Difference Between Filled And Hollow Anchors In Photoshop

Posted in: Computers - Photoshop CS4

Date: February 27, 2010

This tutorial documents some of the functionality of the Photoshop CS4 pen tool.

Filled anchors are considered active. To understand how they work, go through the following simple exercise.

1. Choose the pen tool. Create any closed path.
2. Ctrl + Click outside the path to deselect the path.
3. Ctrl + Click anywhere on the path to reselect the path. You will now notice that the path is made up of many hollow anchors. These anchors are deactivated.
4. Ctrl + Click any anchor to make that anchor active. Ctrl + Click + Move the same anchor and you will be able to move the individual anchor around.
5. Ctrl + Shift + Click any other anchors you like. This makes the other anchors active as well. If you Ctrl + Click + Move the active anchors, you will see that they move in unison.

Note: When the pen tool is selected, the Ctrl key will switch your active tool to the Direct Selection Tool. You could perform this same tutorial without the shortcuts. Click Here to switch the directions (javascript must be active).