Photoshop 22.0: Where is Line Weight/Width and Pixels options?

Thanks Mark,,, please put this on the front burner. And actually restore the functionality, don't bolt on some other solution/hack.

@mark_dahm Yes, please!! And please make bringing it back a priority.  Whatever the method currently is, I couldn't get it to work I spent well over half an hour trying unsuccessfully to add 4 simple lines to a photograph yesterday.  I still haven't worked out how to do it.  In the end, I had to resort to drawing very thin rectangles and trying very hard to make them the same width (which I couldn't quite manage, but with some trial and error, I got them within 1px of each other).  Goodness knows what I'd have done if they weren't vertical/horizontal.  

@mark_dahm 

Really looking forward to having it restored! I'll be able to update photoshop to the new version again! I have had to go back to a previous version.

Through time tracking I was able to figure out that my efforts took me three hours longer than normal, not to mention the quality of work has definitely been degraded.  3 hours a day… 5 days a week = 15 hours. I'm losing about two days of productivity a week because of this. Thankfully I have an understanding manager,  but I doubt his bosses and our customers are going to be as understanding.

 I plead with you Adobe to get this back in.

@mark_dahm Thank you very much!! I hope this can be done as soon as possible!

@jdearing couldn't you just install the previous version for now until Adobe addresses this in an update?  CC allows you to install the previous version, 2020.  

@mark_dahm hallelujah

Wow, I'm amazed, after using Photoshop since version 2.0 (yes I'm *that* old!), you manage to really screw up the simplest of all tools in Photoshop 20 versions later. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

The only work around I've found is to use rectangles. And when making thin rectangles you get no middle point to drag the rectangle to prolong it, now you have to guestimate with pixels, millimeters or inches. Very cumbersome.

Funny enough, when I made a line with arrow heads in each end of the line, only the arrow heads was showing. How's that even possible?!

Is Photoshop really improving each version, or is it getting worse? I dunno, but I can't afford to subscribe to Illustrator for some easy designs... and using lines is really as basic as design goes.

Looking forward an upgrade within a week or so, as it shouldn't be that hard to find the error!

Photoshop 2.5 was my first version. I'm right there with you. Adobe doesn't seem to care about those of us who have been with them for a very long time. 

Jason, we old farts maybe need to stop being creative then!

I was once on the Adobe beta testing team, and was testing a lot of programs, mainly Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator and InDesign, as I've been working as a graphic designer and photographer for a long time (also been tutoring in these programs as well as translating books by Scott Kelby about them from English to Swedish). But this was pre-subscription era.

Maybe I need to get on to those beta testing teams again (if Adobe wants me) to make sure these young guns are kept in check! ;-)

Why, oh why, did Adobe change this?!
What used to be so simple and intuitive now appears to be very complicated!!

I just want to be able to draw a quick arrow. Microsoft, of all people, makes it easier than you folks do, for the love of Pete!

@mark_dahm Is their a status update on this? Many thanks

@mark_dahm Would really appreciate an update on this as this is setting me back as I now have to reinstall an older version to use as a workaround. Not good.

@mark_dahm 

Yes please, the line tool was a simple tool that I used in several projects.  Please return it to it's previous function.

My main use was in product exploded views.  I export the 3D image and then quickly draw the lines to where the screws go.  Sure there are other options to do this but I've doing these for close to 10 years now, not looking to change my workflow.

@mark_dahm you changed a simple tool into multiple clicks? not happy I have a live real money job relying on this tool, and you want me to Faf around with layer shapes?
Typical Adobe nonsense, add 10 feature I don't care for, and break 20 I neeed.

@mark_dahm Imagine you take a paper and a pencil and start drawing, everybody knows how a pencil works. Now imagine Adobe makes you updated pen and paper. Every time you drew a line its either invisible or needs accepting and adjusting before you can draw more. Thats basically what you have to pixel lines. To put it short Adobe: fix it, give us a refund for last month and apologize. Also shame on you for not testing your updates in real use. This update affected my business. My trust in Adobe is gone, I will not recommend relying on Adobe products for anyone. I will start studying alternative software.

@mark_dahm

I want to make clear the minimum criteria for this to be solved:

1. The tool must show a line identical to the final product, while it's being drawn. We have to be able to preview it before commiting the line, so that we see exactly what it will look like in the end.
2. When it is committed, it must lay the line as pixels onto the target layer, even if it's a layer with other pixels on it, if that's what we intend.  

Any "fix" that doesn't restore our precision and speed of workflow in these two ways will not even be a reasonable compromise.

As far as I know, those are the deal-breakers. For example, I am not aware of anyone really worried about restoring the pixel line being a rectangle, unless that's what's necessary to meet the two above criteria in a timely manner.

