Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P10

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Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P10:If you are reading this foreword, it probably means that you’ve purchased a copy of Adobe Photoshop 6.0, and for that I and the rest of the Photoshop team at Adobe thank you. If you own a previous edition of the Photoshop Bible, you probably know what to expect. If not, then get ready for an interesting trip.

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Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 237 ✦ Gradient preview: The selected gradient appears in the gradient preview, labeled in Figure 6-9. Click the preview to open the Gradient Editor dialog box, discussed in the upcoming section “Creating custom gradations.” Gradient preview Click to display palette Gradient style icons Click for menu Figure 6-9: The Options bar gives you quick access to all the gradient tool options. ✦ Gradient drop-down palette: Click the triangle adjacent to the preview to dis- play the Gradient palette, which contains icons representing gradients in the current gradient presets. Click the icon for the gradient you want. Note In the default gradient preset, the first two gradations are dependent on the current foreground and background colors. The others contain specific colors bearing no relationship to the colors in the toolbox. You load gradient presets using the same techniques that I describe in detail in the brush preset discussion in Chapter 5. Here’s a brief recap: • Click the triangle near the top of the drop-down palette to display the palette menu. The Photoshop collection of presets and any presets that you define appear at the bottom of the palette menu. Click a preset name to use the preset instead of the current preset or append the new preset to the current one. • To append a preset from disk — such as when a coworker gives you a preset file — choose Load Gradients from the palette menu or click Load in the Preset Manager dialog box. If you want to replace the current pre- set instead, choose Replace Gradients from the palette menu or click Replace in the dialog box. To return to the default gradients, choose Reset Gradients from the palette menu, either from the Options bar palette or the one in the Preset Manager dialog box.
238 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching Tip You can edit a gradient and perform the aforementioned preset juggling acts from within the Gradient Editor dialog box, too. The upcoming section “Creating custom gradations” covers this dialog box. ✦ Gradient style: Click an icon to select the gradient style — a function that you formerly accomplished by choosing a specific gradient tool. The next section explains these five styles. ✦ Mode and Opacity: These options work as they do for the paint and edit tools, the Fill command, and every other tool or command that offers them as options. Select a different brush mode to change how colors are applied; lower the Opacity value to make a gradation translucent. Remember that you can change the Opacity value by pressing number keys as well as by using the Opacity control on the Options bar. Press 0 for 100 percent opacity, 9 for 90 percent, and so on. ✦ Reverse: When active, this simple check box begins the gradation with the background color and ends it with the foreground color. Use this option when you want to start a radial or other style of gradation with white, but you want to keep the foreground and background colors set to their defaults. ✦ Dither: In the old days, Photoshop drew its gradients one band at a time. Each band was filled with an incrementally different shade of color. The potential result was banding, in which you could clearly distinguish the transition between two or more bands of color. The Dither check box helps to eliminate this problem by mixing up the pixels between bands (much as Photoshop dithers pixels when converting a grayscale image to black and white). You should leave this option turned on unless you want to use banding to create a special effect. ✦ Transparency: You can specify different levels of opacity throughout a grada- tion. For example, the Transparent Stripes effect (available from the Gradient palette when the Default Gradients preset is loaded) lays down a series of alternately black and transparent stripes. But you needn’t use this trans- parency information. If you prefer to apply a series of black and white stripes instead, you can make all portions of the gradation equally opaque by turning off the Transparency check box. For example, in Figure 6-10, I applied Transparent Stripes as a radial gradation in two separate swipes, at top and bottom. Both times, I changed the Opacity setting to 50 percent, so the dog and the hydrant would never be obscured. (The Opacity setting works independently of the gradation’s built-in trans- parency, providing you with additional flexibility.) In the top gradation, the Transparency check box is on, so the white stripes are completely transpar- ent. In the bottom gradation, Transparency is turned off, so the white stripes become 50 percent opaque (as prescribed by the Opacity setting).
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 239 Transparency on Transparency off Figure 6-10: With the Opacity value set to 50 percent, I applied the Transparent Stripes gradation with Transparency on (top) and off (bottom). When Transparency is off, the white stripes obscure the view of the underlying image. Gradient styles Photoshop 6 In Photoshop 5, you selected different gradient tools to create specific styles of gra- dations. Now the toolbox contains just one gradient tool, and you select the gradi- ent style by clicking the gradient style icons on the Options bar (refer back to Figure 6-9). Note that you can’t use the old Shift+G shortcut for switching styles. Nor can you switch styles by Alt-clicking on the gradient tool icon in the toolbox.
