Filling a selection or layer with colors or patterns
You can fill a selection or layer with the foreground color, the background color, or a pattern. In Photoshop, you can use patterns from the pattern libraries provided or create your own patterns. You can also fill a shape using the Color, Gradient, or Pattern Overlay effects or the Solid Color, Gradient, or Pattern fill layers on the Layers palette. When you use fill layers to fill a selection, you can easily change the type of layer being used. For more information, see Using adjustment layers and fill layers (Photoshop).
To fill a selection or a layer with a foreground or background color: - Specify a foreground or background color. (See Choosing foreground and background colors.)
- Select the area you want to fill. To fill an entire layer, select the layer in the Layers palette.
- Choose Edit > Fill to fill the selection or layer. Or to fill a path, select the path and choose Fill Path from the Paths palette menu.
- In the Fill dialog box, for Use, choose one of the following options or select a Custom Pattern:
- Foreground Color, Background Color, Black, 50% Gray, or White to fill the selection with the specified color.
To apply a foreground color fill only to the areas that contain pixels, press Alt+Shift+Backspace (Windows) or Option+Shift+Delete (Mac OS). This preserves the transparency of the layer. To apply a background color fill only to the areas that contain pixels, press Ctrl+Shift+Backspace (Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac OS). - Pattern to fill the selection with a pattern. Click the inverted arrow next to the pattern sample and select a pattern from the pop-up palette. You can load additional patterns using the pop-up palette menu. Select the name of a library of patterns or choose Load Patterns and navigate to the folder containing the patterns you want to use.
- History to restore the selected area to a state or snapshot of the image. (See Making a snapshot of an image (Photoshop).)
Note: If you fill a CMYK image using the Black option, Photoshop fills all the channels with 100% black. This may result in more ink than is allowable by the printer. For best results when filling a CMYK image, use the Foreground option with the foreground color set to an appropriate black. - Specify the blending mode and opacity for the paint. (See Setting options for painting and editing tools.)
- If you're working in a layer and want to fill only areas containing pixels, choose Preserve Transparency.
- If you are filling a path, enter a Feather Radius value to blend the edges of the filled path and select Anti-aliased if you want to anti-alias the path.
To fill the work canvas: - Set the foreground color you want to use for the canvas.
- Select the paint bucket tool .
- In the options bar, set Fill to Foreground.
- Hold down Shift, and click in the work canvas.
Note: You need to be in full screen mode and viewing the menus to fill the work canvas.
To fill a selection with a pattern: - Select the part of the image you want to fill.
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Edit > Fill. In the Fill dialog box, for Use, choose Pattern, select a pattern from the pop-up palette, and click OK.
If Pattern is dimmed, you need to load a pattern library before you can select this option. (See Managing libraries with the Preset Manager (Photoshop).) - Select the paint bucket tool . In the options bar, choose Pattern from the Fill pop-up menu and select a pattern from the Pattern pop-up palette. Then click to fill the selected area with the pattern.
Note: You can load additional pattern libraries into the pop-up palette prior to making a selection. (See Creating and managing patterns.)
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