Creating an outline of an object (shape) from a selection in Photoshop of various versions. Creating outlines in Photoshop How to make a black outline in Photoshop

Instruction

There are several ways to select a path in Photoshop. The simplest is associated with the use of the "Magic Wand" - Magic Wand. In the component palette, its icon looks like a stick with an asterisk on the end. The Magic Wand needs to be set up correctly to highlight contours correctly. Set the tool properties parameter Tolerance (tolerance) equal to 30. This value will allow you to confidently separate the contour of the desired image from the background.

Working with the "Magic Wand" is very simple. Bring it to the edge of the object whose contour you want to select, and click the left mouse button. The outline of the part of the image will be highlighted. Now press Shift and, holding down the key, click again with the left mouse button near the part of the image that has not yet been outlined. Pressing Shift allows you to drag on an already selected path. Continue in the same way to create a contour. If you make a mistake, switch the layout and press Ctrl + Z - the last action will be undone.

When the path is closed, proceed to editing the selection. It may be necessary if contouring was performed incorrectly in some areas of the image, and the contour cut off part of the image. Decrease the tolerance value a bit, then move the Magic Wand to the part of the image captured by the outline. Hold down the Alt key and click on the wrongly selected area. The outline will be corrected. Now press Del, the existing background around the image will be removed and filled with the background selected in the Component Palette.

To select more complex paths, especially those that blend into the background, use the Lasso Tool. Select it, press the left mouse button and drag the tool along the perimeter of the selected image until the outline is closed. The disadvantage of the tool is that here the selection is done manually and its quality is determined by how accurately you move the mouse.

In many cases, the capabilities of the Magic Wand and Lasso are not enough to accurately select the contours of a complex object. For example, you need to cut out an image of a cat from a photo, so that the whiskers and . It is impossible to select each hair with the “Magic Wand” or “Lasso”, and it is not necessary - for this there is a more convenient tool “Pen”.

Select the tool "Pen" - "Outlines". Now, by successive mouse clicks, select the contour of the image element you need. Creating a complex contour is quite laborious, but the result pays for all the time spent. At the same time, do not try to select the smallest elements of the contour (like a mustache and cat hair), at this stage you need to select a general contour. Close it by clicking the last time on the first point. Now with the Refine Edge tool, you can more precisely define the boundaries of the path. Given that working with this tool is quite complicated, read about it in specialized articles.

Often users want to learn how to make a drawing out of a photo in order to print the photo later and store it as a drawing. Consider the most effective ways.

To begin with, let's look at several popular services with which you can quickly create a picture effect on a photo without installing additional software on your computer.

Photo Phunia Service

On this site, users can take advantage of the automatic effect by which an ordinary picture is converted into a drawing. You can also choose the background texture of the source file: color, white or "special".

To get started, select a file on your PC. To do this, click the Browse button on the site.

Then determine the color scheme of the image (black and white or color).

Click on the texture shape you want to output and click on the "Create" button to start the file conversion process.

In a few seconds, a direct link to download the image from the site will be generated.

Service Croper

The next popular site for creating a picture from a regular picture is Croper. This online photo editor allows you to apply additional effects to your photo.

With it, you can create a unique image without losing quality.

One of the most popular features of this site is the pencil drawing feature.

The file is converted by creating darker tones of the image, then strokes are gradually superimposed on the layers of the image, which, in turn, make a sketch out of the image.

The editor interface is very simple. Upload the file to the site by clicking on the appropriate button.

The image will open in a new window on the site. After that, find the main menu tabs - they are located at the top of the site. Click in turn on "Operations" - "Effects" - "Pencil".

At the top of the page, select the stroke length settings and slant level.

Then click on the apply button to start the image conversion process.

This will take no more than one minute. If necessary, you can adjust the contrast of the final picture.

The result of Croper's work is shown in the figure below.

Creating a drawing in Adobe Photoshop

Using Photoshop, you can also create a pencil drawing from an ordinary picture.

Using the built-in functions of the program, you can achieve a better display of all the strokes and the final picture will look natural.

