How Do I Change a 5-Point Star to an 8-Point Star in Adobe Photoshop?

Adobe Photoshop's shape tools allow users to create a number of shapes, including various styles of stars.

Adobe describes its Photoshop software as "industry-standard image-editing and compositing tools," and while it is mainly used for image editing, the built-in vector drawing tools allow the user to create a variety of shapes and lines.

Instructions

1. Turn on the tools pallet, layers pallet and options pallet pallet by clicking on each one in the window drop-down menu.

2. Click on the layer in which you want the star to appear in the layers pallet. Photoshop automatically creates a new layer when you begin to draw with any of the shape tools. The new layer will be placed above the current layer.

3. Click and hold the mouse on the shape tool. The default status of the shape tool is the rectangle button. When the shape tool button is selected, a fly-out menu showing other shape options will appear. Other options include a rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line and custom shape. Click on the polygon tool to create a star.

4. Click the black arrow in the center of the options pallet to show the polygon customization choices. Click the star check box. Then adjust the number in the "indent sides by" box. This setting controls the width of the star points. A standard star graphic uses 50.

5. Type a value in the "sides box" of the options pallet. The number will determine how many points the star will have. Enter 8 for an 8-point star.

6. Choose the star color by clicking on the color square on the options pallet. Then use the color slider to select a color. Click "OK" when the color is selected.

7. Position your cursor on the document page and the arrow will turn into cross-hairs. Click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse to adjust the size of the star. Release the mouse button to draw the star. Click on the arrow move tool button in the tool pallet, then click and hold in the center of the shape to drag to a new location on the page.

Tips & Warnings

• The same steps above can be used with any of the shape tool buttons. For even more shape options, select the custom shape button from the fly-out menu. This button adds additional choices to the options menu in the form of a shape drop-down list. Photoshop comes preloaded with a number of custom shapes, and additional shapes are available on the Adobe Exchange.

References

• "Adobe Photoshop CS4 one-on-one"; Deke McClelland; 2008
• Adobe Photoshop

Resources

• Adobe Exchange: Photoshop Custom Shapes