240 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching Illustrated in Figure 6-11, the five styles are as follows: ✦ Linear: A linear gradation progresses in bands of color in a straight line between the beginning and end of your drag. The top two examples in Figure 6-11 show linear gradations created from black to white, and from white to black. The point labeled B marks the beginning of the drag; E marks the end. ✦ Radial: A radial gradation progresses outward from a central point in concen- tric circles, as in the second row of examples in Figure 6-11. The point at which you begin dragging defines the center of the gradation, and the point at which you release defines the outermost circle. This means the first color in the gra- dation appears in the center of the fill. So to create the gradation on the right side of Figure 6-11, you must set the foreground color to white and the back- ground color to black (or select the Reverse check box on the Options bar). ✦ Angle: The angle gradient tool creates a fountain of colors flowing in a coun- terclockwise direction with respect to your drag, as demonstrated by the middle two examples of Figure 6-11. This type of gradient is known more com- monly as a conical gradation, because it looks like the bird’s eye view of the top of a cone. Of course, a real cone doesn’t have the sharp edge between black and white that you see in Photoshop’s angle gradient. To eliminate this edge, create a custom gradation from black to white to black again, as I explain in the “Adjusting colors in a solid gradation” section later in this chapter. (Take a peek at Figure 6-16 later in this chapter if you’re not sure what I’m talking about.) ✦ Reflected: Drag with the fourth gradient tool to create a linear gradation that reflects back on itself. Photoshop positions the foreground color at the begin- ning of your drag and the background color at the end, as when using the lin- ear gradient tool. But it also repeats the gradient in the opposite direction of your drag, as demonstrated in Figure 6-10. It’s great for creating natural shad- ows or highlights that fade in two directions. ✦ Diamond: The last gradient tool creates a series of concentric diamonds (if you drag at a 90-degree angle) or squares (if you drag at a 45-degree angle, as in Figure 6-11). Otherwise, it works exactly like the radial gradient tool.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 241 Black to white White to black Linear Radial Angle Reflected Diamond Figure 6-11: Examples of each of the five gradient styles created using the default foreground and background colors (left column) and with the foreground and background colors reversed (right column). B marks the beginning of the drag; E marks the end.
242 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching Creating custom gradations Photoshop 6 If you’re accustomed to editing gradients in earlier versions of Photoshop, you probably searched high and low for the key to opening the Gradient Editor dialog box, shown in Figure 6-12. Where’s the Edit button that you clicked to open the dia- log box in Version 5? In the Gradient palette menu? On the Options bar? Nope, and nope. The secret passageway to the dialog box — as you already know if you read the “Gradient options” section earlier in this chapter — is the color preview that appears at the left end of the Options bar. If you click the preview, you display the Gradient Editor dialog box; if you click the neighboring triangle, you display the Gradient palette, as shown earlier, in Figure 6-9. Figure 6-12: Click the gradient preview on the Options bar to display the Gradient Editor dialog box, which enables you to design custom gradations.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 243 The Gradient Editor offers a new look as well as some new functions in Version 6. Upcoming sections cover these functions in detail, but I want to highlight the fol- lowing changes: ✦ The scrolling list at the top of the dialog box mirrors the Option bar’s Gradient palette and the Gradients panel of the Preset Manager dialog box; if you click the triangle at the top of the scrolling list, you display a virtual duplicate of the palette menu. Tip If you want to see gradient names instead of icons in the list, choose Text Only from the dialog box menu. Or choose Small List or Large List to see both icon and gradient name. ✦ To create a new gradient, find an existing gradient that’s close to what you have in mind. Then type a name for the gradient in the Name option box and click the New button. The new gradient appears in the scrolling list, and you can edit the gradient as you see fit. Caution Even though the gradient appears in the dialog box (as well as in the Gradient palette and Preset Manager dialog box), it’s vulnerable until you save it as part of a preset. If you make further edits to the gradient or replace the cur- rent gradient preset, the original gradient is a goner. Deleting your main Photoshop preferences file also wipes out an unsaved gradient. See the upcoming section “Saving and managing gradients” for more details. ✦ You now can create noise gradients as well as solid-color gradations. If you select Noise from the Gradient Type pop-up menu, Photoshop introduces random color information into the gradient, the result of which is a sort of special-effect gradient that would be difficult to create manually. ✦ The options at the bottom of the dialog box change depending on whether you select Solid or Noise from the Gradient Type pop-up. For solid gradients, Photoshop now provides a Smoothness slider, which you can use to adjust how abrupt you want to make the color transitions in the gradient. ✦ You can resize the dialog box by dragging the size box in the lower-right corner. Editing solid gradients Photoshop 6 If you select Solid from the Gradient Type pop-up menu, you use the options shown in Figure 6-13 to adjust the gradient. (Note that this is a doctored screen shot — I made all the options visible in the figure, but normally, only some of these options are available at a time.)
