Perspective Tools 2 manual¶

Perspective Tools is an extension panel for Adobe Photoshop from CS6 to the latest, used for

automatically creating perspective and parallel grids;
managing them;
warping layers to perspective;
unwarping distorted layers to rectangles;
and more!

Contact me at kritskiy.sergey@gmail.com
Twitter: @ebanchiki
Grab the extension on Gumroad or Cubebrush.

Interface and Settings¶

Photoshop CC version of the panel consists of two tabs: Grids and Warps, with relevant functions. It can be resized into three different ways:

larger window with little help-gifs on the bottom;

smaller vertical window

smaller horizontal window

Update 2.4.3 includes an option in Flyout menu to show/hide the gif helpers: this option is disabled by default:

CS6 version of the panel has all the functions but no tabs and non-resizable window

Alt+Click on any of the buttons will open a Help page for corresponding function.

Using Photoshop Pen Tool¶

To define grids and rectangles mostly Pen Tool is used. Use it in Path mode. You can adjust points location with keyboard arrows.

To create disconected paths, Cmd/Ctrl+Click on an empty space to deselect active path and start a new one.

To create path duplicate, hold Cmd/Ctrl+Alt and drag active path.

Create Grid¶

Creating perspective and parallel grids is one of the main functions of PT2.

Basics¶

Pen Tool¶

To define grids, Pen Tool is used. Use it in Path mode. Learn more in Interface and Settings section.

There’re several different ways grids can be created.

Perspective Grid: VP from one point¶

Make one path point
Hit Grid button

Resulting grid will have a vanishing point in the path point.

Perspective Grid: Distant VP¶

Make one path with two path points
Make a second path with two path points
Hit Grid button

Resulting grid will have a vanishing point in the intersection of two paths.

Perspective Grid: Two distant VPs¶

When reconstructing a perspective in a photo, quite often there’re visible rectangular surfaces. In this case it could be easy to create two perspective grids in one go.

Make one path with four path points (quadrangle)
Hit Grid button

Resulting two grids will have vanishing points in the intersections of two pairs of the paths.

Perspective Grid: Intersection with Horizon¶

If Horizon layer is presented in the document, one path is enough for creating a perspective grid.

Make one path with two path points
Hit Grid button

Resulting grid will have a vanishing point in the intersection of the path and horizon line.

Parallel Grid¶

Make one path with two path points
Hit Grid button

Resulting grid will be a parallel lines grid.

Parallel Grid: Specific distance¶

Make one path with two path points
Copy-Paste the path or use Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+Drag to make a clone and move it to a desirable distance
Hit Grid button

Resulting grid will be a parallel lines grid with the same distance as betwen the clones.

Advanced¶

Additional options¶

Holding Cmd/Ctrl when clicking Grid will show a window with additional options like grid color, density, layer opacity and line width.

Recreate grid¶

If you have a grid layer selected, hitting Grid button will recreate the grid. This is useful if canvas size or image size have changed or settings of an existing grid must be modified.

High Density area¶

If selection is present when clicking Grid, selected area will get x3 times more density. Recreate grid to get rid of high density area.

Horizon¶

This function will allow you to define horizon line which can be sometimes helpful.

Pen Tool¶

To define grids, Pen Tool is used. Use it in Path mode. Learn more in Interface and Settings section.

Horizon from one point¶

Make one path point
Hit Horizon button

Resulting horizon line will be horizontal (ba dum tssss)

Horizon from two points¶

Make one path with two path points
Hit Horizon button

Resulting horizon line will be between two points

Horizon from perspective grids¶

Select one or two perspective grid layers
Hit Horizon button

Resulting horizon line will be on vanishing point if one perspective layer was selected ot between two vanishing points, if there were two layers selected

Recolor¶

This function will cycle between several grid colors.

Select a grid or horizon layer
Hit Recolor

Grid color will cycle between black, red (with _x suffix), green (_y) and blue (_z);

Toggle Visibility¶

This function will toggle visibility of grid layers (perspective, parallel and horizon). This function works best when assigned to a hotkey.

If you want to disable Toggle Visibility for a layer, assign any color label to it.

Warp¶

This function will warp selected layer to a plane, defined by a quadrangle.

Pen Tool¶

To define grids, Pen Tool is used. Use it in Path mode. Learn more in Interface and Settings section.

Warping a layer¶

Make one or several quadrangle paths: note that point order is important, read more
Realign them automatically if necessary (see below)
Hit Warp button
Resulting layer is a Smart Object, hitting Ctrl/Cmd+T for free transorm will allow to further modify it in perspective.

Aligning a quadrangle within grids¶

Use a Fix Paths function to quickly align active quadrangle paths with existing perspective or parallel grids

Aligning warped layer¶

Warped layer will be made a smart object, which means that it can be further transformed in perspective and original layer can be changed

Auto Warp¶

If two grid layers are visible, it’s possible to use Warp without making a quadrangle path. Note that it’s usually necessary to modify a resulting layer.

If you hold Ctrl/Cmd while using automatic Warp, only warp-path is created.

De-perspective¶

This function will attempt to unwarp the current document or its portion, defined by a quadrangle path, to rectangular layer.

Pen Tool¶

To define grids, Pen Tool is used. Use it in Path mode. Learn more in Interface and Settings section.

Unwarping a layer¶

Make one quadrangle path: note that point order is important, read more
Realign it automatically if necessary (see below)
Hit De-perspective button
Quadrangle portion of the image will be converted to rectangular Smart Object. Note that bottom layer (cont) may be quite blurry, it’s best to be used for references only and it should be switched off if not needed
Since resulting layer is a Smart Object, hitting Ctrl/Cmd+T for free transorm will allow to further modify it in perspective.

