timbowling opened this issue on Jan 05, 2003 ยท 4 posts
timbowling posted Sun, 05 January 2003 at 12:13 PM
Attached Link: http://www.timbowling.com
Here's a plug in Ive always wanted. Does anyone know if it exists? If it doesn't it should. What I'd like it to do is outline a selection with a line of a color that you select. Off times when I am drawing on the computer I'll make selections of colored areas and wished I could have a traced line around it. I've tried a lot of plug ins I have, and they may claim to do it but they always mess with the interior color and I don't want that. Just a single line of a color or thickness I choose around the selected area. Right now I do it by hand, or draw it that way to begin with, but it takes so long.JayPeG posted Sun, 05 January 2003 at 12:50 PM
You don't need a plug in for that, it's been built right into Photoshop for quite sometime.
Once your selection is made go to EDIT/STROKE
OR
Go to LAYER/LAYER STYLE/STROKE
Both of these will give you the option to run a line around your selection. You determine the thickness of the line, the color of the line and whether the line runs around the inside, outside or center of your selection. The first option adds it directly to the image. The second adds it as a layer effect so it's easier to make modifications to it if you want to. Of course the selected area has to be on it's own layer for that to work.
A different approach you can use if the selected are you want to ouline is on it's own layer is to have it selected and then go to SELECT/MODIFY/EXPAND. Place a layer behind the layer with your selection on it and fill it with color. Sometimes this can produce a smoother result than the stroke depending on how thick you want the outline to be.
timbowling posted Mon, 06 January 2003 at 12:42 PM
Thanks very much :) Works great, exactly what I needed. Funny I never saw that before.
Boxx posted Mon, 03 February 2003 at 4:44 AM
LOL! Easy when you know how. Incidentally, a useful trick for good outlines is the "Smart Blur" function. Copy the layer you need, desaturate it, and smart blur it with "outline only". Invert this and then you can overlay this on the original. I find it quite effective.