Yes. It has to do exactly what the old tool did, nothing more, nothing less.

Just a tool that lets you visualize and create a pixel line on the layer you selected.

No new layers, no modification needed after being created, no vector, nothing new or different please. 

@mark_dahm The loss of the pixel line tool is beyond frustrating and aggravating for my workflow. I echo Kaz Vorpal's requirements above.

@mark_dahm

Please... pretty please... this was the very most tool I used in Photoshop. And now it's gone and I'm very sad. I agree with ciellchan - it has to do exactly what the old tool did. Even if you make a new tool that's a duplicate of the old tool - - need this functionality back ASAP!! My LIFE depends on it... ;)

@mark_dahm 

Just restore the pixel option. Nothing complex or fancy. Just draw a simple line between two points. I usually like new functions with updates. Like the sky replacement and neural filters etc but taking functions away I don't like. 

Agreed, the solution is to roll back not push forward with a hack fix. Adobe listen to your customers!!!!

weeks later....

maybe if you pull your heads out of your asses, @mark_dahm and stop screwing up what wasn't broken.

i go to use the line tool and.... nothing.  choose the pixels.  zero.  tired of adobe's incompetence.

@mark_dahm This is ridiculous. A basic function of PS that has been part of the software for decades is suddenly disabled? You guys need some new developers.

@mark_dahm Here's a good way: scrap this update and roll back.

Mark, I know (hope) this isn't personally your fault, and we all respect the fact that you've acknowledged that this needs to be fixed. Please pass on the advice that Adobe needs to forget saving face - that's already been lost. The only way out of the corner you've painted yourselves into is to admit you were wrong and replace the tool.

We've already waited over a month. If Adobe had seen its mistake at the start of this debacle, a rollback would have taken an hour. With each passing day and further update, you complicate restoring the tool and make your own problem worse.

@mark_dahm Progress? 

I was hoping this would be fixed in 22.1 update.

No joy.

Adobe you've dropped some real clangers in recent times but this one is right up there.

Is there an open beta people can join to give feedback so features like this aren't stillborn?

Read the comments from Adobe scattered about in this lengthy thread;  you will find out a lot that may be helpful.

I reinstalled Photoshop 2020. I'll just use that version until Adobe restores the legacy line tool. Hopefully, they will figure out how to do so while also maintaining the new line tool, which I'm sure has its uses. 

@DGrainger 

Unfortunately not. I just want to be able to draw a line in pixels without any other steps like I've done since PS 2.0 on disk.

@mark_dahm  Thank you and please, please, please bring this back as soon as possible. As an architect and concept artist I use the pixel setting daily. This has destroyed my workflow. Especially for snapping to angles. Being forced to use shapes and a new layer for each line makes the line tool completely useless for my purposes.

@mark_dahm  Still waiting for the pixel line tool to be back :/ Is it normal to pay for and use an OLD version of photoshop to make it ? Is is this complicated to bring it back ? Please, do something

@mark_dahm   Can you you hurry up reinstating the line tool pixel functionality?  I keep getting prompts to update PS but none include this fix. I'm losing faith that Adobe actually listen to their user feedback. Have reverted to PS 2020 and will simply not update until this fixed.

@mark_dahm Chiming in here to also ask that Adobe please bring back full pixel line tool functionality. I am a digital illustrator and graphic designer. Photoshop is an indispensable program, and I use the pixel line tool every day. Vector tools are also great and I use them all the time, but the pixel line tool is a crucial part of my workflow when I'm creating painterly images, sketches, and inking—for early drafts all the way to finished work. Please bring back this tool as soon as possible. I will have to migrate to other software.

Thanks, @BenKN77 , we intend to restore that functionality very soon. Thanks for your patience.

@mark_dahm 

This comment is from 2 months ago Mark. What is going on? How is it possible for Adobe to piss its customers off to this extent? Is Adobe planning financial recompense for everybody's wasted time? Why should I use an OLDER version? Can I pay an older subscription fee?

Full detailed answer is expected please.

The silence is deafening...

@jdearing, @chris_mccann_6652317  , there will be a minor release coming out very soon that will not include this change, but a more extensive change is coming very soon thereafter that will have this working. Thank you for your patience; we'll get this right soon.

Thank you for the update

@mark_dahm YES, PLEASE. THIS HAS REALLY INTERRUPTED MY WORKFLOW- i USE LINES OVER IMAGES ALL OF THE TIME- oops, sorry to shout - The pixel line is key for us. Please advise when this will be restored.

@mark_dahm

It's been two months and multiple updates since you wrote this, the Line Tool is still worth fuck all, we need to use weird rectangles as a workaround and it just messes with productivity.

