Show a path without editing

[gizmo1990]

Hi everyone, new to the forum.

How to 'show' a path without 'editing' it when I want to transform a selection?

I've not used a modern photoshop for a while (10 years?) and I'm struggling with something which I never used to have a problem with.

I like creating paths as guides which I can use to scale a layer's contents to. So I'd go to the paths tab (panel), select the layer that the path is in, to make it visible, then I'd switch back to the Layer tab (panel), select an area of it and then apply a transform. What happens now though is that I 'transform' the boundary of the path, not the contents of the Layer or selection I've made.

It's driving me crazy! It doesn't make any sense to me either because I'm not 'selecting' the path itself, just the path's layer to make it visible.

Could someone tell me how I achieve this now? Any help much appreciated.

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I like creating paths as guides which I can use to scale a layer's contents to.

Can you explain this better? How (with which tool) are you creating paths? Maybe provide screenshots?

So I'd go to the paths tab (panel), select the layer that the path is in, to make it visible, then I'd switch back to the Layer tab (panel), select an area of it and then apply a transform.

So, with an active path, you would make a selection? How? Another selection tool?

It doesn't make any sense to me either because I'm not 'selecting' the path itself, just the path's layer to make it visible.

Anytime a path/path layer is active/selected.....this becomes the defined area that will be transformed. This has never changed over the years and versions of Ps.

 

[hawkeye]

When a path is active, the transform tool will transform the path. If you wish to use a path as a guide, stroke the path with a thin brush on a separate layer above. Then use that layer as your guide. See the screenshot, it says Transform Path.

 

[Rich54]

My interpretation is that the OP wants to use a vector path to make selections from an image, and then manipulate that selected portion of the image. I believe the problem is that he is trying to do the manipulation while the vector path is still active, which results in the path itself being changed instead of the underlying image. Here's the fix:

Start with an image and a vector path:





Create a selection from this path. Then copy the selected area to a new layer:





Once the selected area is on a new layer, you can manipulate it any way you wish. In this example, I rotated it, made it darker and gave it a stroke:

 

[IamSam]

Hmmmmmmm...................

Here's how I'm interpreting it.

He creates a path for some kind of guide.
Goes to the paths panel and selects the "layer" that the path is on.
This makes the path visible.


He then returns to the layers panel, and then he somehow makes a selection of an area......??????

select an area of it and then apply a transform.

And then want's to transform the selection and not the path using free transform.


But as with any active path, free transform, transforms the path and not the "contents" of the selection.

What happens now though is that I 'transform' the boundary of the path, not the contents of the Layer or selection I've made.

This is why I have asked for more information because this is now and has always been the NORMAL behavior for Photoshop!!

We need to know what he means when he says, "select an area of it and then apply a transform". What does he mean by select an area of it and how does he do this?

Without the active path, we can easily transform the contents of a selection...........