Shapes from Illustrator to Photoshop

Although Photoshop has some vector tools, I find it easier to create a vector shape in a vector based program such as Illustrator and then bring it into Photoshop. These 4 sun shapes were done in Illustrator in about two minutes, it would take forever to do them in Photoshop!

And it’s easy to import a path from Illustrator to Photoshop. Go make a shape in Illustrator, then leaving Illustrator open, open Photoshop and create a new document – make sure it’s at least as large as the shape that you just created. Go back to Illustrator and select your shape and copy it. Go back to Photoshop and paste. A PASTE AS dialogue box will appear, select SHAPE LAYER and then click OK.

All that’s left is to define your shape as a custom Photoshop shape. With the shape path still selected, go to EDIT>DEFINE CUSTOM SHAPE and name it whatever you like. Now click on the custom shape icon on the toolbar and select your new shape from the Custom Shape Picker at the top of your screen. At this point you should save your custom shapes, and that’s it! Now you can use the shape in Photoshop whenever you want.