Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual

Saving Paths

After all your hard work creating a path, it's a good idea to save it so you can edit it and use it later. Or you might want to use the path with other objects in your image, like when you're using a path as a vector mask, as explained on Using Vector Masks. Since paths are vector-based, they don't take up much memory and won't increase your file size hardly at all, so feel free to save as many paths as you want.

As you're drawing a path, Photoshop stores it in the Paths panel as a temporary work path (see Figure 13-10) and displays it in your document as a thin gray line. If you want to hide the gray line—so you don't accidentally edit or move it—just press Return (Enter on a PC). To create multiple paths in a single document, you have to save each path before starting on the next one, or Photoshop adds the subsequent path to the previous one. To work with your paths, open the Paths panel by choosing Window→Paths (see Figure 13-10).

Note

Miraculously, Photoshop keeps an unsaved work path in your document even if you close the file and don't open it for a year. The catch is you can only have one unsaved work path in a document at a time. If you want to add to that work path, simply select it in your Paths panel and start drawing. Don't forget to select it, because if you start drawing without selecting the work path first, your original path goes the way of the Dodo. To be safe, you're better off saving a path if you think you'll want to reuse it.

Figure 13-10. The Paths ...