Click "Sign In" below to access your account
Click "Create Account" to register with lexjet.com
A: There are always tricks to anything in Photoshop. So yes, there are some things you can do to create smoother, less choppy edges.
By Kim Herrera, Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop
For anyone not familiar with a clipping path, it’s a vector path (not "shape layers") created using the Pen tool (press P on your keyboard). To view the Paths Palette go to Window>Paths.
Certain labs and page layout programs require clipping paths. A clipping path tells a printer device to print only what is inside the clipping path.
You can have multiple paths in Photoshop.
The path itself is made up of nodes which you create by clicking with the pen tool. Using the pen tool is much like using the lasso tool, but you are creating a path instead of a selection. It is more effective, because I often mistakenly click off my lasso tool, thus losing the entire selection and having to start over.
In Photoshop you can convert any clipping path into a selection without having to save it as a channel selection.
You can create selections using any path or paths in the Path palette.
This helps maintain manageable file sizes. You can create as many paths as you want in an image and use them for selections. But keep in mind the printing device may ignore all but one path. You have the option of turning on one path in Photoshop.
Turn on your designated clipping path if you want to print only what's inside the path.
Turning the path on makes it the "active" path, the one that page layout programs and printing devices will read. Leave the flatness level blank; it will use the printer’s default. You'll want to create and save your main clipping path (often called outline, or knock out) and name it "Path 1" and keep it at the top of your paths palette.
To conquer this tool you may struggle with it for an entire afternoon, but it is well worth it. I recommend everyone read the Help section in Photoshop CS that explains in more detail how to lay down directional nodes on a path.
Some tips I always give are:
When outlining immediately save the "work path" as Path 1, in the paths palette. This will help you avoid accidentally writing over an existing work path and possibly losing work.
Save your file every five minutes. If for some reason you crash you'll lose your unsaved work.
For most images, zooming in to 250% works great. I find that if you zoom in more than that you will actually be drawing more nodes than are really necessary and a path with too many nodes can choke a printing device. Imagine a page layout with 25 pairs of shoes on it, and each pair of shoes contains over a thousand nodes in the clipping path, and all the paths are trying to come out of the same RIP printing device! Besides, I find that too many nodes often result in a choppy looking path.
Another thing that cause this choppy look is one-sided curves created with the pen tool. Remember to click-and-drag, click-and-drag. I promise you, you'll find a rhythm and it all falls into place. Everyone struggles with the pen tool the first day but it is well worth mastering.
Kim Herrera, Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop, is the color management expert for Logan Photography at Studio Exchange, Santa Ana, Calif., and runs KCH Digital, a digital artistry, education, and consultancy firm.