Hollow circles in Photoshop?

**Twinrehz** · 05-09-2006, 06:13 AM

I'm using Photoshop 9.0, just so we got that clear.

The issue: I want to make lots and lots of circles in Photoshop to make an intricate pattern. BUT, Photoshop doesn't draw hollow cicles. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

**sandrac** · 05-10-2006, 03:06 PM

On a layer, use the Marquee tool (hold down the Shift key to get a circle, rather than an oval), then go to the Edit menu, select Stroke. Set your thickness to what you want.

Stroke will use whatever color is in the foreground. (I don't think that's changed from 5.5 to 9). If it has, let me know. I've got CS2 at home.

sc

**Twinrehz** · 05-11-2006, 02:09 AM

Stroke uses the red color #ff0000 as a standard in 9.0, but thanks for the reply! (Added to talkupation).

**TrentonD** · 05-11-2006, 07:23 PM

Another thing you can do is make a circle with the marquee tool, fill it with your desired circle, and then go Select->Modify->Contract. Enter in the number of pixels you want to contract the selection by (this will be the line thickness), click okay, and then click delete. That should remove the inner bit of the circle.

**sandrac** · 05-13-2006, 02:43 PM

Twinrehz,

I just got a stroke in a custom shade of purple (and now I'm on Version 9, since it's the weekend and I'm home!!

). I started with a blank canvas, transparent background, RGB mode. My foreground was already purple (from something I had worked on previously), and my background was black.

I'm not sure why your color defaulted to red. When I went to the Edit menu, and selected Stroke, I actually had the option to select a color as well. It showed my foreground as the default, but I could change it by clicking the color swatch on the dialog box. When you change the swatch on the dialog box, it changes your foreground on your toolbox.

If you're just looking for a simple circle, TrentonD's solution works very well. If your shape is odd, though, it can cause almost like "corners" when you contract.