The effect of the picture will be very visible if you print it on a printer. For greater effect, you can use white or craft paper.

All the steps below are done in Photoshop CS6. Used features are available in older and all newer versions of the app.

We will use a normal scanned photo; We recommend that you do not use small pictures while working in Photoshop, because after applying the “drawing” effect, some of the pixels may be blurred, which will degrade the quality of the final image of a small size.

First we need to copy the original image.

To do this, open the picture in the program, wait for the toolbar to load and press the F7 button. Then click on the combination of buttons Ctrl - J. This way you will create a duplicate of the layer.

To do this, click on the Image item (main menu of the program). Click on "Correction" - "Invert". Also, to apply desaturation to a layer, just press the Ctrl and I keys simultaneously.

As a result of discoloration, we will get the negative of the image, and not its black and white version. All light areas of the photo will become dark, and dark areas will become light.

On the layers panel, the resulting negative will be displayed as a second copy of the original layer. Next, change the display mode of the layer. Click on layer 2 and in the line "Mode" open the drop-down list. Click on Color Dodge.

After changing the mode, the canvas of the project will turn completely or partially white. On the main menu bar, click "Filter" - "Blur".

From the proposed list, select Gaussian Blur. In the window that opens, adjust the slider to create the blur level.

The higher the value of this indicator, the brighter the picture becomes, acquiring the outlines of the drawn one.

Important! Don't overdo it with the blur filter, otherwise the photo may become too light and the pencil effect will be lost. The optimal blur value is 12.5 - 13 pixels.

This bleaching method allows you to achieve maximum clarity of the strokes of the image, pixels are not lost, and the resolution of the image is preserved. As you can see, the picture took on the shape of a pencil, but did not become too light.

Go to the layer window and select the very first layer as shown in the picture below. Then drag the pointer to the layer name and wait for the context menu to appear. In it, click on the "Merge Visible Layers" item. Hold the Alt button and select all three layers you want to merge with the pointer.

Select the topmost layer (Layer 1). You need to change its display mode to "Multiply". This allows you to darken each line of the sketch, making the sketch more natural.

The lines should not be too dark. If this happens, adjust the Opacity parameter to 50%. It is necessary that the color of the "simple" pencil be preserved.

On this you can finish the job. As a result, we get a black and white sketch of the original photo. If you want to add some color to the sketch, create a copy of the background layer by pressing Ctrl - J.

Now we only need to change the display color options of the duplicated layer. Select the "Color" mode and in the line Transparency set the value to 65%, as shown in the figure above.

The end result of converting an image to a thumbnail will look like this:

Creating a picture from a regular photo in Photoshop will take you no more than 10 minutes, even if you are not an advanced user.

It seems to me that each of us at least once in his life circled the brush of his hand with a pencil, putting it on a piece of paper. Or maybe it happened on the beach. The hand lay on the sand and we circled it with some kind of stick or a long pebble. In both cases, we got a contour. And let's do something similar, but now in Photoshop.

A photo of the hand will help us:

To work in Photoshop, this image of a palm is an ideal and simple material. And that's why. A monophonic, white background and an object - a hand, can also be considered relatively monophonic, and on a white background, the hand looks quite contrasting.

In those cases when the general background and the object of interest to us, the contour of which we are going to create, contrast to a large extent, then we can use the Quick Selection tool. To make the tool work more accurately, we need to help it a little. Our help can be expressed in duplicating the layer. And we will do this in order to enhance the contrast. That is, we will make the hand more saturated, well, or darker.

To do this, move the mouse cursor over the layer in the layers palette (blue selection), and right-click. With these actions, we will open the options window, in which we select the item "Create a duplicate layer":

After we selected the option "Create a duplicate layer", by clicking the left mouse button, a new window appeared before our eyes:

We can simply press the “OK” button, or we can, after this window appears, immediately write something on the keyboard, that is, give the layer a name, well, or a name, and after that press the “OK” button. We do it at our discretion.

I just clicked the "OK" button:

Ready! The duplicate layer appeared in the layers palette (window).

