• Combining Shapes in Photoshop

  • By: Jarod Taylor | Category: Photoshop

  • When using vector based programs like Illustrator, combining two shapes is pretty straight forward with the paths palette. Unfortunately in Photoshop, it's not quite as obvious to achieve. In this Photoshop Quick Tip, we're going to do just that; combine 2 shapes into one.

    Have you ever been working in Photoshop, using two or more shapes together to form one, and you decide you want it to be a different color, so you go in and change the color of each one individually? Trust me, I've been there. It made me want to punch my monitor in the ovaries. I kept thinking "why the heck can't I just combine these into one shape and change ONE color?". Of course, I was too lazy to google it until I finally had to. Even then, it wasn't easy to find an easy solution to do so. Most the tutorials I had found were for combining shape layers as you were creating them, not combining two shape layers that had already been created. Anyway, enough venting, let's do this.

    Fire up Photoshop and create a new document of any size and create two separate shapes tutorial image.

    tutorial image

    Once you have your two shapes in the positions you want them combined in, follow these steps:

    1. In your layer's palette, click on one of the shape layers on the vector mask thumbnail (the one on the right). You'll know you have it selected because it will have a partial black border around it.

      Tutorial Image

      Now Ctrl + C (Cmd + C on a Mac) to copy the shape layer.
    2. Now click on the vector mask thumbnail of the other shape layer, and Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on a Mac) to paste it. You've now pasted the other shape into this shape. You can hide Tutorial Image the shape 1 layer now if you want.

      Tutorial Image
    3. Now choose the Path Selection Tool from the Tools Palette Tutorial Image. Hold shift and click each of the shapes on your artboard.

      Tutorial Image

    4. With both shape paths selected, click the combine button in the top tool bar Tutorial Image.

      Tutorial Image

    That's it! You can now double click the layer and change the color of your new shape to anything you want. If it's a shape you think you'll be using again, you can Define Custom Shape to put it in your custom shapes.

    tutorial image

    That's it for this Quick Tip! If you have any problems, or trouble, be sure to ask in the comments. Thanks for reading.