There are many ways you can create heart shapes in Photoshop in a few simple steps. When starting out, trying to create a heart shape can seem tricky because you won’t find this shape in the default shapes tool. However, creating heart shapes using the custom shape tool is easy since Photoshop has many built-in heart shapes for you to use. 

To create a heart in Photoshop, go to Window > Shapes, click the hamburger menu in the upper right corner, and select “Legacy Shapes and More.” Type “heart” in the search bar of the Shape panel to locate the heart shapes. Click on the desired heart shape, then drag out on your canvas to create it.

Unfortunately, these heart shapes won’t be available until you load them in the Custom Shapes panel. However, once you find them and add them to the Shape panel, you can use them in many creative ways. Let’s break down how to access these legacy heart shapes more in depth.

Creating Hearts In Photoshop Using Legacy Shapes 

Start by selecting the shape tool from the toolbar or pressing U.

When you right-click the shape tool icon, you can find basic shapes, such as a square, rectangle, and ellipse.

Click on the Custom Shape Tool then open the shape options in the upper Options bar by clicking the drop-down menu next to Shape. This will display shape options such as leaves, flowers, and boats. 

By default, Photoshop doesn’t have any heart shapes within this panel. To access the heart shapes, you need to load more shapes in the Custom Shapes Panel. To do this, go up to Window > Shapes.

This will open up the Shapes panel. From there, click the hamburger menu located on the right side of the panel. Then choose Legacy Shapes and More. 

Once selected, the Legacy Shapes and More folder will be loaded into the Shapes panel which contains more shape options.

Once the new folder appears in the Shapes panel, type in ‘Heart’ in the search bar to find heart shapes.

This will show you all the heart shapes within the Legacy Shapes and More folder.

You will see more or fewer heart shapes depending on the version of Photoshop you’re using. I’m using Photoshop 23.1.0 so I found five heart shapes. 

Select the heart shape of your choosing then click and drag on the canvas to create the shape. 

How To Customize The Heart Shapes

After drawing a heart shape, you can customize it in many ways, such as changing its color, stroke, and size. These options allow you to apply all the customizations you need to make your heart unique.

Color

To change your heart shape color, go up to the Options bar with the shape tool selected, and click on fill. Then, click the color picker icon to open the color picker. 

In the color picker panel, click anywhere in the color slider in the middle of the panel to pick a color. Then, click the color fill to pick a shade from your chosen color. After that, click OK to confirm the changes. 

Once you do that, your heart shape will be filled with the new color you chose.

You can also access the color fill in the properties panel, located on the right side of the workspace. 

Stroke

Click Stroke next to Fill on the Options bar to change your heart shape stroke color.

This will open the Color Picker panel, where you can choose any color you like, as shown in the previous example. You can change the stroke thickness using the Size slider next to Stroke.

If you have a specific number in mind for the stroke thickness, you can type a value in the same menu.

If you want a different type of stroke, go to Stroke Options and choose dotted or dashed lines.

You can also create an outline effect for your heart shape. To do this, set the fill to transparent and set the stroke to a solid color.

Size 

To change the size of your heart shape, select its layer.

Then, click Control + T (Win) or Command + T (Mac). This will activate the free transform tool. 

Once Free Transform is activated, control handles will appear around the shape edges.

Drag any of the control handles on the corner of the shape while holding Shift to resize the shape. Holding Shift will preserve the shape proportions while you drag it. Drag a control handle inwards to reduce the heart shape size or outwards to enlarge the shape.

How To Create A Heart Shaped Brush In Photoshop

You can save a heart shape as a new brush preset to use the shape later on, without needing to go through all the steps of creating the shape.

However, when you turn your shape into a brush, you lose some customization options because the heart shape will no longer behave as a shape but as a brush. So, you can’t change its stroke size and shape after saving the brush preset. 

To turn your heart shape into a brush, open the shapes panel by going up to Window > Shapes.

Next, type in ‘Heart’ in the shapes panel search bar and select the heart shape you want. Then click and drag on the canvas to draw the heart shape.

Next, go up to Edit > Define Brush Preset.

A dialog box will pop up asking if you want to name your new brush. Enter a name if you wish to and click OK.

After that, Photoshop will ask you if you want to rasterize the shape to convert it into a brush. Click OK to rasterize the shape layer.

Once you rasterize the shape layer, Photoshop creates your brush, and you will be able to create several heart shapes in seconds. By clicking once on my canvas with the heart-shaped brush selected, I can quickly create a series of hearts in my project. Although it is a brush, it’s easier to think of this as a “stamp” since you only need to click once to place a heart. You can change the color of your heart brush just as you would change the color of a regular brush.

Next time you open Photoshop, you’ll find your new heart-shaped brush in the Brushes panel. 

How To Add An Image To A Heart Shape In Photoshop

Heart shapes can be used for many purposes, including inserting images into them. To do this, create a heart shape, as shown earlier in this tutorial.

Once the heart shape is created, go up to File > Place Embedded.

Hit ‘Enter’ on your keyboard to place the desired image on the canvas. You don’t need to adjust the image’s dimensions yet.

Next, go to the Layers Panel, right-click the image layer and choose Create Clipping Mask.

Creating the clipping mask will put the image inside the heart shape.

However, the image position and dimensions may seem off after being placed inside the shape. If it happens to your image, click Control + T (Win) or Command + T (Mac). This will activate the free transform tool and control handles will appear around the image.

To resize your image, drag any of the control handles while holding Shift on your keyboard. Drag the image inwards if you want to reduce it or outwards if you want to enlarge it. 

In my case, I dragged the below image inward because I wanted to reduce the image dimensions.

With the free transform tool still active, you can change the image position by selecting the move tool (V) before clicking and dragging the image to move it around.

When you’re happy with the result, hit ‘Enter’ on your keyboard to confirm the changes. After resizing and repositioning your image, it will look much better inside the heart shape. 

Where To Find More Heart Shapes For Photoshop

In addition to the built-in heart shapes in Photoshop, many other heart shapes are available online. Here’s where you can find amazing heart shapes.

myPhotoshopBrushes, unlike its name suggests, has more than just Photoshop brushes. It also offers free resources including patterns, gradients, and custom shapes.

To find heart brushes on the site, visit the website’s home page and change the search category to Custom Shapes.

Once the custom shapes option is selected, type in ‘Heart’ in the search bar and click Search.

This will load all heart shapes options. Once you choose the heart shape pack you want, click on it to go to its download page. From there, click Download.

After clicking the download button, choose a location on your PC where you want to save the custom shape set. The shape pack will be in a zip folder.

To extract the custom shape pack, right-click the zip folder and choose Extract All.

Once the folder has been extracted, open the folder. Double-Click the CSH file you find inside to install your new heart shape pack.

Next time you use Photoshop, your new heart shape pack will appear at the bottom of the custom shapes panel in a new folder.

So whether you want to use the custom heart shapes inside of Photoshop or download some free heart shapes online, there are lots of easy ways to create heart shapes in Photoshop!

Happy Editing!