Filling and stroking selections and layers

Filling and stroking selections and layers

Photoshop and ImageReady provide a variety of ways to fill a selection or a layer with colors and patterns. You can also paint a border around a selection or a layer Layer styles allow you to fill or stroke a selection or layer to create a live editable effect while you can also paint a fill or border to create a softer effect (See "Managing layers on section 292

To increase the contrast between your image and the surrounding work canvas you can fill the canvas with a color.

Filling a selection or layer with colors or patterns

You can fill a selection or layer with the foreground color the background color or a pattern In Photoshop you can use patterns from the pattern libraries provided or create your own patterns. You can also fill a shape using the Color Gradient or Pattern Overlay effects or the Solid Color Gradient or Pattern fill layers on the Layers palette. When you use fill layers to fill a selection you can easily change the type of layer being used For more information see "Using adjustment layers and fill layers (Photoshop) on section 311

To fill a selection or a layer with a foreground or background color:

Specify a foreground or background color (See "Choosing foreground and background colors on section 257

Select the area you want to fill. To fill an entire layer select the layer in the Layers palette.

Choose Edit > Fill to fill the selection or layer Or to fill a path select the path and choose

Fill Path from the Paths palette menu.

In the Fill dialog box for Use choose one of the following options or select a Custom

Pattern:

Foreground Color Background Color Black 50% Gray or White to fill the selection with the specified color.

To apply a foreground color fill only to the areas that contain pixels press

Alt+Shift+Backspace ( Windows) or Option+Shift+Delete (Mac OS). This preserves the transparency of the layer. To apply a background color fill only to the areas that contain pixels press Ctrl+Shift+Backspace ( Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac OS).

Pattern to fill the selection with a pattern Click the inverted arrow next to the pattern sample and select a pattern from the pop-up palette. You can load additional patterns using the pop-up palette menu Select the name of a library of patterns or choose Load Patterns and navigate to the folder containing the patterns you want

to use.

History to restore the selected area to a state or snapshot of the image (See "Making a snapshot of an image (Photoshop) on section 40

Note: If you fill a CMYK image using the Black option Photoshop fills all the channels with

100% black. This may result in more ink than is allowable by the printer For best results when filling a CMYK image use the Foreground option with the foreground color set to an appropriate black.

Specify the blending mode and opacity for the paint (See "Setting options for painting and editing tools on section 241

If you re working in a layer and want to fill only areas containing pixels choose Preserve

Transparency.

If you are filling a path enter a Feather Radius value to blend the edges of the filled path and select Anti-aliased if you want to anti-alias the path.

To fill the work canvas:

Set the foreground color you want to use for the canvas.

Select the paint bucket tool .

In the options bar set Fill to Foreground.

Hold down Shift and click in the work canvas.

Note: You need to be in full screen mode and viewing the menus to fill the work canvas.

To fill a selection with a pattern:

Select the part of the image you want to fill.

Do one of the following:

Choose Edit > Fill In the Fill dialog box for Use choose Pattern select a pattern from the pop-up palette and click OK.

If Pattern is dimmed you need to load a pattern library before you can select this option.

(See "Managing libraries with the Preset Manager (Photoshop) on section 54

Select the paint bucket tool In the options bar choose Pattern from the Fill pop-up menu and select a pattern from the Pattern pop-up palette. Then click to fill the selected area with the pattern.

Note: You can load additional pattern libraries into the pop-up palette prior to making a selection. (See "Creating and managing patterns" on section 252

Stroking a selection or layer with color

You can use the Stroke command to paint a colored border around a selection layer or path. This allows you to create a softer border than one created using the Stroke layer style. The Stroke layer style provides a resolution-independent method to stroke a shape.

(See "Managing layers" on section 292 You can use the Stroke layer effect when you want to stroke the entire layer If you want a quick way to create a stroke on the current layer- without necessarily following the edge of the layer-use the Stroke command.

To stroke a selection or layer:

Specify a foreground color (See "Choosing foreground and background colors on section 257

Select the area or layer you want to stroke.

Choose Edit > Stroke.

In the Stroke dialog box specify the width of the hard-edged border.

For Location specify whether to place the border inside outside or centered over the selection or layer boundaries.

Specify an opacity and a blending mode (See "Setting options for painting and editing tools on section 241

If you re working in a layer and want to stroke only areas containing pixels select the

Preserve Transparency option (See "Locking layers on section 290

To stroke a path:

Select the path in the Paths palette.

Choose Stroke Path from the palette menu.

In the Stroke Path dialog box choose a tool to stroke the path.