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I have drawn some lines with the line tool in Photoshop CS6.

The lines are vectors on a shape layer.

If I select the line with path selection tool I can change the stroke colour, in the options panel at the top, but not the stroke width (if I change the stroke width nothing happens).

Is there a way to change the stroke width?

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  • It's pretty annoying. It's more reliable if you press enter or tab after each time you enter a value.
    – Joonas
    May 21, 2015 at 14:24
  • @Joonas nope that's not it
    – Anentropic
    May 21, 2015 at 18:02

2 Answers 2

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I think the problem you have is that your lines are set to stroke 'inside' so no matter what the pt weight you wont see a result. You need to click the line style next to the pt weight > then more options > then where it says align, set to center or outside. Hope that helps.

Markexample

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  • Hey Mark (nice name!). Welcome to GDSE and thanks for your answer. If you have any questions, please see the help center or ping one of us in Graphic Design Chat once your reputation is sufficient (20). Keep contributing and enjoy the site!
    – Zach Saucier
    May 21, 2015 at 14:10
  • This is the most relevant answer that I've seen from the 3 here. You need to set your stroke to the OUTSIDE of your shape. PS defaults it to an inner stroke, not an outer stroke, so no matter how thick you make it, it's obviously not going to show up, if it's set to "inner stroke"
    – Manly
    May 21, 2015 at 16:35
  • this is the solution so I've accepted it. I also upvoted @Ryan's answer because he correctly identifies the underlying problem: for some bizarre reason a 'line' is actually drawn as a rectangle by Photoshop. if it was a real line there could not be any 'inner' vs 'outer' stroke
    – Anentropic
    May 21, 2015 at 18:01
  • BTW ...it's really center stroke option that's needed here... an 'outside' stroke will have a hole in the middle where the 'line' itself is
    – Anentropic
    May 21, 2015 at 18:14
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This has confused me many times because I think and want it to be stroke path but its not.

What you actually want in Photoshop with the Line tool is Weight.

Line Weight

However, once a Line is created in Photoshop it acts as a Rectangular Shape so the Weight can no longer be changed by adjusting the numeric value.

Now, Stroke Width will in fact apply a Stroke around the Line, because again a Line in Photoshop is basically a Rectangular Shape. This is a 40px WEIGHT line with a 3pt stroke around it:

stroked line

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  • 3
    +1, the key insight here is that the Line tool in Photoshop actually just draws long, skinny rectangles
    – peterflynn
    Oct 11, 2016 at 3:48
  • How do you display that bar of tools after drawing the line?
    – MicroMachine
    Nov 14, 2017 at 1:05

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