Not only you can use Photoshop to edit a photo. You can also use it as a design tool to create a flyer, brochure, and other design types. One of the elements you might want to add when using Photoshop to design something is a shape.

Photoshop comes with a Rectangle Tool, Rounded Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool, Polygon Tool, Line Tool, and Custom Shape Tool that you can use to draw a shape on your design. Those tools are grouped in the Photoshop toolbox. To activate one, click and hold the tool group until you see the options. Select a tool you want to use.

Drawing a rectangle and square

Depending on what you want to do. If you want to design something from a blank canvas, simply go to File -> New (Ctrl+N) to create a new project. Or, if you want to draw a shape on an image, go to File -> Open (Ctrl+O) to open an image you want to draw the shape on. Once your canvas is ready, click and hold the tool group as covered earlier above and select the Rectangle Tool.

Click and hold anywhere on the canvas area. This will be your start point. Drag your mouse in any direction until you get the shape you want. To get a square shape, press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard right after you click the start point.

The Properties panel will appear right after you create the shape. If you don’t see this panel, you can open it by going to Window -> Properties. You can set the shape stroke type and shape fill from this panel.

To select a shape stroke type (line, dashed line, or dot), simply click the dropdown menu as shown in the image below. You can also set the stroke width.

To set the stroke style (solid color, gradient, or pattern), you can open the shape stroke type tab. If you select solid color, you can open the color picker to pick a color you like.

To set the shape fill, simply open the shape fill type tab and select the fill type you want (no color, solid color, gradient, and pattern).

Drawing an ellipse and circle

Click and hold the group tool as covered earlier above and select Ellipse Tool.

Click the and hold anywhere on the canvas area to set a start point. Drag your mouse in any direction until you get the shape you want. To get a circle shape, press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard right after you click the start point.

Same as rectangle and square, you can also set the shape stroke and shape fill from the Properties panel.

If you use Photoshop on a regular basis, you can use keyboard shortcuts to streamline your workflow. We have compiled 62 essential Photoshop shortcuts which you can download in a PDF file.