in Geeklife, Howto

Photoshop: How to Convert a Path into a Shape

So you wanted to create a Custom Shape on photoshop but you started drawing a path because of the nature of what you were doing (or because you forgot to change the pen mode to Shape) and now when you want to right click > “Define Custom Path…” it’s disabled in the menu.

Here’s the solution:

1. Select the path with the path selection tool.
2. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. (Or use the Create new fill or adjustment layer button in the layers palette)
3. You have turned a path into a new shape layer.

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14 Comments

  1. hi iam using cs6(i dont think that will be a problem) and this did not help. yes i unfortunately made a path instead of shape. and is there any other way?

  2. After redrawing a path into a shape countless times because I forgot to change it over I thought I’d finally google it, so thanks for taking the time to post this, saved me some time re-dawing a path again.

  3. Thanks for this!

    @sisneh : It might not be a CS6 thing, it could just be that you’re still editing the original path…

    After creating the fill layer, your original path is still selected — you have to open the Paths panel and select the vector mask you just created (called “Color Fill 1 Vector Mask” or similar). Then you will be editing the “shape” (which is actually just a vector mask).

    (I was confused until I realized this, so hopefully it helps someone else.)

  4. If Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color doesn’t work for you, you can create a shape (any old shape), go to your path and select it with the Path Selection Tool, and cut and paste it to the shape layer. Then just delete the shape you made to create that layer. (I hope that makes sense!)

  5. Haha. I love that you described exactly what I did: “(or because you forgot to change the pen mode to Shape)”. Helpful tip. Thanks!

  6. Thanks for this, very useful 🙂 so many times I’ve redrawn the thing, this is very good knowledge to have