Also, get on stability and performance, because no matter how much money I throw into my computer components, whatever you guys did to PhotoShop it's lagging and being unresponsive, I'm close to unsub from CC and just torrent PS.

@mark_dahm  This has been sooooo frustrating for me.  I used to draw lines all the time and now I am continually working on work arounds for a simple line.  

PLEASE PLEASE bring back the line tool NOW

@mark_dahm 

Please hurry up. I edit comics and drawings and frequently need to just fill or extend a line. The pixel version is quick and simple and I get on with my work. 

For the umpteenth time 

WHAT GOOD IS A LINE TOOL THAT CANT SIMPLY DRAW LINES??

@mark_dahm 

You posted this THREE MONTHS AGO!!!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? 
WE NEED THE LINE TOOL BACK ASAP

@mark_dahm any eta on this, I echo what everyone else is saying here

@mark_dahm whats taking so long get your shit together already

@mark_dahm "looking into" and "investigating"
nice you have time to do this where we:,the paying users are losing money while waiting...

As a reminder, as we work to restore the line tool, the previous version of Photoshop can be installed.

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html

@mark_dahm I have been a Photoshop user for 20 years.  I just spent over an hour trying to draw lines with arrowheads, still not successful.  I will be pursuing this hostile user attitude in other forums.

@craig maxey:  Mark Dahm has already said that this is in the works; let's not keep shooting the messenger!

It should have NEVER shipped with this level of broken functionality!!!  And based on the tenor of this thread, I can anticipate problems this fundamental will appear again.

@ghfjffdhdk

You have posted exactly 15 messages since you joined towards the end of October, 2020, all are on this topic, most are just angry, but a couple are quite abusive, directed at an employee who is not the one who would make any programming changes. This is not a very nice way to either get your point across or to make anyone want to help you. 

Repeating the same blast, over and over, is the same as continuing to hammer long after the nail is seated. Doing so does not drive the nail further, and it damages the wood.

Delivered as part of Photoshop 2021.

Turns out, as idiosyncratic as the former line tool was, there were plenty of useful applications for it, and we are investigating how to support both two point lines and rectangular lines.

Please just give us the old functionality back. This wasn't broken and didn't need fixing. 

'investigating how to support both two point lines and rectangular lines'  ? just give us the tool back the way it was so we can get on with our work. In the meantime I am going back to an earlier version.

“we are investigating how to support both two point lines and rectangular lines.”

Thank you, @mark_dahm. The old line never made a lick of sense to me and I’m glad you will be keeping the new one in addition to restoring the old one for those who need to draw lines that are really rectangles.

@JaneE , I do not understand. How do you do to draw a line on a sheet and with a ruler in two points?

I also  noticed this change. Its just greyed out. The pixel line tool is super helpful for a lot of quick tasks... so this is actually kind of annoying! In order to draw some lineart I needed yesterday for a comic I had to take my drawing out of photoshop and use a different program. 

There is an ongoing discussion about various changes to the line tool including the pixel option here: https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/photoshop-220-where-is-the-line-weightwidth-option/5f9039ee917fbb3a9931cc53

Maybe you're interested ...

It would be very helpful and much appreciated if the pixel option for the line tool could be added as a legacy setting or at least a similar tool could be created. It really helps to speed up environment design that has a lot of architecture.

I draw a line with an arrow head, and no matter what I set the line is simply gone. I can stroke it anyway I like and - nothing.

What the hell are you people thinking??? Something that took zero time and thought now requires multiple steps. Just dumb as a post. You wanna add controls, fine, but keep the simplest methods intact. Jesus wept.

@tomwalker55 , if the line is not showing up, check your stroke alignment; should be center or outside.

@Blah_blob, The line tool switched from being a 4 point rectangle/line that could be stroked to a two point line with zero stroke (lines do not have weight; this is the same behavior for the pen tool when you create a segment). It was not an arbitrary change, but one based on the mechanics of the underlying switch.

The former pixel option did allow for lines to be drawn on the same layer, but that option is also possible with the "Combine Shapes" drawing mode (in the options bar) and this new design as well. Shortcut key is shift (release so as not to lock the angle).

Hi Rosa, thanks for the reply, I don't see any options for making a line thicker/wider in the Properties tab. Please advise.

Click on the gear icon for the line tool options.

Hi Jeffrey, thanks for the reply. The gear only lets me choose a thickness of 3px. Is it no longer possible to make thicker lines in Photoshop?

Yes, currently native lines only go to 3px.

You can use this method to use Stroke to make the lines thicker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDoZdcj26HQ

Thanks Jeffrey, this was helpful.

Does this mean the old "weight" option for lines is gone for good then?

Yes, the weight option has been removed and now stroke field will govern that functionality instead. Its at options Bar and Properties Panel

Thanks!

