How Do I Make a Ring (Hollow Circle)

Janis,

Regarding the Stroke method, there is a maximum stroke size which may not be enough for your needs. For small stroke values this works well, but large values result in a jagged circle, as in this example with a stroke size of 200px:

Here is another method to make your ring.

1. If you are working on the Background layer, rename it to anything else.

2. Choose the Elliptical Marquee tool, and holding down <Shift> draw out your circle. The <Shift> forces the drawn ellipse to be circular. Another way to get the circle is to set in the options bar: Style Fixed Aspect Ratio, and Width & Height both 1 (or other same value). The you can draw the circle without the <Shift>.

3. Invert the selection and <Delete>. The circle is now on transparent background.

4. Invert the selction so that the ring is again selected.

5. Duplicate the layer.

6. Activate the Move tool and hold down both <Shift> and <Alt> while dragging any corner handle inward. This draws a smaller concentric circle. Here is what we have so far (I started on a solid blue Background layer):

7. Activate the bottom layer and <Delete>. Turn off the visibility of the duplicate layer or delete it. You now have your ring:

Note: The reason for renaming the Background layer is that deleted selections on the Background layer are replaced not with transparency but by the current background color as defined in the toolbar.

One possible way is to use the Custom Shape tool, and choose the "ring" from there.

Option 2: Chose the eliptical marquee tool, and press shift as you drag to keep a perfect circle. Then, go to Edit->Stroke and pick your color and the width you want for your ring. You may have to experiment with the width setting - just use ctrl-Z to undo, and then Edit->Stroke to try again.

-Trish