recently I was designing a site and wanted to use a curve as the divider between the side navigation bar and the body of the site. the curve would start at the top of the page and swoop down center left side to end at the bottom. It would have a small S curve to it or a coca-cola swoosh effect. I knew I wanted to use the pen tool but not being very tested with it I wasn't really sure how to go about it. Being undecided on to use the path or the shape tool I choose the shape. I wasn't able to get the outer curvature to look just like I wanted it to with one shape however. I had to make three layers, make a shape-fraternize, make another-fraternize, and so on. I ended up with the right outside line when I merged the three layers together and then proceeded to do the same for the other inside line. After about an hour and a half and many cut and pasting bla bla bla later I got the curve I needed. the problem was that it looked rough. it wasn't the clean cut edge I wanted for the site so I had to do the same thing again using the pen path tool to work on sections of the curve. I would match the curve, zoom in as close as I could and then using the erase and the brush tools and the two dif colors I cleaned up the edge. all and all the simple little curve I wanted took about 4 hours. My question and statement are this. There has got to be an easier way. Isn't there?

The pen tool is the way to go for this. It may seem strange at first, but with some practise it will cost you 40 seconds to make the right curve. Select the pen tool. Click. Click-and-hold-and-drag on another spot. Presto! You are making a curve. Experiment. Google for 'pen tool tutorials Photoshop'. Really. You wasted 99% of that 4 hours. You could have gotten a beer instead of that. Or more. You could have filled your house with S-curved paths. If your house was a giant pc screen. Good luck!

so when you make an s curve do you put your points at the beginning and end of your line, then crab one end and bend, then grab the other end and bend? you know how you can be totaly perplexed when you do something and then when you think about it later you go Crap!! I was beinding one end and then going to the center and trying to get the rest of it. Upon reflection that was more than likely wrong. am I correct now?

so when you make an s curve do you put your points at the beginning and end of your line, then crab one end and bend, then grab the other end and bend? you know how you can be totaly perplexed when you do something and then when you think about it later you go Crap!! I was beinding one end and then going to the center and trying to get the rest of it. Upon reflection that was more than likely wrong. am I correct now?

Attached Link: http://www.elated.com/tutorials/graphics/photoshop/paths_pen_tool/

They are called 'bezier curves' (some french dude has thought them out, I guess), when you just click, they are straight lines, with sharp cornes. When you click-hold-drag, you pull handles out of the anchor point, that define the curve between the first and the last point. If you try, you will see. You are not pulling the line, you are pulling the handles. That is something you should know. I think the above link is a good way to get your head around the pen tool.

Here is another good link for pen tool.

The Pen Tool

A Google Search.

And a non-clickable link! (while you were better off practicing the pen tool).

"And a non-clickable link! "??? All three links work for me. Did I miss something in the translation?

But mine doesn't :) (I cryptically added tot the list that you can read tutorials till you have 85 grandchildren, but the best way to learn the darn tool is to try it. But I guess I overcrypted it... No offense to the great links that were offered ofcourse) Maybe it is Dutch humour. That does not always translate well... (like when silver-painted men in tiny underwear dance around the Amsterdam canals and really mean it all as good fun (as in the old English word 'gay') But that is really off topic. (I am going to teach my wife the pen tool tonight, she wants to become a free lance path maker)

If you want to make a perfect curve, use the shape tool. It has a circle already made and you can create the size you need as you drag. If you wish to "eliminate" half the circle, just select one of the points on the side you wish to eliminate by using the pen tool. Hold the command key down and drag over the point to select it if you are on a mac, the control key if you are on a pc. Then just hit the delete key, and voila, half a circle.