Thank you Rishu for the confirmation. (I'm not particularly thrilled with this change, but I appreciate your quick and informative response.)

Yes, i use Pixel lines all the time too and the tool is now greyed out in the dropdown?

@CMJRoss_CRE 

As four cornered rectangles, Photoshop's old lines were problematic to move around onscreen after you drew them, and the weight control was not interactive (after you drew the line, changing the value would not affect the line, but would control how the NEXT line would be drawn).

A two point path with a stroke is the prevailing line design paradigm that most apps with lines follow, even across non design apps, but in Illustrator and XD, as well. It offers what we believed to be a simpler, but equally functional interaction model; use stroke to adjust line width (no more non-interactive width control setting). Together with the new on-canvas controls added for all shapes, we believed this would make changing the width of lines simpler, and moving the lines around on screen after you draw them easier as well (just grab one of the two anchor points the move either of the ends around).

We didn't expect to see any degradation of options with the new lines, though admittedly, the arrow heads should be made to be more interactive. What aspect of the new line fails for you and your workflows; there is always room for improvement.

Earth, with the new lines being two end points and a zero point 'weight', there is no line to stroke with pixels, so the option is now grayed out (just as it is for the path tool).

Rasterizing the line gets you to the pixels you're looking for. But wouldn't the non-rasterized lines be more useful and interactive in most cases?

Thanks Mark, in theory they'd be better, yes. The problem is that we often simply want to quickly just draw a bunch of arrows without needing editablity after. Imagine needing to draw a dozen arrows on a page... with the new version, my only options are either creating 12 shape layers or a using the Path option, which really isn't a Path? It's a live shape? But i can't use the Properties Panel to change its appearance? Nor can i change the shape of the arrow after being drawn? If i use a path, it behaves so strangely too when i try to transform. Even though it's a path, it doesn't behave like a path... Honestly, I've never in decades of daily Ps usage been so confused by a tool and its behavior. 

Hold the shift key down to NOT create all those layers; you can select all the lines by selecting that layer, and all the lines change (eg, stroke).

Yeah, that arrow editing needs to get better.

that helps, thanks. There's a lot to like about the direction the tool is headed, but the UX is not feeling very intuitive relative to the rest of Ps. And I'm talking just about the line/arrow tool, specifically. I think all the other shapes are in a pretty good place.

This new behavior is so confusing. Yes, holding shift creates just one layer, but it also constrains to straight/45° lines. So you have to be very careful with pressing and releasing the shift key. To be honest I consider that a bad design choice. Anyways, I almost exclusively used the old Line tool as an easy to use tool for creating arbitrary guides as a visual help when retouching (which is unfortunately not otherwise possible). And immediately it seems more complicated as I don't need all this fancy Liveform stuff ... maybe I get used to it :( 

@mark_dahm

This new tool is extremely problematic.

Someone from support provided a recommendation of using the line tool with no fill and add the weight to the stroke, and then make additional modifications in the Live Shape Properties tab. That still doesn't work to change the weight of the line itself. When I try to modify the weight, it changes the stroke, not the line.

Additionally, the arrowheads used to be sized proportionally with percentage numbers based on the weight of the line. That has been changed to specific pixels. That makes no sense.

I need to be able to point to objects on pictures and aerial photographs and site plans. This is a simple but integral part of my job every day for 25 years. And now I can't do it. I am having to go into new files, copy the layer with my line or arrow, and then paste it into the new file.

Someone from support also suggested using the pen tool. How? How do I create an arrow with perfectly straight lines using the pen tool? Do I have to draw a long thin rectangle followed by a triangle and then somehow merge them, and fill them and stroke them with the company colors for the project?

How is this progress?

@CMJRoss_CRE ,

> That still doesn't work to change the weight of the line itself

Is there a reason why you need the line itself to be anything other than zero pixels if the width of the stroke can be any stroke size? I suspect I'm missing something in your workflow that mandates that the lines be rectangles, but I'm not getting it yet; thanks for your patience.

On the arrowheads, the reason the arrowheads no longer scale to the weight of the line is because the line is always zero pixels; to get any arrowheads, it needed to be pixels.

It can be pretty convenient to save line presets in case you need to quickly switch between different arrowhead settings and line widths. Perhaps using presets can fully restore the quick access to the arrow + arrowheads that you need for your workflow.

In my field of commercial real estate, I am perpetually marking up site plans, maps, and aerial imagery. I usually use a 9px - 15 px line, with a fill of white, red, yellow, or whatever, and with the arrowhead width @ 500%, length at 1000%, and concavity at 35%. Then I put a 3pt - 9pt stroke and minor shadow. I've done this for 25 years. And with the new version, I am having to find old arrows in other files, and copy & paste them into my new document.

