My stroke outline won't show up.

[haliburton]

I'm using PSE11. I've used Select All around a rectangle, tried the stroke outline in Center and Inside, using a bright red, and with the mode at Normal, and set the stroke as thick as 5 px. But nothing shows up. I deleted my Preferences file and that didn't help. Anyone?

[Squirrel2014]

Hi Haliburton
Welcome to the forum

You didn't mention what colour the rectangle was but I assume the red is a colour that contrasts highly so you would have expected to see it. 5px is actually a rather fine line. Have you tried this with, maybe, 25px? I wonder if it's just that your line is too fine. Also, have you tried 'Outside', as well as inside and centre?

The other thing to check is the opacity, which should be set at 100%

Would you just try those options and then post back? If you are still having a problem, someone else with more experience will be able to make further suggestions.

[haliburton]

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried 25 px just now, along with the Outside setting and no luck. The opacity is 100%. The colour background is a pale yellow so the red should stand out easily.

[Squirrel2014]

Umm, I don't know what to suggest.

Later this afternoon/evening, there will be others on here. I would think some further help will be available. So, keep 'hanging around' and I'm sure you'll get more replies.

Sorry I can't help.

[shaun]

Jan 27, 2016 14:05:56 GMT haliburton said:

I'm using PSE11. I've used Select All around a rectangle, tried the stroke outline in Center and Inside, using a bright red, and with the mode at Normal, and set the stroke as thick as 5 px. But nothing shows up. I deleted my Preferences file and that didn't help. Anyone?

Hi Haliburton

Have you tried to do this by going to Edit Tab, then select Stroke (outline) selection. It should bring up an option to select type of stroke, thickness and colour. The downside of this method is that its un-editable. You could make a copy of the layer before applying the selection and then use above method. A short cut to duplicate the layer you want is. First click on the layer you want to place a stroke on and then hit Control J on PC or Command J on a Mac.

Hope this helps

Shaun

I tried this on Elements 12 but I believe it is the same procedure in elements 11

[haliburton]

Hi Shaun,

That's the method I did use.

[shaun]

Hi haliburton,
I don't know then, sorry I couldn't be of more help. Have you tried resetting the tools, don't know the method in Elements 11. In elements 12 there is a little box towards bottom of screen on the right. It has a little arrow with some lines next to it. If you select that there is an option to reset all tools.

Shaun

[Major Major]

I can't see what resetting the tools would have to do with this, to be honest. Maybe try this. Create a new layer. Make your selection on the original layer, then go back to (select) the new layer and try the stroke again. Does it show on the new layer?.

[ken1]

Try this:

Open picture file
Go to Select>all. You should see "marching ants" surrounding the periphery
Open a blank layer above the background layer
Go to Edit>stroke(outline) selection. The color of the stroke should contrast against the background so that you can see it.
Place the stroke inside. Make stroke 5-15 px (Experiment)

[angelag]

This suggestion might be a bit off the wall, but have you checked that your Blend Mode is on "Normal"? I've known other modes to have an effect on the appearance of the stroke.
agg

[Major Major]

Reading your message more carefully, I see you are using Select All. Are you aware that this is selecting the entire periphery of your frame, and no tthe rectangle itself?

[Sepiana]

Hi haliburton,

Here are some thoughts.

- I am not sure resetting all tools will fix this problem. You already deleted the Preferences file and the problem continues. Deleting this file is one step above doing a tool resetting.
- You are using a stroke on a color which contrasts with the background color (bright red on pale yellow).
- You also confirmed the Opacity is set to 100% and the Mode to Normal.

- You have already experimented with different stroke Widths and Locations.

Without having all the details, I am going out on a limb here and bring in another variable -- Preserve Transparency.

Is your rectangle on its own layer? Is Preserve Transparency turned on? If so, turn this setting off. In this way, the stroke will be applied only to the area with opaque pixels, i.e., the stroke will be applied to the rectangle itself and will be visible.

NOTE:  If your image has no transparency, this option will not be available.  It will be grayed out.

[cats4jan]

As Major said - If OP used 'select all' - and then used "outside" - the stroke won't show up because there is no room on the canvas because the stroke is on the outside of the canvas.

However, OP said he tried "inside" and that didn't work either.  Maybe he's expecting the outline to be around a particular rectangle and that's not what he selected to outline.  And maybe he's not seeing the outline because the stroke is hidden by another layer.

I tried this just now. Using "select all" then Edit>Stroke then "inside" then choosing 40 pixels - I did have the stroke show up.  It was, however, around the perimeter of the project because I chose "select all."

So if OP chose "select all" then "edit/stroke" then "inside" with enough pixel width - the line should've shown up whether you put the stroke on it's own layer or on the photo layer.

Could it be that your stroke is hidden by another layer?? If something solid is on top of the stroke, it won't show up because it will be covered by another layer.

Major has hit on the probable problem - the use of "select all" - "select all" selects the perimeter of the project - not a rectangle which is part of a project.

To select a rectangle that is part of the project, Control/Command Click on the Thumbnail of the rectangle layer - this will give you a selection of the rectangle ONLY. Then open a new layer ABOVE the rectangle and use EDIT>STROKE. That will put your outline around only the rectangle.

If none of the suggestions are working, it's time to explore all those options Sepiana and others have mentioned using a new project.

I suggest you start from scratch - open a new photo - just to explore the suggestions here.

Sometimes when we are making a project, something else is getting in the way. If you start fresh, and learn how to do the procedure, you may be able to figure out what is going wrong on your current project.



HINT

Once you have solved the issue, and you are able to get your stroke -- get in the habit of making your strokes on their own layers so that the stroke layer remains editable - it can be deleted, or the color changed, or the line made smaller/bigger and it can be moved around.  

Just make sure your outline layer is on top of your photo - if it's underneath the photo, it will be hidden by the photo.

Realize - Stroking on the photo layer itself will prohibit any editing of the line at a later date.

[haliburton]

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses. None works. I tried the layer from background, both opaque (Ctrl-J) and blank. The "marching ants" definitely twitch when I apply the stroke but when I remove the "ants" nothing appears. This with a width of 25 px. Interestingly, though, the little thumbnail for that layer has a red border! But not on the main picture.

I should have said I've done this procedure a number of times in the past and it works fine the way I described above. There's some little setting somewhere that's messing it up; but I'm darned if I know what.

[Sepiana]

haliburton,

I have an inkling about what could be causing this problem but I need more details to help with the troubleshooting (and confirm my suspicions). 

- About the file you are working on (Size in pixels, resolution, etc).
- A screen shot including your file in the workspace as well as the layer stack.
- A screen shot of the Stroke dialog box.

Thanks!