New at Photoshop (You probably know this easy answer but I dont!)

[Rosger]

Hi,

I've been on Illustrator for so long that I'm totally just not getting Photoshop at all.

So what you see here is me starting a mock up of a site. You have the banner and navigation etc.
Now, the navigation are just a bunch of vector strokes using pen tool, real quick and dirty.
Now I want to add a small rectangle into the banner. So I made a new layer, made the rectange and as you can see my navigation keeps dissapearing.

What the hell is this? I dont want my navigation to dissapear. I couldnt even locate those navigation strokes in my layers either!

Anyways, anyone patient or bored enough to help a brother out?

[CkretAjint]

Looks like you are over copying the nav layer with the red box. Create another layer then add your small red box.

[Rosger]

Looks like you are over copying the nav layer with the red box. Create another layer then add your small red box.

Can you see the new layer on the top I made with the transparent background?

[tZ]

You need to create a a new layer then stroke the path. In the paths menu right click on the path you want to show than select stroke path.

[Rosger]

thanks, worked like a charm

[tZ]

Photoshop handles vectors much differently than illustrator. Paths aren't actually art work themselves. In photoshop paths are a tool that you can use to make more exact and mathematically precise selections. This is because photoshop is raster or pixel based image manipulator. Therefore, vector art work doesn't actually exist it can only represent the nearest pixels in proximity. When using photoshop you must always remember that your manipulating pixels not math. Although pixels are essentially math but, that's a story for another forum.

[Broacher]

^ 'sorta' true. I use shape layers (and text, and clipping paths) as vector edges inside Pshop for a variety of purposes including display and print layout work. The trick is to save the PSD as a PDF with text and shape options selected to preserve the vectors.

But nobody should take that as a greenlight to go ahead and do all your logo work in Pshop. You have to know when and where to go with this stuff. And do your homework.

For example, if you place a vector logo into Pshop as a Smart Layer, does it still retain it's vector qualities when saved to a PDF?