Aligning a quadrangle within grids¶

Use a Fix Paths function to quickly align active quadrangle paths with existing perspective or parallel grids

Unwarping a document¶

If the current document has two visible perspective layers and no path for deperspective, the whole document will be unwarped. This can be useful to extract quadrangle details or textures for further modifying them without creating paths new smart objects.

Converting a 3-points perspective to 2-points¶

If the current document has a visible Y perspective layer and two visible perspective layers OR a Horizon layer, the document will be unwarped in a way so Y grid will become vertical, eliminating the vertical contraction.

Note that it’s possible to restore the path that was used to unwarp the document (using Fix Paths function) and re-warp it to the original perspective

Change Points Order¶

This function will change points order for active paths. Point order is important for Wrap and De-perspective functions: they define how warped image is going to be rotated in perspective. Points usually go clock-wise, from top left corner to bottom-left: first point is associated with top left corner of a layer, second — with top right corner, third is bottom right point and fourth is bottom left.

Notice how this sign is rotated depending on which point in quadrange was placed first. Also notice that the last sign is mirrored: points were placed in counter-clock order.

Reordering points CW¶

Hit Change Order button
Points order will shift clockwise
New points order will be displayed for a moment

Reordering points CCW¶

Hold Ctrl/Cmd when hitting Change Order button
Points order will shift counter-clockwise
New points order will be displayed for a moment

Mirroring points¶

Hold Shift when hitting Change Order button
Points order will change direction
New points order will be displayed for a moment

Fix Paths¶

This function will align paths using visible perspective or parallel grids and will restore previous paths for existing Warp and Deperspective layers. Aligning quadrangle paths is useful for Warp and Depespective functions, aligning linear paths is useful for further stroking.

Aligning 4-points quadrangle paths¶

Select a Path Object with one or more 4-points quadrangle paths
Make sure two grid layers of the same type are visible
Hit Fix Paths button

Aligning 2-points linear paths¶

Select a Path Object with one or more 2-points linear paths
Make sure one or two grid layers are visible
Hit Fix Paths button

Restoring previous warp path¶

After update 2.4.0 Fix Paths can restore paths that were used to create Warp and Deperspective layers. Note that this will work only with layers created with 2.4.0 and newer.

Select a warped or deperspectified layer
Make sure no paths are selected
Hit Fix Paths

An example of restoring of a warp path of a deperspective layer and using it to create new grids:

Reset Smart Object¶

This function will reset transformations of an active smart object layer.

Select one layer with smart object
Hit Reset Smart Object button

Assigning functions to hotkeys¶

To assign functions to hotkeys

Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts Photoshop menu
Make sure that Shrotcuts For: is set to Applications Menu
Find PT2 scripts under File > Scripts
And assign shortcuts

Release Log¶

18 May 2020: PT 2.4.3¶

CC: fixed a rare occurrence of the panel crashing PT2 on some Photoshops
CC: an option to hide/show gif helpers in the flyout menu (CC2014+). Gifs were causing slowdowns on Mac Catalina

19 Dec 2019: PT 2.4.2¶

CC: Installers were updated to work with Photoshop 2020
CC: small fixes
CS6: fixed de-perspective not working in some cases (again)
Added EULA

9 May 2019: PT 2.4.1¶

CS6: fixed de-perspective not working in some cases
CC: slight changes in UI

25 Nov 2018: PT 2.4.0¶

Possible to recreate paths for newly created Warp and Deperspective layers using Fix Paths command
Deperspective can unwarp 2-points path
When no paths and two grids are presented, Deperspective will unwarp the whole document
When Horizon and Y grid are presented, Deperspective will unwarp the document to 2p perspective
Installers updated for CC2019
Some fixes

22 Mar 2018: PT 2.3.0¶

Parallel and distant grids are more memory-efficient
It’s possible to create two drids from one 4-points quadrangle path
Create High Density Grids from selection
New manual: http://pt2.readthedocs.io/
Some fixes

16 Nov 2017: PT 2.2.3¶

Panel is resizable once again in PS CC2018

24 May 2017: PT 2.2.2¶

New grids respect default grid color, set in Ctrl/Cmd+Create Grid menu
Grid Width is a multiplier instead of absolute value
Fixed broken tip-gif for Change Points Order

14 Apr 2017: PT 2.2.1¶

fixed Recolor error in CS6 version

28 Mar 2017: PT 2.2.0¶

New De-Perspective algorithm, works in CS6
Fix Paths and Autowarp work with Parallel grids
Create VPs on Horizon line with 1 path
All functions are available as scripts, assign them to hotkeys or use on Brusherator
Change new Horizon density with Ctrl/Cmd-Click on Horizon button
Change grid color to custom with Ctrl/Cmd-Click on Recolor button
Creating grids is 20-50% faster
probably fixed something

26 Aug 2016: PT 2.1.0¶

CS6 version
New warp mode — Autowarp: use Warp with 2 visible Persp layers and no paths
Fix Path now works with multiple paths
Warp now works with multiple paths
Fix Paths now can work with 2-points paths
Change Points Order shows points order
Mirroring paths (Shift+Change Points Order) works differently
Warped layers keep opacity/blending modes
Fixed Bezier Warp weird document canvas changes
Fixed weird results with De-perspective when path points are outside of active document boundaries
Fixed reset of perspective layer color when recreating a grid layer
Alt+Click opens correct video link instead of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley

18 Jul 2016: PT 2.0.2¶

Fixed Fix Paths which I broke in 2.0.1

18 Jul 2016: PT 2.0.1¶

Fixed Re-color for users of non-English Photoshop
Remote VPs don’t create huge files (‘Can’t save .psd file because it’s larger than 2GB’ error)

10 Jul 2016: PT 2.0¶

initial release