Stylize filters

The Stylize filters produce a painted or impressionistic effect on a selection by displacing pixels and by finding and heightening contrast in an image. After using filters like Find Edges and Trace Contour that highlight edges, you can apply the Invert command to outline the edges of a color image with colored lines or to outline the edges of a grayscale image with white lines. (See Using the Invert command.)

Diffuse Shuffles pixels in a selection to make the selection look less focused according to the selected option: Normal moves pixels randomly, ignoring color values; Darken Only replaces light pixels with darker pixels; and Lighten Only replaces dark pixels with lighter pixels.

Emboss Makes a selection appear raised or stamped by converting its fill color to gray and tracing the edges with the original fill color. Options include an embossing angle (from -360° to lower (stamp) the surface, to +360° to raise the surface), height, and a percentage (1% to 500%) for the amount of color within the selection.

Extrude Gives a 3D texture to a selection or layer.

To use the Extrude filter:

1 Choose Filter > Stylize > Extrude, or use the Filters palette to apply the Extrude filter.

2 Choose a 3D type:

3 Enter a value in the Size text box to determine the length of any side of the object's base, from 2 to 255 pixels.

4 Enter a value in the Depth text box to indicate how far the tallest object appears to protrude from the screen, from 1 to 255.

5 Choose a depth option:

6 Select Solid Front Faces to fill the front face of each block with an averaged color of the block. Deselect Solid Front Faces to fill the front face of each block with the image. This option is not available for Pyramids.

7 Select Mask Incomplete Blocks to hide any object extending beyond the selection.

8 Click OK.

Find Edges Identifies the areas of the image with significant transitions and emphasizes the edges. Like the Trace Counter filter, Find Edges outlines the edges of an image with dark lines against a white background and is useful for creating a border around an image.

Glowing Edges Identifies the edges of color and adds a neon-like glow to them.

Solarize Blends a negative and a positive image--similar to exposing a photographic print briefly to light during development.

Tiles Breaks up an image into a series of tiles, off-setting the selection from its original position. You can choose one of the following to fill the area between the tiles: Background Color, Foreground Color, Inverse Image, or Unaltered Image, which puts the tiled version on top of the original and reveals part of the original image underneath the tiled edges.

Trace Contour Finds the transitions of major brightness areas and thinly outlines them for an effect similar to the lines in a contour map.

To use the Trace Contour filter:

1 Choose Filter > Stylize > Trace Contour, or use the Filters palette to apply the Trace Contour filter.

2 Choose an Edge option to outline areas in the selection: Lower outlines where the color values of pixels fall below the specified level, and Upper outlines where the color values fall above.

3 Enter a threshold (Level) for evaluating color values (tonal level), from 0 to 255. Experiment to see what values bring out the best detail in the image.

Use the Info palette in Grayscale mode to identify a color value that you want traced. Then enter the value in the Level text box. (See Using the Info palette.)

4 Click OK.

Wind Creates tiny horizontal lines in the image to simulate a wind effect. Methods include Wind; Blast, for a more dramatic wind effect; and Stagger, which offsets the wind lines in the image.

Applying Filters and Effects > Stylize filters