The Measure Tool

[Ammar Midani]

Greetings all,

I’ve been always amaized by the measure tool and what it can do for you, this may be an old one, but I do find it extremely helpful in case of rotating images.

while dragging a measure tool line on an image that should be horizontal or vertical >> Image/Rotate canavas>Arbitary and the correct angle of rotation required to straighten the image will already be entered into the Rotte canvas dialog box.

ain't that cool or what?

[Rick Miller]

Great technique Ammar!

I coudn't live without that one, it allows one to correct a scan that is askew and remap it to a correct horizontal or vertical axis.

I really wish Adobe Photoshop 6 Classroom in a Book would have included this little known, but extremely useful tip.

In honor of your tip Ammar, here's an extension of that technique where one can use the same principles to match the rotation of one layer to another:

First:
Select the Measure Tool and drag it out until it matches the angle on the layer whose angle you wish to replicate.

Second:
After making sure that your target layer is selected in the Layers Palette - Edit > Transform > Rotate.

Below is the Before Picture - as I can't post two pics, I'll post the After Picture on a post below.


Rick

[Rick Miller]

And the after...

Rick

[Rick Stare]

Thanks Rick for the great graphics to illustrate this technique. I think it is worth pointing out that, when using the Measure tool, Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary picks up the angle and automatically enters the opposite rotation direction needed to correct the line and make it level. However, Edit>Transform>Rotate will rotate the active layer to match the angle you defined with the Measure tool. Incidentally, you must go directly to Transform>Rotate after using the Measure tool. If you stop first in Free Transform, the angle is lost for some reason. http://photoshoptechniques.com/forum/images/smilies/4.gif

Both are wonderful techniques, but are useful in different situations.

*Rick:[