Now we need to change the blending mode of the duplicate layer, and we need to do this to darken the hand, well, or increase the contrast with the white general background of the photo.

Let's turn to the list of blending modes in the top menu of the layers window by opening the list of modes with a simple mouse click on the arrow button:

A list of layer blend modes appeared before our eyes:

And let's increase the contrast, so we will strengthen it. Select the "Linear dimmer" mode from the list:

And this is what we got as a result:

Well, everything is ready to work with the Quick Selection tool. Move the mouse cursor over the tool we currently need "Quick Selection" in the tool window:

And select it by clicking the left mouse button. The mouse cursor has turned into a circle with a crosshair inside.

Now let's pay attention to the technical settings of the instrument. Let's take a look at the control unit with these very technical settings:

The tool must be in "Add to Selection" mode. To do so, click on the tool icon with a plus sign. If the icon is highlighted in blue, then you do not need to click on it - the mode is already activated:

If you set the value to 3 or 5, then the selection will be clearer. If we choose a value much larger than what we see now, and we see the value 18, then starting to select the palm, we will capture a white background, since with a larger diameter of the tool its sensitivity will decrease.

Perhaps the "golden mean" can be considered the value at which the circle-cursor of the tool will be slightly smaller than any finger of the hand. For me, the diameter of the tool is convenient in the range of 15-22. I opted for a value of 18. Perhaps it is better to focus on your feelings and on the selection process itself. Depending on how convenient and high-quality (there is no capture of a white background) we make a selection, we need to move the tool diameter adjustment slider, choosing the optimal value.

In order for the tool to work, as they say, “to its fullest”, the hardness must be set to 100%. Well, we are all set to select the hand. I suggest starting the selection from the wrist:

Dotted-selection intervals are also set not very large. In my case 7%. If we set the selection intervals much larger, then the selection will be less even, I would even say rough or rough. But this may be necessary in some cases. We do everything, of course, at our discretion.

Well, let's start. We bring the tool cursor to the wrist. By pressing and holding the left mouse button, we begin to move the tool up towards the fingertips:

We start the tool on the thumb, then on the palm and the other finger ... and then the tool worked on its own, and the brush became completely covered by the selection.

If such an independent selection did not occur, then we smoothly move the tool cursor over all fingers until the hand is completely selected.

In the event that we feel uncomfortable in holding the left mouse button or our hand begins to experience some physical discomfort, the selection process can be suspended. Let's stop holding the mouse at all. Let's twist the brush, stretch our fingers, and then again continue the selection process from the place where we stopped.

What to do if a white background still gets into the selection area? You can cancel the selection altogether by pressing Ctrl+D and start selecting the palm again. Or you can turn to the tool's technical settings block and switch its operation mode by clicking, but now by the tool icon with a minus:

It is not at all necessary to change other settings of the tool (the diameter of the circle cursor, its hardness, the intervals of the dotted selection itself).

This mode switch gives us the opportunity to remove the "capture" by highlighting the white background:

Well, let's get rid of the selection of a part of the white background that we do not need. We bring the cursor-circle of the tool to the selection and, by pressing the left mouse button and then holding it, we begin to shift the extra selection towards the edge of the palm. We try to shift the selection smoothly so as not to shift the selection deep into the palm:

When one of the excess selection areas touches the palm contour, we move on to the next selection area and move it in the same way.

In the case when we nevertheless climbed the selection onto the palm, then we need to switch the tool operation mode again by clicking its icon with a plus and smooth movements to shift the selection to the edge (contour) of the palm. In order for the selection to be of high quality and clearly flow around the contour of the hand, and it would be more convenient for us to work, the best thing to do when starting the selection is to increase the visibility scale:

And when we succeeded, and we succeeded, and I have no doubt about it, we move on to the part of the process that is connected directly with the creation of the contour of the palm. Release the left mouse button and exhale relief.

The brush is selected - the "ants" of the selection are actively running along its contour, and we change the tool and create a new layer in the layers window.

Let's start by creating a new layer. Click on the bottom menu of the layers window, the icon for creating a new layer. Ready:

This new layer in a few seconds will turn into a layer-contour of the palm, or rather the future contour. We have so far only a selected area, and the creation of a contour is ahead.

Now let's change tools or selection modes. With a normal mouse click, select the normal (not quick) selection tool. And which tool from the list we choose, in our case, does not matter:

Let's get the top one. He is the first from top to bottom, called "Rectangular Region":

So, a new still empty layer has been created, the tool has been changed, and now we move the tool cursor to the palm area and find ourselves with the cursor inside the selection. The tool cursor looks like two crosses. One is big and the other is small. Making a right-click. An options window has appeared, in which we are currently interested in the “Run Stroke” option:

Let's choose it. And then the following settings window appeared:

In this window, we can optionally adjust the thickness (width) of the outline line, its color, and also select the location of the stroke, and then click the "OK" button. I will not change the settings and just click the "OK" button. And here's what happened:

In order for us to fully admire our creations, we need to hide or remove unnecessary visible elements that interfere with the review. Let's not rush to remove elements, but just turn off visibility for some of them. I suggest starting with layers. In the layers window, click on the “Eye” icon for the background layer and the copy background layer:

Well, here's another thing:

To be sure that the contour we created is without flaws and defects, increase the visibility scale (Photoshop CS5 version):

Unfortunately, we must admit that the contour turned out to be “so-so”. The contour line has many irregularities, which were already noticeable at the very beginning of its creation and at 100% visibility scale.

Using the technique of creating a path from a selection, we should not get carried away by darkening (lightening) the selected area of ​​the future path. Excessive contrast enhancement enhances the existing roughness in the images we are working with, even if they are of good quality.

In addition, the image itself may not be the original. So, the image of the palm with which we just worked was already subjected to not very high-quality processing in some kind of image editor, which was reflected in the contour we created from the selection. It is the placement of images on a white background that allows you to hide the roughness of the contour while reducing the contrast of the object (lightening).

But for all those irregularities of the resulting contour, it is still not worth underestimating the convenience and significance of the technique of creating a contour from a selection.

In the near future we will continue to talk about creating contours using other techniques, well, or approaches.

Sometimes you want to trace a selection (i.e. outline). This technique comes in really handy when used in conjunction with the selection tools. For example, you can combine it with the Rectangular Marquee tool to add a thin black outline to your photo, or with an oval selection.

When it comes to adding chic to an image, few effects beat a subtle black outline.

Whether you're embedding an image in text or posting it on a blog, adding an outline sharpens the edges a little, giving the drawing a finished look.

Here's how you can add an outline around the edge of an image:

Step 1

Open an image and select it. If the image is the same size as the document, select the menu command Selection => All. If it's smaller than the document and on its own layer, Ctrl-click the layer's thumbnail instead.

Step 2

Select a menu command Editing => Stroke. In the dialog box, enter a value in pixels in the Width box (I put in 10 pixels) and then click on the color indicator. Choose a color from the palette that appears and click OK. When you're back, set the radio button in the Location group to Inside so that the outline only appears inside the borders of the image.

Step 3

Click OK to view the new path.

To circle someone in a photo, you will need to follow basically the same steps:

Step 1

Open a photo and select a tool such as . Drag the mouse to draw an oval. Remember that you can hold down the Shift key while dragging to create a perfect circle, or you can press the Alt key and draw an oval from the inside. Move the selection, if necessary, by pressing and holding the mouse button inside it and dragging the mouse.

Step 2

Select a menu command Stroke, enter a width, and choose a color. It needs to be at least 2 pixels wide so the circle is bold enough to be seen. In a group Location set the switch to position Centered, then Photoshop will center the stroke on top of the "marching ants". For example, if you enter a width of 2 pixels, the program will place one pixel on the outside of the selection and one on the inside (in other words, it will “step over” the selection).

When processing and creating images with and without captions in a graphics program, it is often necessary to highlight the boundaries of objects, separate them from the background, or simply draw an outline. For all this, you can use a stroke in Photoshop or brush drawing along the path. This article is devoted to how to do this.

