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Amy25436015qzb5
Participating Frequently
October 29, 2022
Answered

Desperately need help with making a transparent stroke

  • October 29, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 8847 views

I am new to photoshop and all week have been trying to figure out how to make a transparent stroke around this graphic letter "A".  I am going nuts!!!  I am trying to make a t-shirt design and so this design needs to have a transparent background (the t-shirt will be colored...probably red).  I want to over lap the A with the W & the Y (all three letters in white) but there needs to be a little space between them so that you can distinguish one from the other.  If anybody has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you in advance.

P.S. I am using a mac

-Amy

    Correct answer Myra Ferguson

    One way that you could make the transparent area around the A would be to create layer masks on the other letters based on the A. Here's how:

    1.  Load the selection of the A by either Ctrl (PC)/Command (macOS) + clicking the thumbnail of the A in the Layers panel or going to Select > Load Selection... and selecting that layer.
    2. Go to Select > Modify > Expand... and enter the value in pixels for the space you want as a buffer around the A.
    3. Select the Y layer.
    4. Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection...
    5. Repeat for the W layer.

     

    2 replies

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 29, 2022

    A transparent stroke is trickly. Try this.

    Create the letters.

    Add a stroke effect to the 'A'

    Right click on the stroke effect and choose Create Layer. That puts the stroke on a separate layer, but it is actually a filled.

    To remove the fill on the separate stroke layer, load a selection of the A layer. (You can Command click the layer thumbnail.)

    Target the stroke layer and delete  the selection so that you have only the stroke, not a filled letter.

    Load a selection of the stroke.

    Target the A layer and add a layer mask.

    With the mask targeted, Command-i to inverse the mask.

    You can delete the stroke layer now.

    Command click on the mask to load a selection of the mask.

    Target the W layer and add a layer mask.

     

      Myra Ferguson
      Community Expert
      Myra FergusonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      October 29, 2022

      One way that you could make the transparent area around the A would be to create layer masks on the other letters based on the A. Here's how:

      1.  Load the selection of the A by either Ctrl (PC)/Command (macOS) + clicking the thumbnail of the A in the Layers panel or going to Select > Load Selection... and selecting that layer.
      2. Go to Select > Modify > Expand... and enter the value in pixels for the space you want as a buffer around the A.
      3. Select the Y layer.
      4. Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection...
      5. Repeat for the W layer.

       

        A
        Amy25436015qzb5Author
        Participating Frequently
        March 19, 2023

        Can you help me again.  I am pretty much trying to do the same thing as before but instead of wanting to create a transparent background around one letter it needs to be around 5 letters...but its not working.  

        A
        Amy25436015qzb5Author
        Participating Frequently
        March 19, 2023
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