Circle with transparent filling colour

[Pixel_Pusher]

Hello,

I work with a German version and so I do not know the exact English words of the objects and functions. What I want to do is drawing circles with an outline (I know how to do that) but with a filling (background) colour which has a transparency of for example 50%. Is that possible and how should I do that?

Must I enter the outline and the filling part on two different layers to get the transparency for the filling colour?

Thanks for help,
Joe

[Pixel_Pusher]

I found a solution myself: For the background (filling part) I defined a color gradient with a transparent color.

[hartpaul]

1. Use pen tool set your line width.
2. Select Draw circle (not ellipse) making sure the background colour and line colour are your choices.
3. Right click the layer and convert to a raster layer.
4. Duplicate
5. Select the lower layer and with magic wand select the fill and delete so that is transparent.
6. Select the upper layer and change the transparency to suit (it changes the transparency of the line too, but since the line on the lower layer is at full opacity, you will only see a change in the centre background colour.

[Pixel_Pusher]

Hi hartpaul,

thank you for your answer. Your idea is what I said in my first post with the two different layers. I do not like this solution because I cannot change the size of the circle and i I have to move it I have to move two parts on two layers. So I think that my solution with the colour gradient is much more better. I can keep a vector circle and change size or position and it keeps all other attributes.

[LeviFiction]

Hey Pixel_Pusher, yes your gradient method is better. However, the problems of maintaining the vector and allowing for resizing and moving of the two objects together is not as bad as you make it seem.

Using Linked Layers or layer group (which auto-links layers) you can use the Move tool to keep the two layers together as you move them around. True you can only resize one of the objects at a time but with the object tools ability to resize objects to match the size of another object this isn't all that bad.

Again, your method is best. Just wanted to point out that the double object option isn't as limiting as you make it sound. Just more frustrating for certain actions. xD

There is a third option that's similar to your method but also just as annoying.

Textures.

Textures use the grey values to determine transparency. So all you need is a "texture" image that is all grey set to a certain value of transparency. Then apply that texture to the material. It'll set the transparency of the fill. Of course the down side to this is you have to define all 100 possible opacity levels manually and then find it amongst the texture options.

So, yes, your gradient method is, so far, the best option for creating transparency within a single object.

[photodrawken]

Must I enter the outline and the filling part on two different layers to get the transparency for the filling colour?

That's the best method, IMO, because you have great flexibility in setting the appearance -- to do that, you can simply group two vector groups:

1. Create your circle.
2. Duplicate the vector "group" containing that circle.
3. Group both vector "groups".
4. Change the bottom vector circle to have a transparent stroke and a colour of your choice as your fill.
5. Change the top vector circle to have a transparent fill and a colour of your choice as the stroke.
6. Set the transparency of the bottom vector "group" (the fill) as you wish in the Layers panel.

You can move and resize the top-level group, and everything will change to match.

The layers look like this:

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[LeviFiction]

Oh, fun fact time. XD What you're showing are vector layers not vector groups.

You have two kinds of groups in PSP (that I know of <_<). Layer groups and vector groups. Layer groups, which is what you're proposing, can hold any number of layers inside of it. Vector layers themselves can hold any number of individual vector objects. To help you further organize things within each vector layer you can create multiple vector groups which will also contain individual objects. What you have in your example are two vector layers, not vector groups. Of course you can use vector groups to get this same effect, but since we can't yet define the individual transparency of a color or object you'd end up using the gradient method anyway. And you couldn't have individual layer styles for both the fill and the stroke.

[photodrawken]

Oh, fun fact time. XD What you're showing are vector layers not vector groups.

Yep; note my use of quote marks. Coming from PSE, as I am, it'll take a while to learn the PSP lingo....

Of course you can use vector groups to get this same effect, but since we can't yet define the individual transparency of a color or object you'd end up using the gradient method anyway. And you couldn't have individual layer styles for both the fill and the stroke.

Yeah, that's why I used a group of vector layers, with each layer containing only one vector object.