Photoshop

Fill a selection or layer with a color

  1. Choose a foreground or background color. (See Choose colors in the toolbox.)
  2. Select the area you want to fill. To fill an entire layer, select the layer in the Layers palette.
  3. Choose Edit > Fill to fill the selection or layer. Or to fill a path, select the path, and choose Fill Path from the Paths palette menu.
  4. In the Fill dialog box, choose one of the following options for Use, or select a custom pattern:
    Foreground Color, Background Color, Black, 50% Gray, or White
    Fills the selection with the specified color.

    Color
    Fills with a color you select from the Color Picker.

    Pattern
    Fills the selection with a pattern. Click the inverted arrow next to the pattern sample, and select a pattern from the pop‑up palette. You can load additional patterns using the pop‑up palette menu. Select the name of a library of patterns, or choose Load Patterns and navigate to the folder containing the patterns you want to use.

    History
    Restores the selected area to a state or snapshot of the image set as the source in the History palette.
    Note: If you fill a CMYK image using the Black option, Photoshop fills all the channels with 100% black. This may result in more ink than is allowable by the printer. For best results when filling a CMYK image, use the Foreground option with the foreground color set to an appropriate black.

  5. Specify the blending mode and opacity for the paint. (See List of blending modes.)
  6. If you’re working in a layer and want to fill only areas containing pixels, choose Preserve Transparency.
  7. Click the OK button to apply the fill.
    To apply a foreground color fill only to the areas that contain pixels, press Alt+Shift+Backspace (Windows) or Option+Shift+Delete (Mac OS). This preserves the transparency of the layer. To apply a background color fill only to the areas that contain pixels, press Ctrl+Shift+Backspace (Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac OS).