Enhancing a line using Magic Wand

We don't use Photoshop a lot, so this may be a simple question but I've been unable to get something to happen.
I have a transparent GIF file, which outlines a series of counties in my state. It is just a thin black line outline of these. This is all that is on this GIF, although this file is merged over another file which is a topographical map.
I need to make the county outlines into a thicker line so that they'll stand out more. I'm able to grab the lines using the magic wand (which to me seems the natural thing to do), but from there I can't figure out how to increase the line width.
This is an old version of Photoshop we've had for years, so I need to work this accordingly.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
ed

No need for a selectionm, use Filter->Other->Minimum to increase the thickness of your black lines. If you want to go the Magic Wand route then once you have your selection, use Select->Modify->Expand.

Similar Messages

Why can't I delete a selection when I am using magic wand in Photoshop CS4?

I know I've done this before. I want to select part of an image using magic wand, then delete it, so that the background is transparent. The selection will not delete. Do I have some weird setting picked? Thanks!
-- Jane

Did you convert the background into a layer before pressing delete? (by double clicking the background layer in your layers pallete)
otherwise, pressing delete will simply fill the selection with your current background color.
edit:
also make sure you have this option unchecked:

Using Magic Wand to select & enahance path in CS2

I have an aerial image in a .JPEG file which shows a GPS track/route. I would like to enhance/alter the appeareance of this track/route in the image. For example, I would like to possibly increase the thickness of the track/route, possibibly change the color and most importantly be able to change the appearance of the track/route to appear as a dashed or dotted line. I do not wish to change the size or shape of the track/route as it currently appears on the image. I am able to select this entire route using the Magic Wand tool but I am unable to further maninpulate it. Any suggestions on how to most efficiently achieve my desired goal(s)? I have thought about using Illustrator CS2 but it seems as though when using Illustrator there is no feasible way to select the track/route with the magic Wand tool like you can in Photoshop CS2.
See attached aerial image file which shows the GPS track/route.
Thanks!
Using Photoshop CS2 on a Windows PC

to increase the thickness, after you selected it, go to Select->Modify->Expand, make a new layer and with the selection still active, fill that layer with whatever color you want. Getting a pattern to follow that selection will be very hard to do though. You'd probably need to make a checkerboard brush, make a path that follows the red outline and then stroke that path with the brush you just made (make sure that the brush has a spacing of 100%)

How to use Magic Wand to select in Active Artboard only - CS5

I've run into a problem that I would think already has a solution. I have a layout with 7 artboards, each a variation on a logo design. I want to select a specific color, but only in the active artboard. The Magic Wand would seem to be the right choice, but I see no way of specifying this. Every attempt I make, the color is selected in every artboard that it exists. I know that Select All can narrow its scope to the active artboard by adding the option key to the command but see no equivalent for the Magic Wand. Am I missing something or is Illustrator missing the ability?

Use locking or hiding to make you selection.
Draw a frame around the elements on one artbaord
Select >> Inverse
Object >> Lock
(use your magic wand and make your change)
Object unlock all

CS Crashes upon using Magic Wand tool

As the title says. Every time I use the magic wand tool, Photoshop CS crashes. I tried resetting the program but it didn't work. I cannot find a patch for this anywhere. Its making photoediting very difficult! Is there a patch I can download anywhere? Such an expensive program should NOT be crashing like this.

Hi. This forum is for beginners trying to learn the basics of Photoshop. I'm moving your question to the Photoshop General Discussion forum for specialized attention to your situation.

Is it possible to find and retrieve the pixel coordinates of a polygon image? Perhaps using Magic Wand and Paths?

THANK YOU!