Two ways to create a stroke

There are two ways to make a stroke in Photoshop: selecting the boundaries of the layer using one of the specially provided effects and outlining a vector path. The first method is more often used to visually emphasize the boundaries of objects and to separate them from the background (most often this is necessary, for example, in order to highlight text against a colorful background). The second method is more used for drawing, especially when creating clear geometric shapes.

Layer Stroke in Photoshop

A stroke in Photoshop is primarily a layer effect. This layer can be either an image, or a fragment of it, or letters written with the Type tool.

In order to apply this layer stroke effect, you need to do the following.

1. Select layer.
2. In the menu item of the "Editing" tab, select "Stroke".

A dialog box will open where you will need to adjust the stroke parameters and confirm the command by clicking the "Yes" button. A stroke in Photoshop will be created, the corresponding layer will be outlined, its borders will become visible.

Stroke options are easy to adjust, and there are quite a few options here. This includes adjusting the line thickness, choosing a color, and setting where the line should go:

• along the boundary of the layer outside;
• so that the border is its center;
• along the border inside.

You can also set the mode - like any fill (color, pattern or gradient). By combining these and other tools of the program, it is easy to achieve a variety of effects.

The great thing about this stroke method is that it can still be adjusted later, so you can come back to this layer effect as the image as a whole changes. Let's say if you decide to lighten, and the stroke is no longer in harmony with it, you can correct it and tweak it.

Its second plus is that this effect can be copied and applied to other layers or other images, or create new ones based on it.

Another Stroke Dialog Box

The second way to stroke a layer is to select the "Layer" menu item, and then "Layer Style". A window will open where all the parameters that can be set to the layer style will be visible. Among them, you need to select "Stroke".

The same window with styles is called up by pressing the "Add layer style" button in the "Layers" window.

Calling this common window with styles through the menu, of course, is not very convenient, and if you use the stroke often, then for dynamic work, you should set a keyboard shortcut for this window.

To do this, go to the "Editing" menu, then "Keyboard shortcuts", find one of the above paths through the menu items and set the combination that is convenient for you.

Why the Two Stroke Dialog Boxes Exist

The two alternative windows for creating a layer effect are similar to each other, so many people are sure that they are working with the same tool. However, this is misleading. The fact is that these are different windows that create different strokes, and it is by combining these two commands that you can draw two adjustable contours around the same layer. This is especially true for text strokes.

Outline stroke

How to make a stroke in Photoshop? The second way is to create a contour and draw it.

In Photoshop, a path is a vector line that defines the direction of brush movement. That is, the stroke in this case is drawing with the selected brush along a given path.

Use the Selection tool, Lasso tool, or Magic Wand tool to select the part of the image you want to trace. Through the menu item "Window" call "Contours". In this window, find the "Make work path from selection" button. In the Tools panel, select the Brush tool, set its options (shape, color, etc.). Then, in the Paths window, click the Stroke Path with Brush button. The area you selected earlier will be outlined. Then delete the outline.

Thus, for a stroke along the contour, you do not need to create a new layer, it is enough to define a stimulating line along which the program will draw with the brush you have chosen.

Please note that the stroke in this case will be placed on the layer you specified, including the new one.

Stroke text along a path

The options for customizing the Brush tool in Photoshop are very rich, because you can adjust spacing, texture, shape and color dynamics, etc. At the same time, this line will differ from drawing by hand with maximum accuracy, and this process will take much less time.

To stroke text, its layer must first be selected, and then converted - like a normal selection area - into a path. After creating a new layer, you can experiment and draw along the line with any brush with any settings. Do not forget that for artistic purposes, you can apply various effects to the resulting stroke, as to a normal layer, place it above or below the text, change its transparency, etc.

The two stroke methods described above are not interchangeable, but complement each other. The advantage of the first is that the line can be adjusted and then returned to the adjustment, as well as copied and applied to other layers, including in other files. The advantage of the second is that the stroke in Photoshop will look more artistic, since there are no restrictions on the choice of brushes.