Rectangle Tool - hollow fill but border?

[tiamat2012]

Is there anyway to just do the border of a rectangle? or a rectangle with no fill? It's bizarre that I can't find it, in the program nor in the help files. It's such a basic but useful tool that I'd like to have.

If its not, is there a way I can add a rectangular border to text?

-Kerry

 

[kandsuk]

Hmmm, there must be a way to use the rectangle tool with border but no fill... Until someone can tell you otherwise, here's a neat little trick I picked up a while back and does exactly what you want:

Take the marquee tool (selection tool) and draw out your rectangle where you want it. No go to EDIT > STROKE... and select the stroke (border) width you want in pixels, pick a color from the color choser and click OK. Sit back and admire your new border

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(ignore my "Vendor" status... I clicked the wrong thing when I signed up and can't figure out how to change it!)

 

[tiamat2012]

Awesome! Thank you

that works perfectly.

I've got one more questions, is there a way to fill a layer that contains only text with a background (like ai want a 50% transparent color taking up only the background of a text layer)

-Kerry

 

[kandsuk]

Short answer? No, you can't. But there's no such thing as a problem without a solution, right?

What you *can* do is hide all other layers except the text layer (by clicking the "eye" next to each layer in the layers pallet). Now insert a new layer and drag it so it's just below the text layer. Give this new layer the 50% transparency fill you want, and (making sure all other layers are hidden) go to LAYER > MERGE VISIBLE. It combines the two layers into one. Once you've done that, you can unhide the other layers in the file.

_____________________________
(ignore my "Vendor" status... I clicked the wrong thing when I signed up and can't figure out how to change it!)

 

[greensweater]

Regarding the rectangle bit: add a vector shape (rectangle), then right-click the vector layer you just created and choose blending options (will bring up the 'layer style' dialog). Under blending options: custom -> advanced options there is a setting for "fill opacity" which you can set to zero. This allows you to make strokes, drop shadows, etc. on the shape while leaving out the fill.

Regarding the background of the text, the best way to do this is add a vector shape, position the layer immediately below your text layer, and lock the two layers together by toggling the 'link' icon in the layers pallette (to the right of the 'eye' icon. This allows you to maintain the editable text while repositioning both layers as a single unit.

 

[tiamat2012]

Ok cool, thank you.

That's what I ended up doing, making the fill 0% and doing a stroke.

As for the text I did something similar, I was just wondering if there was a way that I could make it do it automatically (like if I changed the text if it would change with it).

Thank you,
Kerry