Filling a ring

[jimbir]

Now, I may have this all wrong.
What I wanted to do was create a ring and fill it with a color.I opened the preset shape tool and then selected a circle. I drew the inner circle with a black fill. I then drew the outer circle with no fill. I moved it so that it was concentric with the inner circle.I highlighted the vector one layer which contained both circles and made a selection using "from vector objects". A marquee Appeared around both circles "forming my "ring". When I attempted to fill the ring,The only thing that happened was"Promoted selection" appeared in the list of layers.

Can someone help me with this problem. As I said above, I'm probably doing something wrong.

[LostNow]

I didn't use your technique, preferring what I think may be a much easier method for you to try. Use the selection tool, choose circle for the shape, and draw one edge of the ring you want. Maintain the selection, then go to Selections>Modify>Select Selection Border. You'll be presented with a screen allowing you to define a new border of the width you want by adding to the inside, outside or both of your existing ring. Make your choice and click OK. Now you'll see your ring on a single raster layer. Click inside of the ring and fill as desired.

Hope this is clear, but ask more if necessary!

[jimbir]

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. Using your technique I created a ring and filled it with the color I wanted. I thought I'd be clever so I tried to fill the inside diameter with a different color and that didn't work. So I went to selections>select none and drew another circular selection with a diameter equal to the inner part of the ring. I was able to fill that with the color I wanted.

Now, it would be very helpful to know how to move a selection without it taking part of the background with it. I'm drawing these on a background image and need to be able to position them as accurately as possible by eye.

[LostNow]

Use separate layers for each segment of your work. You can always merge them, but having each portion (promoted selection, picture tube, etc.) gives you control.
BTW, with the above issue of trying to fill the inside portion with a different color, my guess is that you didn't properly select it after you filled and de-selected the inside part.

[jimbir]

Use separate layers for each segment of your work. You can always merge them, but having each portion (promoted selection, picture tube, etc.) gives you control.

I Don't understand the use of a promoted selection.

[JoeB]

Use separate layers for each segment of your work. You can always merge them, but having each portion (promoted selection, picture tube, etc.) gives you control.

I Don't understand the use of a promoted selection.

If you make a selection marquee on an image, you can go to the Selections menu, and the dropdown menu has an item called Promote Selection to Layer. This causes the selected part of the image to become a new layer above the original layer. You can then move that layer around where you like.

Also, as to your previous question about moving a selection, did you mean moving the object your have selected (which the Promote to Selection info provided is the way to do it) or did you mean moving the selection marquee around? If the latter, have your mouse pointer inside the selections and hold down the right mouse button and drag, and that will allow you to move the selection marquee around.

[jimbir]

Thank you very much. That has been very helpful!

[jimbir]

Two more questions. When drawing a circle, you can specify it's radii. Is there a way to do that when drawing a circular selection? Or, is there a way to reduce the diameter of a circular section after it has been drawn?

[JoeB]

Two more questions. When drawing a circle, you can specify it's radii. Is there a way to do that when drawing a circular selection?

You can't specify the radius, but in the Selections tool options palette there is an option called Selection Style. If you click on the little down arrow you can select Fixed Size and then set the diameter of the circle in pixels. Then when you click on your image with the Selection tool, circle mode, it will automatically make a circle of that diameter in pixels.

Or, is there a way to reduce the diameter of a circular section after it has been drawn?

Just go to Selections>Edit Selection which will put a ruby colored lith on your selection. Get the Pick tool, Scale mode, and you can drag the nodes to change the size of a selection. It's a toggle, so when you are finished with adjusting the size of your selection you have to go to Edit Selection again and click it to toggle it off.

Once you are familiar with how the Edit Selection tool works, you might want to simplify the process of toggling it on and off through the menu. If so, there is a script available here that can be bound to an icon and placed on a toolbar, etc., that can simplify the process. The explanation of what the script does is also at this link, along with the links to download it if interested.

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=63318

[hartpaul]

There is also an Edit Selection button on top of the Layers palette so you don't have to go through Selections > Edit Selection

[JoeB]

There is also an Edit Selection button on top of the Layers palette so you don't have to go through Selections > Edit Selection

But you still then have to go to the tool bar and select the Pick tool. And I don't know if you can use that button to toggle off the Edit Selection tool because I haven't tried it because I removed it from the Layers palette because I don't need it so it was just taking up space.

[LeviFiction]

Just curious, why don't you just keep them as vectors? What is the point of making them selections just to fill them with solid colors? More importantly if you are just going to fill in the center circle with then two separate ellipses make the most sense.

If you truly need a ring with the center cut out, that's also doable in any of several ways with just the vectors. Even better the vectors can constantly be adjusted, moved, resized, and colored as often as you want.

Here are two ways to make a ring with vectors.

First method you can use the Ellipse tool or the preset shape tool if you have a circle preset shape.
Video Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10d-YNj ... EAVe4/view

1) If using the preset shape tool, draw out a cirlce preset shape. If using Ellipse, draw out the ellipse then go to Objects -> Convert To Path
2) Grab Pen Tool
3) Hit Ctrl + A to select all nodes in the circle.
4) On the Tool Options Toolbar there is a button that offers "Duplicate and Offset", "Skew H", "Skew V", "Expand", and "Contract", select "Duplicate an Offset" and set Duplicate X and Y to 0 so it creates an exact copy on top of itself.
5) Change the selection to "Contract" and set the X and Y equal to each other and apply it
6) Finally go Object -> Edit -> Reverse Contour

Reversing the contour will cut a whole in the shape.

Option 2 uses a script - it doesn't matter if you use Ellipse or Preset Shape they all work the same
Video Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tytHAc ... 2mriN/view

1) Draw out the big circle
2) Draw out the center smaller circle
3) With both circles selected in the layers palette Use Object -> Align -> Vertical Center and Horizontal Center to center them on each other.
4) In the Script toolbar select "VectorMergeAndCutoutSelected" it'll delete the two circles and produce a single object with the middle cutout.

And of course if you're just going to color the center circle then none of that is necessary. Just draw two circles of different colors, and align their centers using Object -> Align -> Vertical Center and Horizontal Center

[jimbir]

Something more to study. thanks
Jim