Question about Photoshop Paint Bucket Tool

[mduser63]

Sorry if this is a really dumb question, but I haven't been able to figure it out. I've run into a problem in Photoshop. I've got a shape made up of lines (created using the line tool) that I want to fill using the paint bucket tool. The problem is, the anti-aliasing on the lines makes it so that the paint bucket tool doesn't quite fill the inside with color. It leaves gaps at the edges. As far as I can tell, this is because as soon as it gets to the edges where the lines aren't really visible, but the somewhat transparent anti-aliasing pixels are, it stops. In Paint Shop Pro on the PC, there is an option to set the "match mode" for the paint bucket tool to color, opacity, etc. Setting that to opacity and then turning the tolerance up a little bit allows you to fill a shape made up of anti aliased lines with color with no gaps. I hope this makes sense.

Is there a similar option in Photoshop? If not, how would I go about using the paint bucket tool to fill a shape with anti-aliased edges so that it fills up to the fully opaque "real" lines that make up the shape instead of stopping at the edge of the lower opacity "anti-alias-fringe" around the edges?

I actually ended up using Paint Shop Pro in Virtual PC to do what I wanted to do, and that worked fine, but obviously I'd like to be able to do it in Photoshop next time. My brother always tells me that Paint Shop Pro is way faster, easier to use, and in some areas more powerful than Photoshop. Usually I try to argue with him about that, but in this case it seems he may be right.

 

[Blue Velvet]

That's what the tolerance setting is for in the top toolbar, when the bucket is selected.

Personally, I would never use the bucket unless I had made a selection first, checking it in QuickMask mode (Q), possibly saving it as a mask if it was important and maybe tweaking that by using 'expand selection', touching it up here and there, and feathering it slightly.

I'd like to know the areas where Paint Shop Pro is more powerful than Photoshop.

 

[BakedBeans]

Personally, I would never use the bucket unless I had made a selection first, checking it in QuickMask mode (Q), possibly saving it as a mask if it was important and maybe tweaking that by using 'expand selection', touching it up here and there, and feathering it slightly.

^what she said^

I'd like to know the areas where Paint Shop Pro is more powerful than Photoshop.

I too would like to know this (my main reason for replying to this thread)

To be honest, there are lots of different ways to do the same thing in photoshop, if it doesnt work one way, try another.

 

[mduser63]

That's what the tolerance setting is for in the top toolbar, when the bucket is selected.

Personally, I would never use the bucket unless I had made a selection first, checking it in QuickMask mode (Q), possibly saving it as a mask if it was important and maybe tweaking that by using 'expand selection', touching it up here and there, and feathering it slightly.

Thanks for the help. I turned on anti-aliasing on the paint bucket tool and turned the tolerance up even higher and got it to work. I do think that the method that you suggested would definitely be something that would show the difference between PSP and PS. I understand that using the method you suggested is more powerful, but for someone who is new to Photoshop and just wants to perform a simple fill, it's much less intuitive and takes longer. Not very Mac-like if you ask me.

As for areas where Paint Shop Pro is more powerful than Photoshop, I couldn't tell you. It's not me that says that, it's my brother. I really do think that Photoshop is more powerful than Paint Shop Pro. However, that seems to come at the price of usability and learning curve.

 

[stevep]

Not very Mac-like if you ask me.

No, but its very Adobe-like.

 

[Sparky's]

No, but its very Adobe-like.

And once you go around the block a few time with it very logical. Adobe doesn't spend millions developing and R&Ding its products for the sake of it. I've been using Photoshop since 2.x (late '80s) and I still don't know half of what I would like to. To me Photoshop is THE most powerful photo editing program there is.