Fill tool – what am I doing wrong?

Hi all,
In my work I use scanned maps that I often need to put together to create a larger map. For this I use MapInfo, which has the ability to convert one of the colors in an image to transparent, which is quite handy for eliminating white spaces on overlapping adjacent map boundaries.
So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?
Well, apparently not. A small number of pixels retained some color, simply going lighter. Even after several subsequent uses of the fill tool, I can still see them like ghosts on the white background, and Info tool gives me their RGB values as e.g. 254, 253, 254. I tried using the Eraser tool on the selected area (needless to say the background color is white), to no avail.
Tried creating a new layer, copying the selection to it, setting again the layer opacity and fill to 100%, filling it with white – no go. The ghosts are still there, the histogram of the selected area showing them clearly.
The image is an RGB JPEG. When I do the same thing on some BMP files that are in Indexed color mode everything is OK, of course, I guess because of the simpler color scheme.
So, my question is: how do I fill *every* #$% pixel of the selected area with *exactly* the same color, and am I doing something wrong ?
TIA
Nash

Hi all,
In my work I use scanned maps that I often need to put together to create a larger map. For this I use MapInfo, which has the ability to convert one of the colors in an image to transparent, which is quite handy for eliminating white spaces on overlapping adjacent map boundaries.
So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?
Well, apparently not. A small number of pixels retained some color, simply going lighter. Even after several subsequent uses of the fill tool, I can still see them like ghosts on the white background, and Info tool gives me their RGB values as e.g. 254, 253, 254. I tried using the Eraser tool on the selected area (needless to say the background color is white), to no avail.
Tried creating a new layer, copying the selection to it, setting again the layer opacity and fill to 100%, filling it with white – no go. The ghosts are still there, the histogram of the selected area showing them clearly.
The image is an RGB JPEG. When I do the same thing on some BMP files that are in Indexed color mode everything is OK, of course, I guess because of the simpler color scheme.
So, my question is: how do I fill *every* #$% pixel of the selected area with *exactly* the same color, and am I doing something wrong ?
TIA
Nash

Hi all,
In my work I use scanned maps that I often need to put together to create a larger map. For this I use MapInfo, which has the ability to convert one of the colors in an image to transparent, which is quite handy for eliminating white spaces on overlapping adjacent map boundaries.
So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?
Well, apparently not. A small number of pixels retained some color, simply going lighter. Even after several subsequent uses of the fill tool, I can still see them like ghosts on the white background, and Info tool gives me their RGB values as e.g. 254, 253, 254. I tried using the Eraser tool on the selected area (needless to say the background color is white), to no avail.
Tried creating a new layer, copying the selection to it, setting again the layer opacity and fill to 100%, filling it with white – no go. The ghosts are still there, the histogram of the selected area showing them clearly.
The image is an RGB JPEG. When I do the same thing on some BMP files that are in Indexed color mode everything is OK, of course, I guess because of the simpler color scheme.
So, my question is: how do I fill *every* #$% pixel of the selected area with *exactly* the same color, and am I doing something wrong ?
TIA
Nash

"Nash" wrote in message

Hi all,
In my work I use scanned maps that I often need to put together to create a larger map. For this I use MapInfo, which has the ability to convert one of the colors in an image to transparent, which is quite handy for eliminating white spaces on overlapping adjacent map boundaries.
So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?
Well, apparently not. A small number of pixels retained some color, simply going lighter. Even after several subsequent uses of the fill tool, I can still see them like ghosts on the white background, and Info tool gives me their RGB values as e.g. 254, 253, 254. I tried using the Eraser tool on the selected area (needless to say the background color is white), to no avail.
Tried creating a new layer, copying the selection to it, setting again the layer opacity and fill to 100%, filling it with white – no go. The ghosts are still there, the histogram of the selected area showing them clearly.
The image is an RGB JPEG. When I do the same thing on some BMP files that are in Indexed color mode everything is OK, of course, I guess because of the simpler color scheme.
So, my question is: how do I fill *every* #$% pixel of the selected area with *exactly* the same color, and am I doing something wrong ?
TIA
Nash

On your original selection, before inverting, did you have "Feather" set to Zero??

Roy G

So, my question is: how do I fill *every* #$% pixel of the selected area with *exactly* the same color, and am I doing something wrong ?

So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?

In article
,
Nash wrote:

So, i used a polygonal lasso tool to very precisely select the image area, inverted the selection to select its rim and tried applying the fill tool to fill the rim area with white (RGB: 255, 255, 255). Blending mode Normal, Opacity 100%. The image is displayed on the Background layer, with Opacity and Fill both at 100%. According to Help, various books and tutorials that should fill every pixel of the selected area with the selected color, right?

No.

Photoshop does not have a fill tool. The Paint Bucket is not a fill tool the way it is in some programs. The Paint Bucket is a combination of the Magic Wand and a fill tool; it looks at the color of the pixel you clicked on, then spreads out in all directions, filling as it goes, until it hits pixels with a different color.

You do not use the Paint Bucket to fill a selection with color. That is not what it is intended for. In fact, you do not use any tool to do that. Instead, just hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key on your keyboard and press the Delete or Backspace key. That’s how you fill a selection with color in Photoshop.

To try to kind of answer all at once:

I really meant Edit -> Fill, not Fill tool. My bad.

Selection’s Feather is set to 0, Anti-aliasing is off.

Edit -> Fill as far as I can see doesn’t have a Tolerance setting, but I guess you misunderstood me because of my mistake.

Edit – Fill doesn’t need a tolerance setting, because there is nothing to tolerate. It will fill the selection no matter what is inside that selection. The only exception I can think off right now is if you are trying to fill a layer with some transparent pixels and you have locked transparency for that layer.

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Johan W. Elzenga           johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer  

keepout

Feb 23, 2008

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:25:12 -0800 (PST), Nash wrote:

Tried Edit -> Clear as well, with the same result 🙁
The image I’m editing is scanned, it’s in the background layer and as far as I can see nothing is locked there. As a matter of fact, I can’t

So in the layers panel, do you have the layer you want to FILL selected ? Oh when I say Select a layer I just mean let the mouse select the layer, no fancy CRTL MOUSE, ALT MOUSE, etc.. Just touch the layer in the layers panel. The layer should be highlighted when you have.

Go to the layers panel and HIDE all layers EXCEPT the one you want to FILL. Then try to FILL with COLOR.

Is it possible you are using ‘SELECT RANGE’ on the layer, hitting just a few pixels before you FILL ?

A locked layer, double click the text in the layer panel, and call it the default [layer 0]. Lock disappears.

change any of the "lock" settings on the background layer. Whatever I do, when I look at the histogram of the area I’ve just "blanked" I can see there are still pixels of different color. I’m not very familiar with the way JPG works, maybe it’s something connected to the algorithm it uses to compress the image. I could swear there are more "un-blanked" pixels after I reopen the file, but I can’t really be sure. Anyway, they are still there immediately after I do the blanking. I’ll try playing with different image formats and see what happens.

To select specific colors to FILL, you need to use the menu SELECT RANGE. But that is like painting with a shot gun.
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