Additionally, I will draw an ellipse then add a straight line of complementary size and merge the two shapes. That is just a different callout that I use.

The weight of the line will depend on what I'm actually using. If it's too crowded with other information, I'll use a thin line; if I need the callout to jump out, I'll use a heavier line. Photoshop 2021 has decided that I am not allowed to do this anymore.

You suggested using presets. How would I even do that? I use custom actions and Libraries, but I don't know from presets. I also keep seeing someone posting a whole bunch of code, and then saying to just run the script. I don't know what that means.

At this point, I've gone back to the 2020 version because it will let me do what I need to do. I realize that I am inevitably missing whatever else is new & exciting in this update, but I don't have the time to go through 87 steps to create an arrow that used to be created in 2-3.

@mark_dahm

@CMJRoss_CRE 

The new line tool supports everything you are doing, and I thought of maybe a couple of ways you could be more efficient.

• use the line tool with the arrowhead on the end, set to 50px wide, 70px long and concavity @ 20%
• Fill and stroke color = red
• set the stroke to whatever you want; I used 16 pixels on a reasonably sized document for visibility; of course both the stroke sizes and arrowheads vary based on destination document resolution, but there won't be infinite resolutions that force you to muck with the settings anymore than before.
• Draw the line; note that you can adjust either end of the line using the new on-canvas 'handles'
• To add the stroke and drop shadow, use layer effects (couldn't tell if you were doing that or not)

Efficiency idea 1: to the right of the small house icon in the options bar are the presets; click the down arrow just to the right of the diagonal line to save a new preset (the small + icon), which records the stroke color and size:  

If only it were that easy. I tried following your instructions, but I can't get the arrow to even fit on my 11x17 page. PS 2021 arrow

You will see that my line and fill and arrow are to the specs you suggested. Why is it running off the page before I can even draw it? And why am I not permitted to resize it in the properties panel? I tried manually entering the number 3 in the width field, but it doesn't accept my input. So I tried dragging the corners to resize, and that doesn't work either. What am I missing? Oh, yeah: I'm missing a simple tool that let me complete my task with 2-3 steps.

BTW - where are these new "on-canvas handles"? Should I have seen them, or do I have to make changes to my settings?

Yikes! Your arrow size is set to 50 cm, not pixels; bump that bad boy down under the gear icon in options.

"But wouldn't the non-rasterized lines be more useful and interactive in most cases?"

Hi Mark. Even though PS has focused mostly on photo editing (duh), many people still use it for illustration like drawing, digital painting, etc. The function you describe requires extra steps that slow down peoples' workflow. For example, I use PS for concept art and rely heavily on linework, and a simple straight line made out of pixels is extremely useful for this due to its speed and simplicity. If I need to edit it, I erase it and redraw it. All the steps you and other Adobe employees are suggesting don't address this issue. I also understand that the editing options give line and shapes more illustrator-like functionality, but why not have both? Is there a way that CC users can ask for this to come back? Thank you

The problem with the new arrows is the size is set in pixels, not as a percentage of the line width. So if you previously had an arrowhead to line proportion that you liked, you would have to recalculate that in pixels if you change the stroke width.

@CMJRoss_CRE

Also in CRE and use for the same thing.  Trying today to make some nice lines and WTFrog - it's all gone.  Not acceptable.  1,000,000% NOT acceptable adobe.  Vile company. 

i am having a problem with this too.  i use the lines with arrowheads all the time to annotate my images.  due to the standardisation the arrows have to be yellow with a black outline.  so by having now having to adjust the stroke and the fill having no use i can only make the arrow one colour.  Now i cant just click and drag an arrow out.  the best solution i have come up with is to use the custom shape tool.  but this always puts the arrow facing the same direction and not the point at the start of the click so my workflow has increased greatly.  another option is to create an outer glow template to add after the arrow has been drawn but this is also time consuming.  seems like a silly thing to have got rid of.  I have had to resort back to the older version of Photoshop which is a shame

@Kenneth Campbell arrowheads support fill and stroke both, similar to previous Ps versions.

on the latest update (22.0) the arrow head supports fill but the line doesnt.  The new line tool is restricted to 2 points and can only be given width by the outer stroke unfortunately.  

@Kenneth Campbell both outer and on-the-shape stroke alignments work for line shapes. The inside stroke alignment doesn't work now because lines have zero weight, and there's no inside.

yes,  that is the problem.  if you want a yellow arrow with a black outline for example there is no way of doing that now

@Kenneth Campbell does using yellow fill and black stroke on the line achieve the intended result? This should show yellow arrowheads that are outlined with black colour.

no.  it fills the arrow head with yellow, but the line has no fill so it is just the black outline.  the only way i could find to do it was make a yellow arrow and then use an outer glow of black to give it a black outline.  i have to do hundreds of these arrows every day so the extra time really mounts up.  easier to use the older version.

