dashed line layer style

hi all.

i'm new to this forum and have already come away with so man tips! it's great. i am wondering if there is a way to automatically make a "shape layer" appear dashed. something along the lines of an layer effect.

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but try this and tell me if this works for you:


Take your shape, open up your layer-styles dialog box.

Choose "Stroke"

Then rather than using a solid-line stroke, select "Gradient" for the "Fill Type"

Then edit the gradient to use solid lines (will add a screenshot after I post this).

Then apply this to the shape....

Here's the screenshot of what I was talking about:


This may or may not be what you are looking for, and I see now that the dashes will not cover the top or the bottom, but if you would like to easily edit that, add a new layer below the shape layer, and then merge the two to rasterize the layer style, where you can freely edit it.

Let me know, otherwise we'll figure out something else.

Hey Mattboyslim

thanks for the tip! i wouldn't have even thought about that. I tried another technique that involves defining a dashed pattern or a pattern of 10 by 5 pixels with half white and half black. Then using that defined pattern with the pattern overlay. it seems to work, but i'm still looking for a vector solution

steve