Filling Tools In Adobe Photoshop

Fill Tools - these tools fill a selected object, area, or layer with color.
In Adobe Photoshop this is done with Paint Bucket and Gradient.

The Paint Bucket and Gradient tools occupy one cell in the Toolbar, and are represented by the icon of the last tool used. To choose another tool, right-click the triangle next to the tool and choose the desired tool from the menu that appears. This menu can also be accessedif you press the tool's icon and wait for a few moments.

The Paint Bucket is used to fill a selected area with a color or pattern by clicking on a pixel in that area. For example, if you want to replace all red pixels in part of an image with blue pixels, then select blue as the primary color and click on one of the red pixels.

Parameters for the Paint Bucket are set in the Options panel.

Fill. This parameter determines in what manner Paint Bucket will fill an area: with a color (Foreground) or pattern (Pattern).

Pattern. If Pattern is chosen in the Fill parameter, then clicking on the triangular button next to Pattern will open a palette of patterns to choose from. Any of these can be used to fill an area.

Mode. This parameter sets the mode in which an area is filled. For example, if darken mode is chosen, Paint Bucket will only replace pixels lighter than the primary color.

Opacity. This parameter sets the opacity of the fill.

Tolerance. This parameter sets the degree to which pixel colors are influenced by a fill. It can accept values from 0 to 255. At lower values of the Tolerance parameter, the range of colors affected by the tool will decrease. As the value is increased, then more pixels that share similar color shades will be affected by the tool.

Contiguous. If Contiguous is checked, then adjacent areas that are affected by the Tolerance value will be filled. If you do not want these areas to be affected then Contiguous should be unchecked.

Anti-aliased. When Anti-aliased is checked, a translucent border is created between filled and unfilled areas. If this effect is not desired then Anti-aliased should be unchecked.

All Layers. When All Layers is checked, all visible layers are affected by a fill. When it is unchecked only the active layer is affected.

It is also possible to execute a fill by selecting Fill in the Edit menu. To do this, first select an area using one of the selection tools and tnen choose the command Fill in the Edit menu. It is not necessary to make a selection if an entire layer is to be filled. After the Fill command is selected, a dialog window will open with the same settings to choose from as for the Paint Bucket tool in the Options panel.

The Gradient tool is used to fill with a gradient, i.e. it fills with one color that gradually changes to another.

To make a gradient fill:

• Step 1. Select an area to be filled with a gradient. If an entire layer will be filled then it is not necessary to make a selection.
• Step 2. Choose the Gradient tool from the Toolbar.
• Step 3. Set the primary color (the first color of the gradient) and the background color (the last color of the gradient).
• Step 4. Set the tool's parameters in the Options Panel.
• Step 5. Move the cursor inside the selected area.
• Step 6. Press the left mouse button, and while keeping it pressed, move in a straight line. The starting point defines where the primary color will begin, the ending point defines where the background color will be. The length of the line determines the degree of transition from one color to another: the shorter the line, the sharper the transition between colors.

The following parameters for Gradient can be set in the Options Panel.

Gradient. The Gradient parameter displays gradient types from which to choose. To choose another type of gradient, press the triangular button to open a palette where a different gradient can be selected, then choose a gradient pattern.

Gradient Style. The gradient's style can be set with one of the following buttons:
Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected,
Diamond.

Mode. This parameter sets the mode in which color is applied.

Opacity. This parameter sets the level of opacity for the gradient. The lower the value for Opacity, the more opaque the colors are.

Reverse. If Reverse is checked, the gradient begins with the background color and ends with the primary color.

Dither. When applying a gradient with many color transitions the transitions between colors will be visible as bands. To smooth these transitions check Dither.

Transparency. It is possible to add transparency to the gradient. To add transparency to a gradient check Transparency.

To create a complex gradient (a gradient which contains transitions between three or more colors) or to edit an existing type of gradient use the Gradient Editor, which is opened by clicking on the image of the gradient itself.