How to Make a Rectangle in Photoshop

Have you ever tried to draw a rectangle in Photoshop? Easier said than done, isn’t it? Even with a steady hand and a tablet, it’s pretty tough.

Hello! I’m Cara and I’m a big fan of doing things the easy way. Photoshop gives us some nifty tricks for creating perfectly straight rectangles. This method is super simple once you know how to do it.

Let’s take a look!

Keep in mind that the screenshots below are taken from the Windows version of Photoshop CC. If you are on a Mac or use another version, they can look slightly different.

Step 1: Open the Rectangle Tool

Near the bottom of the toolbar on the left side of the screen, you’ll notice some shape tools. The Rectangle tool is on top by default. If another shape tool is on top, right-click on the thumbnail to open the menu and choose the rectangle shape tool.

Step 2: Draw Your Rectangle

Click and drag to create a rectangle on your canvas.

If you want the shape to stay as a perfect square, hold the Shift key while dragging.

Step 3: Adjust Your Shape

What if you don’t want a solid filled-in shape as I have here? No problem, you can easily adjust your shape for different looks.

When you place your rectangle shape, this properties panel should appear.

If you don’t see it, go to Window in the menu bar and choose Properties.

In this panel, you can choose how you want your rectangle to appear. In the Transform box, you can adjust the size of your shape and where it is positioned on the canvas.

In the Appearance section, you can adjust the appearance. Click on the Fill box to choose a different color, make your shape transparent, or fill it with a gradient or a pattern.

You might notice that if you make the fill transparent, your shape disappears altogether. That’s because you haven’t actually drawn a line around the rectangle to make the shape. 

To do that you need to use the Stroke option. Click in the box to choose a color (or gradient, or pattern) for the stroke. Underneath, you need to select a size. If it says 0 pixels, nothing will appear.

To the right of the size options, you can pick a style for the line (solid, dotted, dashed, etc.) If you want rounded corners, enter a value in the boxes at the bottom.

And voila! You have a rectangle. I told you it was easy!

Curious about how to make other shapes in Photoshop? Check out our tutorial on how to make a perfect circle here!

Cara fell in love with photography circa 2014 and has been exploring all corners of the imagery world ever since. When she felt limited by Lightroom, she dove headfirst into Photoshop to learn how to create the images she wanted.