You can use Layer Styles to stroke both the arrowhead and the line, if you need them both. 

Additionally, consider saving a preset for your line tool so you can expedite selecting the line with the correct arrowhead and line attributes.

I do think we should add a quick way to apply your stroke layer style to the options bar; that is a good feature request, since that is not saved with the preset.

  I know that everyone has a different way of working, and that Photoshop isnt as concerned with illustrators as it is with photographers and designers, but I work in comics and I often have to create lineart with...you know...lines. And this change although adding new options actually makes things so much more slow.  I LIKED the line tool to have Pixel option because I could easily lay down a bunch of strait lines very quickly. With this new change, you make a line, and it immediately is a shape with endpoints so your next mouseclick cant create a line in that spot (since now it presumes you want to position an endpoint, not immediately create a new line from that spot) I could easily connect endpoints before by letting go of line, then starting my next line where the cursor was! 

Thanks, Jake, for this info; very helpful.

Yeah I'm with Jake on this, anyone using PS for doing line art using pixel lines is going to get super frustrated with this change. I posted about the update in my intro to perspective class. The teacher in the class was not let's just say "happy". We are talking about a long time professional. My two cents is reverse the change, you have to keep the illustrator and drawing professionals in mind when making changes to these tools.

I've personally gone back to the previous version of PS.

Thank you for taking the time and addressing our concerns.

This is my problem as well. I am also a comic artist and I'm currently working on a UV Unwrap of a model created in Blender.  The way I work is to "trace" some of the lines of the model to make it look like a hand-drawn object.  What I'll do is use the line tool to tap around the model, tracing this line or that line on the edges of the model. It only takes me a moment to do this with the old line tool, and any "inaccuracies" work to my favor, giving it a more organic look. 

I generally have felt that Clip Studio Paint is my go-to for this, but sadly, the text tools in CSP are very lacking and one of the reasons I MAKE 3D models for my comic is so I can plaster walls with warning signs or whatever and then I don't have to try to fight with text in perspective.

This has severely hampered my workflow.  I understand the pen-type tools and their usefulness, indeed I regularly work in Vector in CSP, however, removing the raster function altogether has introduced quite a number of steps for me.

Be aware that I use a monitor tablet for work, and the "shift" key is difficult to reach (Up until now, I didn't NEED to hit the shift key while in "drawing" mode).  Any workflow that requires the shift key being pressed (As in: not creating 60 new layers when each line is created as a live object) is extremely onerous. 

I have my "vector" workflow (On my main monitor) and my "Drawing/Raster" workflow on a drawing monitor.  They are very distinct and moving some features over to one monitor and others to another are horribly disruptive.

I would like to please request that a legacy tool be placed back in: I draw straight lines, then switch to brush and work around curves all the time... this puts those two things on different workflows.  thank you

@guy_davis_irezoxg8xt8qi , Thanks for the feedback, guy; appreciate it!

I appreciate the new behavior in Photoshop and I think it will prove very useful. However, I am very disappointed that the old behavior is gone. I often draw vector shapes in Photoshop and relied on the original "rectangle" behavior of the line tool to be able to draw rectangles as lines. For example, right now I am doing some outlining work (below) and was immediately thrown by this change of behavior. Now to to accomplish the same task which was quick and easy with the line tool before, I will have to draw out rectangles and then rotate and scale them into position--much more work, tedious, and imprecise--or switch over to Illustrator for this work so that I can draw out lines and convert them to shapes.

An ideal solution for me would be to add back in the original behavior as a separate vector shape or a toggle/option for the line (or rectangle!) tool.

@colton,

Do you need a vector for this gap or do you just need to fill it in?

If all you need to do is fill it in, you can use stroke to adjust width, instead of the former width setting. Draw the line down the center of the gap, then change the stroke to the correct size (width).

Alternatively, maybe we could add an option like we have for the polygon tool that lets you draw the shape in any direction (freeform; it's also new in Ps 22); an unconstrained 4 sided polygon in freeform mode might include all the same functionality of the former line tool (minus the arrowhead), but again, is that any better than the stroke solution for you?

Hi Mark!

Thanks for the quick reply! Actually, no--not fill the gap--make it!

Drawing "lines"/rectangles from any angle could work assuming it worked like the legacy line in previous versions. Again--love the change, but just looking to have the previous functionality returned if possible in some way. It was unique and useful.