244 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching The fade bar (labeled in Figure 6-13) shows the active gradient. The starting color appears as a house-shaped color stop on the left; the ending color appears on the far right. The upside-down houses on the top of the fade bar are opacity stops. These stops determine where colors are opaque and where they fade into translu- cency or even transparency. Midpoint marker Fade bar Active opacity stop Active color stop Figure 6-13: Use these controls to adjust the colors and transparency in a solid gradient. To select either type of stop, click it. The triangle portion of the stop appears black to show you which stop is active. After you select a stop, diamond-shaped midpoint markers appear between the stop and its immediate neighbors. On the color-stop side of the fade bar, the midpoint marker represents the spot where the two colors mix in exactly equal amounts. On the transparency side, a marker indicates the point where the opacity value is midway between the values that you set for the stops on either side of the marker. You can change the location of any stop or marker by dragging it. Or you can click a stop or marker to select it and then enter a value in the Location option box below the fade bar: ✦ When numerically positioning a stop, a value of 0 percent indicates the left end of the fade bar; 100 percent indicates the right end. Even if you add more stops to the gradation, the values represent absolute positions along the fade bar. ✦ When repositioning a midpoint marker, the initial setting of 50 percent is smack dab between two stops; 0 percent is all the way over to the left stop, and 100 percent is all the way over to the right. Midpoint values are, therefore, measured relative to stop positions. In fact, when you move a stop, Photo- shop moves the midpoint marker along with it to maintain the same relative positioning.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 245 Figure 6-14 shows four black-to-white radial gradations that I created by setting the midpoint between the black and white color stops to four different posi- tions. The midpoint settings range from the minimum to maximum allowable Location values. If you enter a value below 13 percent or over 87, Photoshop politely ignores you. In all cases, I set the opacity to 100 percent along the entire gradient. 13% (minimum) 35% 60% 87% (maximum) Figure 6-14: Four sets of white-to-black gradations — radial on top and linear at bottom — subject to different midpoint settings. Tip Pressing Enter after you enter a value into the Location option box is tempting, but don’t do it. If you do, Photoshop dumps you out of the Gradient Editor dialog box. Adjusting colors in a solid gradation When editing a solid gradation, you can add colors, delete colors, change the posi- tioning of the colors within the gradient, and control how two colors blend together. After clicking a color stop to select it, you can change its color in several ways: Photoshop 6 To change the color to the current foreground color, open the Color pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 6-15, and select Foreground. Select Background to use the back- ground color instead. ✦ When you select Foreground or Background, the color stop becomes filled with a grayscale pattern instead of a solid color. If you squint real hard and put your nose to the screen, you can see that the pattern is actually a repre- sentation of the Foreground and Background color controls in the toolbox.
