Photoshop vector graphics, there are two types of key nodes - smoothed And corner. The meaning of smoothed key nodes is that the control points of two curves converging at one node Always on the same virtual line.
Another type of knot, as we said, is called a corner knot. The meaning of this type is that virtual lines passing through the control point of one of the segments and the common key node of both segments can converge at any angle.
The type conversion tool works as follows - if the node is smooth (and by default nodes are created smooth), then clicking the conversion tool will change the node type to corner. If, after pressing the mouse button, you do not release it, but simply drag it, you will be able to control the bending of the segment at a specific node.
We started by highlighting two modes of operation of the Pen Tool. The first is the mode for creating shapes, and the second is the mode for creating contours. Let's take a closer look at the mode of working with contours.
In this case, your path will not automatically fill and form a vector layer mask and layer. In this case, your outline will be purely virtual and unrelated to layers. To work with such contours, there is a palette called Path. All operations with contours are concentrated in this palette.
In the Path palette, contours (paths) are placed as layers in the Layers palette, and one vector layer can contain several unrelated vector contours. The bottom line of the Path palette contains icons for controlling paths. The painfully familiar pictograms with a trash bin and a blank leaf have not changed their purpose in this palette either, i.e. respectively, this is deleting the vector layer and creating an empty vector layer.
Until now, we have been wondering why these vector tools are needed in such a completely raster editor as Photoshop. A simple example of using vectors in Photoshop is again working with selections. As you can see from the figure, a number of icons in the Path palette are designed to transform an outline (path) into a selection outline and vice versa. In fact, after gaining some skills in working with contours, you will understand that it is much easier to adjust the vector contour to the shape of the selected area than even using a fairly flexible quick mask. So if you want to edit a selection, you can always convert it to a path (outline), then edit it and convert it back to a selection. If you want to use traditional operations like Stroke and Fill for selection paths, then they are also at your disposal.
Logical operations work somewhat unexpectedly. You can create paths in any of the logical modes, be it addition or subtraction. At this stage you will not notice any action. But don't be fooled by the fact that you found a bug in an almost flawless program. In fact, Photoshop remembers in which mode you created the outline (the office writes...) and as soon as you tell the program to create a selection outline from your jumble of paths, Photoshop will remember everything and perform all the operations that you prescribed to it when creating the paths. The dialog box for creating a path selection outline allows you to set the most important settings concerning the outlines of the selection (but this is only if you use the Make Selection command from the Path palette menu).
Please note that you can set the feathering radius (Feather), enable or disable Anti-Aliased smoothing. In the Operation section, you can set the logical mode for the newly created selection. The options in this section become available only if one selection outline already exists. Accordingly, if you select the New Selection operation, the created selection will replace the existing selection; the Add to Selection option will add to an existing selection a selection created from a path; Substruct from Selection - will subtract the created path from the existing selection.
Tool Free Form Tool allows you to create a vector path in simple drawing mode, like a brush. Hold down the left mouse button and simply move the mouse to draw the contour you need. This tool has one main feature, which likens this vector tool to the Magnetic Lasso tool - this is an option Magnetic. The principle of operation is the same, the tool looks for contrasting boundaries and draws a contour only there. Otherwise, the contour created by this tool does not differ from a regular contour.
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To everyone who works with graphic editors sometimes you have to deal with both vector and raster graphics.
What if we needed to add some Photoshop special effects to a vector file. Today I will show you how to properly work with vector files in Photoshop.
1) Just drag and drop AI or EPS file in PHOTOSHOP. We see:
2) Size is very important here - after all, Photoshop image will become raster, and increasing the size without losing quality will be difficult. Therefore, it is best to take a large size right away.
3) When we opened our file, all the images were on one layer. In order to work with each of them separately, you will have to use a selection, for example, the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and then cut it out onto a new layer.
4) Since we are not sure what size the image will have to work with, we will convert it into a smart object. Just by clicking on it right click mouse and selecting the appropriate item. It turns out that the object’s characteristics have become similar to a vector one, and it can be enlarged as desired.
5) In this example, I copied one of the skulls, and then turned it into a smart object, and stretched both objects. So far no difference is visible
6) But let's zoom in on the image. The difference is obvious!
7) All that remains to be done is to place everything as it should). You can use layer properties (Image>Adjustments) and blending options (Right click>Blending options).
And yet, why is it better to open vector images in vector editors?
Because here you can change not only sizes, correct lines, colors, which is not always easy in Photoshop, especially for a beginner.
Finally, you should know that you can insert an image into Photoshop directly from Illustrator - just select the desired image in Illustrator, Сtrl+C, and then Ctrl+V in Photodhop.
The following procedure is identical to that described above.