I hadn't yet put the new version down on my laptop, so I made a very quick video example of how I'd been previously using the line tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4bxFUtTVg&feature=youtu.be

A bit quick and rough in the example, but the point comes across. The advantage here is that as pointed out, I'm not drawing lines but quickly drawing rectangles that cut into the shape at various angles and thicknesses. I've also made use of them as additive too in projects--so not limited to cutting.

How about using the pen tool for this, again, using stroke, like this:

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/01f39f81-4a62-48dd-5ba2-0bfcf4cdc82c

You can still change the width of the lines with stroke weight.

Hi Mark!

Thanks for the reply and suggestion.

Depending on the end use of the artwork, that could work yes. However it doesn't necessarily replace the missing functionality.

Using the pen tool as in your video, the end result will be pixel-based because it is creating the effect with a stroke. If the project's output is pixel-based that would do just fine.

However, the Line Tool's previous functionality is a vector rectangle that could be merged and copied out to another application like Illustrator and it would retain all the inner detail from the linework. A line with a stroke will simply disappear from a merge operation.

An alternative usecase might be if the artwork we made in the videos were to be an icon. If we were to use a stroke for that detail, and then scale the icon, the stroke will not scale proportionally with the icon. The example video I posted would scale proportionally because the linework is not reliant on a stroke.

Also in my example I was using it to cut into the artwork, thus allowing it to show the layer beneath it, which is also sometimes desired if I were creating an icon or a single color that I wanted to work on a black or white background--I'd need the subtraction.

The best other parallel I would have would be a method like you showed in your example video--but done in Illustrator instead where it could be followed up with an Outline Stroke operation to remove the stroke but retain the appearance--which I suppose could be another way to attack the request--being able to outline the stroke in Photoshop.

Thanks for hearing the request!

@mark_dahm Any chance the weight option can be added back??? In my daily work I've used the box shape and line tool to crate panels with a gutter. I can't do that If I can't adjust the weight of the line tool.

@ericpwl13 , to clarify, Stroke is how you adjust the width of your lines, now; the ability is not gone.

Let me know if you have a workflow that is stumping you and I'll be happy to see whether that capability is moved or removed.

Needed only to draw a simple straight line on a photo. A simple task -now made complicated. The solution?  Use an earlier version of Photoshop. A step backwards. 

@mark_dahm No, it does not do the same thing. In PS 2020 and previous versions I would create a box and use the minus line tool (option key) to dissect it to crate panels with uniform gutters. Adjusting the width of the gutter in the weight settings. Without the weight settings, and using just the stroke, it changes the width of everything. So I no longer get gutters. I just get a box with lines through it and all the width of the black stroke lines of the box increase as I try to vary the width of the line tool. See the attached video. 

Ah, I see! Thanks for the video. The former lines were rectangles, and you can do the same thing with rectangle tool that you did with lines, however I think one of the handy elements of your former workflow was that the width of the line was consistent across use, so you could more easily draw 4 lines with the same width using the old line tool than if you used the rectangle tool. So this same workflow is possible, but drawing a consistent width each time takes a little more manual work than it used to.

You can accelerate your workflow by using the option key after you draw the first horizontal rectangle. Click with the option key down in the left margin to pop the 'create rectangle' dialog; it will place an identical line in the new position for you, eliminating the work of having to manually match the width of the previous line (they will all be the same); and in fact eliminating the work to manually draw any line whatsoever.

@mark_dahm Hi! Can you pass on the wishes of bringing back the pixel version of line tool?

(Our 80 person company is now forced to use old version because of the pixel line option is missing in new)

@mark_dahm I watched your video and read all your solutions. They don't address the fundamental problem of not being able to commit a line to pixel with single stroke efficiency in Photoshop 2021. The line pixel functionality was a critical component to many artists because not only did it draw straight lines and commit immediately to pixels for speed, it was also a de facto straight edge and digital string tool for drawing AND checking perspective orthogonals. 

The vector pen tool alternative that you suggest is not a new idea. The reason why many artists have avoided using it is not for a lack knowledge or awareness to it's existence, but for the pure fact in order to achieve the same thing involves more keystrokes and operations PER stroke (via a combination of layer merging and tool switching).

Furthermore, for artists that use Photoshop with a tablet based computer, having to now incorporate additional shift/option/ctrl key modifiers completely degrades the workflow and requires having a keyboard readily available; where the previous functionality the keyboard could be physically be put away and still be able to draw efficiently (the free hand could literally be used to hold the tablet computer). 

What's the solution? Re-enable the pixels option for the line tool. If you need any more convincing of the demographic of users that this tool affects, just go to artstation.com. 

This is an exact and more concise explanation of the problem. Thank you!

ADOBE PLEASE READ THIS!

@mark_dahm I use the 'line' tool all the time to draw paths of a specific width. This makes that impossible.

