How to Make Arrows in Photoshop

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Click "Window" at the top of Photoshop's entire user interface.

   You can see this "Window" button in all the images to follow.
   
   Your click opens a dropdown menu used to customize the Photoshop UI.
   
   Options here can very easily overwhelm the uninitiated.
   
   At this dropdown menu, hover on "Workspace" and then choose "Essential (Default)" to ensure you'll have visible each of the panels you need to follow the instructions below.
   
   More specifically, the "Tools" and "Options" panels are required. , There are multiple "shape" tools including the "line tool" from step
   5.Mac users should use the open-apple key instead of ctrl in the following steps.
   
   Pressing the "U" key may or may not have given you control of "custom shape tool." i.e. you wound up with the "Polygon Shape Tool." Let's see.
   
   Look to your "Tools" panel and long-click the current shape tool button to reveal the sub-set of shape tools.
   
   Now click to select "Custom Shape Tool."
   
   The only crucial setting to specify is what shape the custom shape tool will be using.
   
   To do so, find the square thumbnail preview of the shape at hand and click the small down-arrow button on it's right hand edge. , Note the gear icon to right of this panel.
   
   Click the gear to reveal more functions. , Note other options below "all" to display other categories.
   
   They're all subsets of "all" and I say "YOLO.
   
   Load them all." Also note "Load Shapes..." which you may use in the future to import more shapes that are not built in to Photoshop.
   
   The internet is home to many free resources to expand your available custom shapes. , We wouldn't choose to append "all" as it'd create redundant options. , This design almost always indicates the option to resize by click & dragging your mouse. , You may elect to set more aspects of the custom shape tool with other controls on the "Options" panel.
   
   In this image I have specified a fill color orange, a stroke color of blue (stroke = outer border,) a stroke width, and a dashed pattern for the stroke.
   
   You may skip this. more on custom shape tool settings below. , To do this, click on your canvas in the spot that you intend for the top-left hand corner of this shape to be and drag to refine the size of this shape.
   
   As long as you keep that click held down, you can move the mouse about your canvas while seeing a live-preview of your shape in it's simplest definition: a single line that defines its would-be boundaries.
   
   Release the click and you've made an arrow.
   
   You can choose to hold down the shift key during this entire click-drag process to maintain a 1:1 aspect ratio (ratio of height to width) as you preview the shape's size.
   
   Most times you'll not want to distort (stretch) the shape which makes shift really helpful.
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   Step 2: Press the "U" key to take control of your most recently used shape tool.

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   Step 3: Use the "Options" panel to specify how the Custom Shape tool will behave.

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   Step 4: Review the fly-out panel displaying available custom shapes for the custom shape tool to use.

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   Step 5: From the gear's dropdown menu

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   Step 6: click "All" to make available all of the custom shapes that are built in to Photoshop.

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   Step 7: Given the option to replace your current shapes

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   Step 8: click "OK." "Append" will add the set to what's already in the panel.

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   Step 9: Resize this panel to see all of your choices at once by grabbing the panel's bottom right-hand corner's diagonal dots.

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    Step 10: Click to choose a custom shape (arrow.)

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    Step 11: "Draw" the custom shape.

Detailed Guide

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