Preserved Topic: Q: Contract selection from full image selection

My option for contract and expand are greyed out when I select an entire image. I've tried control clicking on a layer (the paint of this layer fills the entire image) to come up with a selection and the contract does not work, I've also tried dragging from the top left extent to the bottom right extent to create the selection. In both cases, I am not able to contract my selection. Anyone know why?

(i'm creating borders...)

Karl

hmmmmm ...

well I would turn on your 'grid' (resizing it if necessary in your preferences) and then use (snap to checked) to drag out a selection. (or a combo of grid and guides, grid should be adequate)

or

select all
load selection as a new channel
go to channel pallettes and make the new channel active
select all again
edit-transform-numeric .... then use the scale option (either constrained or not, and any units you choose)
fill the scaled selection with black
ctrl click the channel and invert if necessary.. voila! selection

edit: ok.. found a different way too..

select all
select----modify---border
enter an amount in pixels (experiment dependingon how big you want your border)
ok.. now save the selection as a channel and head over to the channel pallette
make that channel active
Image---adjust----levels.. slide left and right sliders inwards til you get a crsip edge
Load as a selection... done

(not as accurate but not bad `PHEW~ BRAIN FART heh


edit2: anoter brainfart: this is a long winded (cuse the pun) method

access your total image size (say 500 x 400)
ok.. new layer.. rectangular marquee tool.. open the options pallette and select 'fixed'
enter new horiz and vert values for a fixed selection based on the width/height of your image minus the desired border width.
make the selection by clicking in the image but dont worru where. we fix that in a mo
ok.. making sure you have a new layer, fill that selection with white.
now select all again.... ok..
now go to Layer ---align and allign horiz ceneter and then vertical center, or vice versa.
this should have centralized the white fill area.. now you can use that as a basis of a selection

more beer please !

may need to experiment but I think that works... ~Vp~

[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 08-02-2001).]

[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 08-02-2001).]

Or....

Select>>>All
Select>>>Transform Selection

Hold down Shift + Alt, and click in one of the corners....
Now when you drag into the canvas, it will keep the selection centered, and contract it as much as you want....

Seems simple.
(little edit here...nothing to see, nothing to see)

Of course you could do it VP's way...but you'd need a lot more beer.

heh

Peter

P.S.
Of course you could always just Select>>>All then Edit>>>Stroke and stroke however many pixels in that you want the border, use that as your selection, or the inverse to select the rest. ~cough~





[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 08-02-2001).]

or

if your wise your save my tangential approach for those rainy fall days and instead follow Darkgardens exellent and more to the point , succint method! hehe.. works like a dream!

*shuffles off to contemplate* ~Vp~

I would Select > All (ctrl + a) and Image > Stroke. But I would do it in an Alpha channel. Eventually Invert the Alpha.

Doing some things on Background can be a bit tricky. Works differenlty than a regular Layer for some things. I hardly ever touch the Background, but that's me.

In PS6, if the image you select all of is a * background*( i.e. locked ) you can`t modify the selection.

You can use the *by the shorts* method or the *round the horn* methods above, or you could double click the layer thumb in the layers pallette, and make it a layer.

Then modify to your hearts content.

'cept one problem DB - you still can't contract a selection that is the entire image. no matter what type of layer you're on (unless they changed that in 6.0?).

so, that being said, I prefer the 'round the horn' method

Absolutely right DL. When I tried it last night, it worked, but apparently it was later than I thought. I think what I did was drag the marquee across the entire image, and missed a few pixels, My Bad.

`round the horn, it is.