Guess that means I'm forced to reverting to the previous version to actually get work done. 

Kudo's.

Looks like Photoshop actually gets less usable at every update. Please fix this.

@mark_dahm 
Will the pixel mode be back and when? 
I need the pixel line to keep my workflow and all I read from Adobe are things about weight control, interactive lines and scalability that many users of the Pixel line never needed. My workflow is severely affected by this change. 
To make just a simple pixel line I now have to do 3 extra steps. This means every time I'm working on a project those 3 extra steps can easily become more than 300. Just try to figure how much time that means on a real life project.

Why is Adobe refusing to bring back this feature? 
I don't want to move to another software but I'm not finding any other solution. Many of us don't have spare time to make extra steps for what should be just a simple action.

It's one step forward, two steps back. The "feature" in 2021 has become a hinderance to a massive user base.

Adobe, I really hope you're listening and analyzing this thread. We desperately need this functionality back. This isn't a cut on the skin, it's an amputation.

@mark_dahm 

What good is a line tool that can't draw lines? 

What do you think people use a line tool for? 

What were you thinking? 

IMVHO disabling the PIXEL option in line tool was a BAD IDEA!!!

PLEASE REINSTATE IT?

Thanks for your patience. 

~o0~ moldred ~0o~

I keep reading the solution of using the stroke tool and using the pen… These are all solutions to fix something that was not broken and your recommendations are not adequate solutions for the needs of myself and many others. Adobe has added so many clicks to what used to be a simple and quick tool. What used to take me two clicks has become a process of selecting multiple colors for fills and strokes and stroke weights and rastersizing layers.  

Not all of us need to work in a vector mode. I'm begging you, listen to what your users want... don't tell them what they want. I've been a Photoshop user since 1993. In the last few years for no rhyme or reason you've made changes that were built in muscle memory for me and others. You took away tools and functionality that was second nature to us for no apparent reason other than making change for the sake of making change.

I realize this may not be the right location for this type of feedback but I'm hoping that you as employees of Adobe can take it to the right people. Please provide a link to where it would be appropriate to leave this type of feedback. - Thank you.

This is so dead-on. I've been using Photoshop for a couple of decades myself. I use the line tool with arrowheads literally everyday. Every time the menus change I think, "OK, Adobe has changed this; I just need to figure out where the settings have moved to." In this case, I finally got so frustrated that I searched for "photoshop 2021 won't let me create a line thicker than 3px" and ended up here. 

I get the idea that Adobe is trying to make the tool more consistent with other software, but the new tool isn't as good as the old one for what I do. The arrowheads don't scale if I increase the weight of the stroke. 

I echo @jdearing's comment. I'd love an opportunity to provide feedback to Adobe on how changes impact long-time users. I've been a loyal customer for since 1997, but I certainly don't feel "listened to."

How would I use this? I saved the file, but I don't understand what to do past that. As long as I've used Photoshop, I've never run scripts. TIA

Copy and save the code in a text editor, and save it as plain text, not formatted, change the extension from .text to .jsx, then put the file in the Photoshop subfolder: presets/scripts. Restart PS and it should show up in the menu under file>scripts.

Sorry, I just want to make sure i understand what this code does...  By doing what you say above, I can restore photoshop 2020 ability to have a normal line pixel option that functions the same as before?  If so, this is HUGE.  An actual workaround until Adobe gives us back the function I that used daily full time for years...  Seriously feels like there is a GIANT gap in Adobe's understanding of their demographic and user base.  I am a concept artist and designer;  a photoshop power user who draws on a cintiq in PS every day.  Illustrator doesn't do what I need it to, and I don't use ANY vector, only raster tools and brushes.  I don't want Photoshop to start looking more like illustrator, I just need a powerful raster drawing program.

@Tom Winkelmann I can see the properties panel, but how do you use it to draw a line? It just gives me a weird line with an arrow at both ends. 

Had to choose line in Stroke Options to make it work, although it indicates that this is set to line type when you start using line tool.

In earlier versions of Photoshop it is set to line as default and you dont have to choose anything to make it work. Still think this is a bug in v 22.0.0. 

>now you have to hit enter to commit the choice.

It's been like that for a long time (in Windows) and it drives me crazy too. 

I've been using photoshop eight hours a day for twenty five years now, so anything that happened in the last five years or so still counts as recent to me :)

- select & copy the code

- insert it in your text-editor and save it with the ending *.jsx (or as *.txt and rename it)
- start photoshop

- create a document

- run the script

Lance 023 is not legit: This is a spammer. He or she is simply posting ads for their own business under the guise of responding to other's comments. He or she has been flooding this forum for a couple of months. It is a form of stealing.

You have to set the stroke properties to indicate the kind of line you want. The default is set to nothing.