How to set the location for the center of a shape in Photoshop, not the top left corner?

Question

When setting the location of a shape in Photoshop, by default you can type in the (x,y) coordinates of the top left corner of the bounding box of that shape.

Is there any way to configure photoshop so that I can instead type in the coordinates of the center of that bounding box?

Obviously I can do the math, and subtract half of the W and H of the object from my desired center-coordinates. It actually gets slightly more complicated though, because while the object pictured above is 320x320, it is actually 324x324 because the stroke is 4px wide and centered on the circle. It gets tedious.

Or failing that, what is the easiest way to get the center of a shape to a specific set of coordinates?

Answer 1

Some possible options.

Place a horizontal and vertical guide to pinpoint a specific location, i.e. where the guides intersect. If you need precise accuracy, you can place new guides numerically by doing View > Guides > New Guide and type in the value where you want the guides to be. Make sure Snapping and Smart Guides are on. Then do one of the following:

1. A shape's centre should be able to snap to where the guides intersect. You may have to zoom in or out a bit to get it to work.

or

2. Mouse over where the guides intersect, then as Scott suggests in his comment, you could begin drawing a new shape, and then hold down Option/Alt as you drag. This should centre it on the guide intersection.

or

3. Smart guides often work better if you first draw a shape like a square (using method 2 above), to use as a helper shape. Then you can click and drag your shape over this to centre it using snapping. You can delete the square afterwards.