Drawing dashed lines?

[terrypin]

One tool I have never mastered is the Pen (or Line) tool. For example, how do I draw a straight line that is not solid (i.e. the various dashed and dotted choices) with gaps of my choosing please? But without also reducing the width of the individual elements.



IOW, more like this:



I drew that last one by making a rectangle and copying it. How could I now quickly make the white background transparent? That would be an easy work-around if the line tool cannot do it directly.

Edit: I realise I should have started with a transparent background! But how would I do it from this point, to avoid repeating the task please? (BTW, I've always wondered why PSP 8 doesn't include Transparent in its options for the Color Replacer tool? That would be the intuitive way to do it for me.)

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Kathy_9]

Promote your background layer; select the white area with your magic wand selection tool and hit delete. Hope that helps.

[Cassel]

One tool I have never mastered is the Pen (or Line) tool. For example, how do I draw a straight line that is not solid (i.e. the various dashed and dotted choices) with gaps of my choosing please? But without also reducing the width of the individual elements.

The Line Style with dashes have a certain oddity where if you increase the line width, the spacing will increase and the thickness will increase but the actual dash will not get longer proportionally; it will stay at a fixed length, which gives that odd look.

This has been reported to the programmers already, but obviously not fixed.

[hartpaul]

Also note the OP is using PSP8 not a recent version.

[Cassel]

Also note the OP is using PSP8 not a recent version.

It is the same in version 8. It has been an oddity for at least that long.

[terrypin]

Thanks, appreciate those fast answers.

I'll use my copied shapes as a work around - and Kathy's solution if I forget to start with a transparent background.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK