Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 395)

388 USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Drawing
Last updated 1/10/2010
6 Choose Preserve Transparency to limit the fill to layer areas that contain pixels. (See “ Lock layers ” on page 294.)
7 Select a Rendering option:
Feather Radius Defines how far inside and outside the selection border the feather edge extends. Enter a value in
pixels.
Anti-aliased Creates a finer transition between the pixels in the selection and the surrounding pixels by partially filling
the edge pixels of the selection.
For more information on these options, see “ Soften the edges of selections ” on page 263.
8 Click OK.
Stroke paths with color
The Stroke Path command paints the border of a path. The Stroke Path command allows you to create a paint stroke
(using the current settings for your painting tools) that follows any path. This command is completely different from
the Stroke layer effect, which doesn’t mimic the effect of any of the painting tools.
Important: When you stroke a path, the color values appear on the active layer. Make sure that a standard or background
layer is active before completing the steps below. (You cannot stroke a path when a mask, text, fill, adjustment, or Smart
Object layer is active.)
Path selected (left) and stroked (right)
Stroke a path using the current Stroke Path options
1 Select the path in the Paths panel.
2 Click the Stroke Path button at the bottom of the Paths panel. Each click of the Stroke Path button builds up
the opacity of the stroke and, depending upon the current brush options, makes it look thicker.
Stroke a path and specify options
1 Select the path in the Paths panel.
2 Select the painting or editing tool you want to stroke the path. In the options bar, set the tool options, and specify
a brush.
For information on specific tool settings, see “ Smudge image areas ” on page 208 and “ About painting tools, options,
and panels ” on page 332.
3 To stroke the path, do one of the following:
• Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Stroke Path button at the bottom of the Paths panel.
• Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the path to the Stroke Path button.
• Choose Stroke Path from the Paths panel menu. If the selected path is a path component, this command changes
to Stroke Subpath.