246 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching The little black square appears in the upper-left corner when the foreground color is active, as shown in the first stop on the fade bar in Figure 6-15; the black square moves to the bottom-right corner when the background color is active, as shown in the end stop in the figure. ✦ If you change the foreground or background color after closing the Gradient Editor, the gradient changes to reflect the new color. When you next open the Gradient Editor, you can revert the stop to the original foreground or back- ground color by selecting User Color from the pop-up menu. Foreground color stop Color midpoint marker Background color stop Figure 6-15: A look at the new color stop options in Version 6 ✦ To set the color stop to some other color, click the Color swatch or double- click the color stop to open the Color Picker and define the new color. Select your color and press Enter. Tip ✦ You may have noticed that when you opened the Gradient Editor dialog box, Photoshop automatically selected the eyedropper tool for you and displayed that tool’s controls on the Options bar. Here’s why: You can click with the eye- dropper in an open image window to lift a color from the image and assign the color to the selected color stop. You can also click the Color palette’s color bar or a swatch in the Swatches palette. Or, if you see the color you want in the fade bar in the dialog box, click it there.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 247 To change the point at which two colors meet, drag the midpoint marker between the two stops. Or click the midpoint marker and enter a new value into the Location box. As I mentioned earlier, a value of 0 puts the midpoint marker smack up against the left color stop; a value of 100 scoots the stop all the way over to the right stop. You add or delete stops as follows: ✦ To add a color stop, click anywhere along the bottom of the fade bar. A new stop appears where you click. Photoshop also adds a midpoint marker between the new color stop and its neighbors. You can add as many color stops as your heart desires. (But if your goal is a gradient featuring tons of random colors, you may be able to create the effect you want more easily by using the new Noise gradient option, discussed shortly.) ✦ To duplicate a color stop, Alt-drag it to a new location along the fade bar. One great use for this to create a reflecting gradation. For example, select Foreground to Background from the scrolling list of gradients and click New to duplicate the gradient. After naming your new gradient — some- thing like Fore to Back to Fore — click the background color stop and change the Location value to 50. Then Alt-drag the foreground color stop all the way to the right. This new gradient is perfect for making true conical gradations with the angle gradient tool, as demonstrated in Figure 6-16. Foreground to Background Fore to Back to Fore Figure 6-16: Two gradations created with the angle gradient tool, one using the standard Foreground to Background gradient (left) and the other with my reflected Fore to Back to Fore style (right). Which looks better to you?
248 Photoshop Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching ✦ To remove a color stop, drag the stop away from the fade bar. Or click the 6 stop and click the Delete button. The stop icon vanishes and the fade bar automatically adjusts as defined by the remaining color stops. Adjusting the transparency mask If you like, you can include a transparency mask with each gradation. The mask determines the opacity of different colors along the gradation. You create and edit this mask independently of the colors in the gradation. Photoshop 6 To create a transparency mask in Version 6, you play with the opacity stops across the top of the fade bar. You don’t have to toggle between editing the opacity and color stops as you did in earlier versions of Photoshop; both attributes are always within reach. When you click a transparency stop, the transparency options become available beneath the fade bar and the color options dim, as shown in Figure 6-17. Opacity midpoints Active opacity stop Figure 6-17: Click a stop along the top of the fade bar to adjust the opacity of the gradient at that location. To add an opacity stop, click above the fade bar. By default, each new stop is 100 percent opaque. You can modify the transparency by selecting a stop and changing the Opacity value. The fade bar updates to reflect your changes. To reposition a stop, drag it or enter a value in the Location option box. Midpoint markers represent the spot where the opacity value is half the difference between the opacity values of a pair of opacity stops. In other words, if you set one opacity stop to 30 percent and another to 90 percent, the midpoint marker shows
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 249 you where the gradient reaches 60 percent opacity. You can relocate the midpoint marker, and thus change the spot where the gradient reaches that mid-range opac- ity value, by dragging the marker or entering a new value in the Location box. Color Plate 6-2 demonstrates the effect of applying a three-color gradation to a pho- tograph. The gradation fades from red to transparency to green to transparency and, finally, to blue. In the first example in the color plate, I dragged over a standard checkerboard pattern with the gradient tool, from the lower-left corner to the upper- right corner. The second example shows the photograph before applying the grada- tion. In the last example, I applied the gradient — again from lower left to upper right — using the Overlay brush mode. Creating noise gradients Photoshop 6 Adobe describes a noise gradient as a gradient that “contains random components along with the deterministic ones that create the gradient.” Allow me to translate: Photoshop adds random colors between the defined colors of the selected gradi- ent. Did that help? No? Then take a look at Figure 6-18, which shows examples of three noise gradients based on a simple black-to-white gradient. You could create these same gradients using the regular Solid gradient controls, of course, but it would take you forever to add all the color and midpoint stops required to pro- duce the same effect. Roughness, 100 Roughness, 50 Roughness, 100 Add Transparency on Figure 6-18: Here you see three gradients created using the new Noise option in the Gradient Editor dialog box. I created the first two using two different Roughness values; for the bottom example, I used the same Roughness value as in the middle example but selected the Add Transparency option.
