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Known Participant
December 24, 2024
Question

is it possible to have the Paint Bucket Tool apply feathering?

  • December 24, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1123 views

I'm trying to fill various shapes and I was wondering if the bucket paint tool could be used, in such a way, that it would leave the edges of the fills feathered; I guess it would be like applying an alpha-finish to the edge of the object(s) 

 

Can this be done?

Is there a way to do this that I'm not seeing?

Is my question making sence?

 

Basically, I'll draw something and then bring it into PS to add color.  But the edges never come out smooth when I use the bucket tool to fill areas, they are always pixelated.

 

So, I'm either not doing something correctly, I can't use the bucket tool this way, or I'm an ediot; I guess it could also be all three. 

 

Peace,

ElementX

3 replies

melbendi
Inspiring
January 22, 2025

The Paint Bucket tool will fill your selection with whatever feathering the selection has. You could first use Quickmask. Hit Q and pick the brush tool with a Hardness of 0, or whatever you like, and paint it in what you want to fill, then hit Q again to leave Quickmask mode, and click once with the paint bucket tool, or just hit Alt-Backspace, but only once, because if you do it twice, it will fill twice and sharpen your edges.

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 25, 2024

Experienced users tend not to use the Paint Bucket tool because it does not do well fill to edges.  It's better to fill to a selection in a layer beneath the area you want to fill. 

You could select that area with the magic wand, and expand it a fe pixels.

You fill and apply a Layer Style > Stroke chosing Center.

 

To answer your question more directly, you can feather a selection with Shift F6

ElementXAuthor
Known Participant
December 25, 2024

Trevor,

Thank you for your reply.

I wasn't aware of this issue but I have experienced the color not filling to the edge.

In my ignorance, I simply thought it was one of those things that you had to deal with until it got fixed or updated.

Now, I realize it should have been fixed a long time ago.

I'm learning, always learning, so I'll try the Shift F6 approach.  I did try playing with the feathering settings but to no success, I'll keep working at it.

 

Peace,

ElementX

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 19, 2025

Trevor,

Again thank you, and I apologize for the very late reply.

You'd think that it would as simple as click to fill any area.

I mostly use Animate to draw... anything, as I haven't yet truly commited to learning Illustrator.

In Animate, there are times when certain areas of an object aren't filled at all with the paint bucket, mostly when they are small so you I'd have to zoom in to fill them.

I also like using the paint brush and painting behind an object but that too has had it's issues.

 

Thanks again for taking the time, much appreciated.

 

Peace,

ElementX


quote

You'd think that it would as simple as click to fill any area.

By @ElementX

 

In addition to Trevor's excellent answer, try this: make a selection and use a keyboard shortcut to fill:

  • Ctrl/Cmd + Backspace/Delete = Fill with Background Color
  • Alt/Option + Backspace/Delete = Fill with Foreground Color

 

Jane

Bojan Živković11378569
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 24, 2024

Perhaps you overlooked the Anti-alias option in the Options bar (located just below the menus). Additionally, the Paint Bucket tool is quite old and likely hasn't been updated in some time.

ElementXAuthor
Known Participant
December 25, 2024

Bojan,

Thank you for your reply.

I'll have to go with the tool is quite old.

 

Peace,

ElementX