Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

The Paint Bucket

When you want to fill a large area with color in a hurry, the Paint Bucket is the tool for you. It's right below the Brush in the Tools panel if you have two rows of tools, or below the Smart brush if you have a single row. If you click it (keyboard shortcut: K) and then click in your image, all the available area (either your whole image or the current selection) gets flooded with color. It works something like the Magic Wand: Just as the Magic Wand selects only the color you click, the Paint Bucket fills only the color you click.

Figure 12-12. The slightly confusing Auto Erase option was used to create two lines: a horizontal one of the Foreground color (purple) and a vertical one of the Background color (light green). The horizontal line was drawn by starting with the cursor in the background (so the Pencil erased the green, leaving a purple line across the circle). The vertical line was drawn by starting inside the purple circle, causing the Background color to be exposed.

Note

Make any Options bar setting adjustments, discussed next, before clicking in your photo.

Most of the Paint Bucket's Options bar settings are probably familiar:

• Pattern. Normally the Paint Bucket fills the area with the Foreground color (Choosing Colors). But turn on this checkbox, and it uses a pattern (Applying Patterns) instead. Choose an existing pattern (listed in the Pattern drop-down menu ...