Drawing with Brushes, Shapes, and Other Tools - Photoshop Elements 13: The Missing Manual - page 655

Rectangle and Rounded Rectangle
The Rectangle and Rounded Rectangle tools work pretty much the same way as the Custom
Shape tool, and they're both really popular for creating web page buttons. To activate either
tool, click the current shape tool in the Tools panel and then click the one you want in the
Tool Options area, or press U repeatedly until one of their icons appears in the Tools panel.
On the left side of the Tool Options area, you see the same color box and layer-style button
that appear for the other shape tools. In addition, you can click the Unconstrained menu to
see the following settings:
▪ Unconstrained . Elements selects this option automatically unless you change it. It lets
you draw a rectangle with whatever dimensions you want; how you drag determines the
proportions.
▪ Square . To draw a square instead of a rectangle, select this option before you start, or
just hold down the Shift key as you drag.
▪ Fixed Size . This setting makes Elements draw a shape that's exactly the size you specify.
Just enter the dimensions you want in the boxes below this menu in inches, pixels, or
centimeters.
▪ Proportional . Use this setting if you know the proportions you want the rectangle to
have, but not the exact size. For example, if you select this option and then enter a width
of 2 and a height of 1, then no matter where you drag, the shape will always be twice as
long as it is high.
The Tool Options area also includes two checkboxes that help you further refine the rect-
angle.
▪ From Center . This setting lets you draw the shape from its center instead of from a
corner. It's useful when you know where you want the shape to go but aren't sure how
big it needs to be.
▪ Snap . This checkbox tells Elements to make sure that the edges of the rectangle fall ex-
actly on the edge of a pixel to help create crisper-looking edges. It's available only for
the Rectangle and Rounded Rectangle tools.
Most of the shape tools have similar options, though the Rounded Rectangle has one Tool
Options setting of its own: radius , which is the amount (in pixels) that the corners are roun-
ded off; a higher number means more rounding.