Changing color of a stroke? - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

andyapc · #1 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006

Grrrrr - I can't seem to figure this out and it seems like it should be such a simple thing. I'm just drawing a blank.

I've attached an image. I have a b/w photo in the background and a color photo in the foreground. I want a thin outline around the color photo but not touching it, so I didn't place the stroke around the photo itself. Instead, on another layer, I drew out a larger rectangle, put a white stroke on that and reduced the fill to 0.

Now ... I want the portion of the stroke that is on the b/w photo to remain WHITE and the remaining portion that is on the white background to be BLACK.

I can't seem to do it. I've duplicated my rectangle/stroke layer, changed the color of the stroke to black and tried to delete the top part of it to reveal the white stroke layer underneath, but that doesn't work ... because it merely changes the size of the black rectangle and still shows the black stroke on all 4 sides, one of which now cuts right through the color photo.

Does this make sense? Anybody have any tips?

defntlymb · #2 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006

after you apply your stroke style, you need to right click on the layer, group into new smart object, rasterize layer and then erase the part that you want to. that should work!

NancyS · #3 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006

You might try adding a style of gradient overlay on the stroke layer. Set it to black/white and adjust the gradient itself and the scale to get the change from white to black to be to your liking. A smaller scale will make it more distinct, and the normal scale will make it fade with some shades of gray in the transition area.

The other option would be to put a black rectangle above the stroke layer in the area where you want it to show and do a "group with previous" or as they call it in CS2 "create clipping mask"

Hope this helps.

andyapc · #4 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by NancyS

The other option would be to put a black rectangle above the stroke layer in the area where you want it to show and do a "group with previous" or as they call it in CS2 "create clipping mask"

Nancy - thanks so much but for some reason, I couldn't get this to work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by defntlymb

after you apply your stroke style, you need to right click on the layer, group into new smart object, rasterize layer and then erase the part that you want to. that should work!

Meredith - that worked!! I have NO idea why (which really bugs me, because I like to know "why" stuff works so that I can apply it to other things, KWIM??)

defntlymb · #5 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006

i'm glad it worked. the reason you were having trouble is because when you applied the stroke, did you apply it to a rectangle and then make the fill opacity 0? if you did, then that rectangle is still there, even though you can't see it. so, when you were erasing, you were actually erasing the rectangle and the stroke was just following the edges and making an outline of the new shape you were creating. so, in order to get rid of the shape, you pretty much have to "render" the stroke so that it's the only thing on that layer and the program forgets that the rectangle was ever there. does that make any sense? LOL...