The Technology of Tabs

I hope everyone is having a happy summer! Clearly I've been a bit busy and neglecting the ol' blog. My oldest son is working this summer but he's too young to drive so this mom is making the commute with him. It's like 15 minutes. Not a big deal but it does mean I plan my day around it. He's happy, I'm happy. It's all good! 

Today I want to share a little bit about making tabs for paper dolls digitally. I recently wrote an article for Paperdoll Review on the subject of tabs. If you're a subscriber, you should already have it. If you are not, you can grab single copies (or subscribe!) online at Paperdoll Review. I'm not going to repeat what's in the article but rather dive in a bit about the technology of tabs.

I add my tabs using Photoshop. This will also work with Photoshop Elements and should work with just about any version of Photoshop. In a 300 dpi document, I make my tabs using the vector rectangle tool with a fill of white and a black 2pt stroke (highlighted in yellow in the image below). If I'm working in a 600 dpi document, I usually use a 4pt stroke.

Most of my tabs are created this way. Sometimes, though, I need a different shape and that's the triangle tab. You can do this a few different ways.

Method 1: Create a rectangle tab with the vector rectangle tool and then click on it with the Direct Select tool (white arrow). This will highlight the four vector nodes. You can then click on one and move it around. You may see a pop up asking you if you want to change a live shape into a regular path - yes, you do! In the image below, I modified one edge with the Direct Select tool.

Method 2: You can use the Pen Tool. Take the Pen Tool (it looks like a pen!) and click nodes onto the canvas where ever you would like to create the tab. Each node can be modified with the Direct Select tool. I don't really like this method. There's less control and it can be a bit sloppy.

Method 3: CUSTOM SHAPE TOOL!! This is clearly my favorite way. Right click on the vector rectangle tool and it will reveal several other vector shape options. The last one is the custom shape tool. You can use this to drag out a shape. 

 

But how do you make a custom shape? Honestly, I don't remember! I know I made the triangle tab in Illustrator and brought it into Photoshop years ago. (If anyone wants a tutorial on that, I'm sure I could cook one up.) Lucky for you, you can just grab mine. 

I've made a public folder with my tabs and base shapes on my Google drive. They are available as an Illustrator file (.ai), a Photoshop shapes file (.csh), an EPS file, SVG file, and a PNG image. For Photoshop, download the .csh file, double-click on it, and it should be added to your custom shape menu. Any questions, just pop them into the comments.

But what about Procreate or other art software? I don't recommend adding tabs in Procreate. If folks are interested in a Procreate tutorial, I can write one up. If you have other software options, use those! Procreate isn't really good at this task. Affinity would probably work but I haven't tried it. Essentially, any software that has a vector shape option is going to be your best bet. Krita has it, but I haven't really learned how to use it well yet. GIMP and other Photoshop clones might work, too.   

Hopefully this dive into Photoshop is helpful! If you have software suggestions, let me know and I'll check them out. In the meantime, grab the Summer Fun doll from my article!