250 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching To create a noise gradient, select Noise from the Gradient Type menu in the Gradient Editor dialog box, as shown in Figure 6-19. You can adjust the gradient as follows: ✦ Raise the Roughness value to create more distinct bands of color, as in the top example in Figure 6-18. Lowering the Roughness value results in softer color transitions, as you can see from the middle example, which I set at one half the Roughness value of the top example. ✦ Use the color sliders at the bottom of the dialog box to define the range of allowable colors in the gradient. You can work in one of three color modes: RGB, HSB, or Lab. Select the mode you want from the pop-up menu above the sliders. Figure 6-19: Use the new Noise gradient option to create gradients like the ones you see in Figure 6-18. ✦ The Restrict Colors option, when selected, adjusts the gradient so that you don’t wind up with any oversaturated colors. Deselect the option for more vibrant hues. ✦ If you select Add Transparency, Photoshop adds random transparency infor- mation to the gradient, as if you had added scads of opacity stops to a regular gradient. In the bottom example of Figure 6-17, I started with the gradient from the top example, selected the Add Transparency check box, and left the Roughness value at 100. ✦ Click the Randomize button, and Photoshop shuffles all the gradient colors and transparency values to create another gradient. If you don’t like what you see, just keep clicking Randomize until you’re satisfied.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 251 Tip For some really cool effects, try applying special effects filters to a noise gradient. Figure 6-20 shows the results of applying the Crystallize, Twirl, and Ripple filters on the original noise gradient shown in the upper-left example. Original Crystallize Twirl Ripple Figure 6-20: I applied three effects filters to the original noise gradient to create some interesting random patterns. Saving and managing gradients Photoshop 6 When you define a new gradient, its icon appears in the palette, the Preset Manger dialog box, and the Gradient Editor dialog box. But if you replace the current gradi- ent set or edit the gradient, the original gradient gets trashed. You also lose the gra- dient if you delete your Photoshop 6 preferences file because that’s where the temporary gradient information is stored.
252 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching If you want to preserve a gradient, you must save it as part of a preset — which is nothing more than a collection of gradients. As I mentioned earlier, Photoshop ships with several gradient presets that are stored in the Gradients folder, which lives inside the Presets folder in the main Photoshop program folder. You also can create as many custom presets as you like. Gradient presets have the file extension .grd. You can save all the gradients in the active preset – including any custom gradients that you define – by clicking Save in the Gradient Editor dialog box or by choosing Save Gradients from the Gradient palette pop-up menu. But if you want to save only some of the current gradients as a preset, choose Edit ➪ Preset Manager and display the Gradients panel, shown in Figure 6-21, by pressing Ctrl+3 or by choosing Gradients from the Preset Type pop-up menu. Shift-click the gradients you want to save and then click Save Set. If you want to dump the selected gradients into an existing preset, select the preset file and press Enter. Alternatively, you can enter a new preset name to create a brand new preset that contains only the selected gradients. Figure 6-21: To select specific gradients and save them as a new preset, use the Preset Manager. To delete a gradient, Alt-click its icon in the palette, the Preset Manager, or the Gradient Editor dialog box. To delete multiple gradients, Shift-click the gradients in the Preset Manager and then click the Delete button. Save the preset immediately if you want the deleted gradients gone for good; otherwise, it remains an official part of the preset and reappears the next time you load the preset. All the standard brush modes are available when you apply gradations, and they make a tremendous impression on the performance of the gradient tool. This sec- tion examines yet another way to apply a brush mode in conjunction with the tool. Naturally, it barely scrapes the surface of what’s possible, but it may inspire you to experiment and discover additional effects on your own.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 253 The following steps tell you how to use the Dissolve mode with a radial gradation to create a supernova explosion. (At least, it looks like a supernova to me — not that I’ve ever seen one up close, mind you.) Figures 6-22 through 6-24 show the nova in progress. The steps offer you the opportunity to experiment with a brush mode set- ting and some general insight into creating radial gradations. Cross- These steps involve the use of the elliptical marquee tool. Generally speaking, it’s Reference an easy tool to use. But if you find you have problems making it work according to my instructions, you may want to read the “Geometric selection outlines” section of Chapter 8. It’s only a few pages long. STEPS: Creating a Gradient Supernova 1. Create a new image window. Make it 500×500 pixels. A grayscale image is fine for this exercise. 2. Click with the pencil tool at the apparent center of the image. Don’t worry if it’s not the exact center. This point is merely intended to serve as a guide. If a single point is not large enough for you to identify easily, draw a small cross. 3. Alt-drag from the point with the elliptical marquee tool to draw the mar- quee outward from the center. While dragging with the tool, press and hold Shift to constrain the marquee to a circle. Release Shift after you release the mouse button. Draw a marquee that fills about 3/4 of the window. 4. Choose Image ➪ Adjust ➪ Invert (Ctrl+I). This fills the marquee with black and makes the center point white. 5. Choose Select ➪ Deselect (Ctrl+D). As the command name suggests, this dese- lects the circle. 6. Again, Alt-drag from the center point with the elliptical marquee tool. And, again, press Shift to constrain the shape to a circle. Create a marquee roughly 20 pixels larger than the black circle. 7. Alt-drag from the center point with the elliptical marquee tool. This subtracts a hole from the selection. After you begin dragging, release Alt (but keep that mouse button down). Then press and hold both Shift and Alt together and keep them down. Draw a marquee roughly 20 pixels smaller than the black circle. Release the mouse button and finally release the keys. The result is a doughnut- shaped selection — a large circle with a smaller circular hole — as shown in Figure 6-22. 8. Choose Select ➪ Feather (Ctrl+Alt+D) and enter 10 for the Radius value. Then press Enter to feather the section outline. 9. Press D and then press X. This makes the foreground color white and the background color black. 10. Select the gradient tool and click the radial gradient icon on the Options bar. That’s the icon that has the white circle at its center. (Flip back to Figure 6-11 if you still don’t know what I mean.) If the Options bar is hidden, press Enter to display it.
254 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching Figure 6-22: The result of creating a black circle and two circular marquees, all centered about a single point 11. Open the Gradient palette and select the Foreground to Background gradi- ent. Assuming that you have the default gradients preset loaded and haven’t altered the preset, the icon is the first one in the palette. 12. Select Dissolve from the Mode menu on the Options bar. 13. Drag from the center point in the image window to anywhere along the outer rim of the largest marquee. The result is the fuzzy gradation shown in Figure 6-23. Figure 6-23: The Dissolve brush mode option randomizes the pixels around the feathered edges of the selection outlines.
Chapter 6 ✦ Filling and Stroking 255 14. Choose Select ➪ Deselect (Ctrl+D) to deselect the image. 15. Choose Image ➪ Adjust ➪ Invert (Ctrl+I) to invert the entire image. 16. Press D to restore black and white as foreground and background colors, respectively. Then use the eraser tool to erase the center point. The finished supernova appears in Figure 6-24. Figure 6-24: By inverting the image from the previous figure and erasing the center point, you create an expanding series of progressively lighter rings dissolving into the black void of space, an effect better known to its friends as a supernova. Applying Strokes and Arrowheads Photoshop is nearly as adept at drawing lines and outlines as it is at filling selec- tions. The following sections discuss how to apply a border around a selection out- line — which is practical, if not terribly exciting — and how to create arrowheads — which can yield more interesting results than you might think. Photoshop 6 This chapter concentrates on raster lines — that is, lines made of pixels that you create with the line tool set to the Fill Region mode. To find out how to use the tool to produce vector lines and work paths, see Chapters 14 and 8, respectively. Some, but not all, line tool techniques discussed here apply to the line tool also when it’s set to vector or work path mode.
256 Part II ✦ Painting and Retouching Stroking a selection outline Stroking is useful for creating frames and outlines. Generally speaking, you can stroke an image in Photoshop in four ways: Photoshop ✦ The Stroke command: Select the portion of the image you want to stroke and 6 choose Edit ➪ Stroke to display the Stroke dialog box shown in Figure 6-25. Or, if you’re working on a multilayered image, you can choose the Stroke com- mand without making a selection; Photoshop then applies the stroke to the entire layer. In the Stroke dialog box, enter the thickness of the stroke in the Width option box. The default unit of measurement here is pixels, but you can now use inches and centimeters as well. Just type the value and then the unit abbre- viation (px for pixels, in for inches, or cm for centimeters). Figure 6-25: Use the options in the Stroke dialog box to specify the thickness of a stroke and its location with respect to the selection outline. In its former life, the Stroke command always applied the foreground color, which meant that you had to remember to set the color before choosing the command. In Version 6, you can set the stroke color from within the dialog box. Click the color swatch to select a color from the Color Picker — don’t for- get that you can click inside an image window while the Color Picker is open to pick up a color in the image. Press Enter to close the Color Picker and return to the Stroke dialog box.