Hi Mylenium,
I want to create a complicated polygonal hotspot around the map of many countries of the world in Dreamweaver (eg. a hotspot around the US border), but don't want to spend the time tediously selecting the coordinates around the border.
i.e. the code in Dreamweaver would be something like this
<area shape="poly" coords="5,343,18,340,38,327,71,314,88,304,75,302,63,301,46,301,58,290,58,284,40,292,36,28 1,43,276,47,263,62,257,91,244,99,244,113,237,132,235,146,226,155,222,131,221,102,223,106,2 06,151,197,153,202,164,203,178,198,187,198,181,189,176,187,170,173,185,166,209,162,229,154 ,253,146,280,143,307,142,321,136,354,143,374,145,404,150,429,149,440,155,314,259,304,268,2 94,276,302,281,310,278,308,288,311,296,328,292,338,284,342,290,340,296,341,310,335,325,342 ,335,346,341,342,345,333,351,327,357,321,343,324,340,316,323,321,318,318,306,307,307,298,2 87,274,282,252,280,238,272,236,268,212,273,209,283,164,294,187,274,132,295,128,301,32,338, 18,346" href="/UnitedStates.html"
Is there a way to use Photoshop's magic wand tool / slice / path tool to extract the coordinates of an images border for me?
Thanks

Unable to use magic wand on masked shapes

I'm trying to use the Magic Wand on some shapes that had a Clipping Mask applied to them and it does not select anything, though the Lasso seems to work when I drag it over the same shape. The shapes that are not working are ones that are being used to mask other images inside of them.

Enter isolation mode to gain access to the individual entities or release the paths/ ungroup.
Mylenium

How can i use magic wand tool in photo-shop 7 ??

nhmc,

Not with a raster image, like a .jpg. You need to be more aware of the huge differences between a raster image and raster editor, and vecor graphics and a vector editor. Selecting stuff is one of the biggest difference.
In Illustrator, you work with objects, like stacks of paper on a table. You can select individual objects anywhere on the page and on any or all layers, then transform, move, delete, fill stroke, or an infinite number of things to those objects.
In Photoshop, when you select, you are really just creating a mask, which you can then use to restrict editing to pixels within that mask on the current layer. It's like working on a photo of a stack of paper on a table. You can't easily move the pieces of paper around.
It's difficult to explain in a short posting, and that's all I'm going to write tonight. If you intend to spend any time with Photoshop or Illustrator you should invest in some documentation, and I don't mean Adobe's completely insufficient on-line documentation. The Visual Quickstart series comes well recommended and scales easily to intermediate once you know your way around.

Magic Wand tolerance adjustment box

When i'm using magic wand there isn't a tolerance box to adjust or contiguous tick box. Just a sample all layers / auto enhance tick box and the refine edge button. I can't control the area it selects and i end up with a straight boarder selected around my image. I'm using photoshop CS3 and running on snow leopard.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

See those videos to learn how to use the quick selection tool efficiently: http://tv.adobe.com/search/?q=quick%20selection%20tool

Magic Wand problem in PSE 8 - unexplained gaps in selection

Hello,
it seems that recently when I select an area of a shot using Magic Wand (MW) and create a Layer with the selection, there are unaccountable partially missing "see through" bits where I can see some of the check fill pattern through the selected area.
I have been using PSE 8 for a few months and I have never noticed this before but perhaps I was not looking hard enough. MW also seems to be using tolerance settings a bit differently but that is not easy to demonstrate - it just seems that with a given tolerance it takes a lot more Shift-clicks to eliminate spots inside the desired area and still some remain, though feathering seems to clear them away. I often select an area by building it up with a lot of Shift-clicks and usually decreasing tolerance values as I go, also using Alt-clicks to remove unwanted inclusion. Until now once all the "ants" were eliminated from inside the desired area I could then feather it and with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V achieve a layer with no discernible holes. (I usually feather with Refine Edge rather than the Feather option because that way there is no fade off where the edge of the shot is selected.)
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing these gaps?
Thank you,
Nick Sergeant

Thanks, Terri_F and hatstead,
following your suggestions I have just experimented with all six combinations of Eyedropper (ED) and Magic Wand (MW)
ED = Point Sample, MW with/without contiguous checked
ED = 3 by 3 Average, MW with/without contiguous checked
ED = 5 by 5 Average, MW with/without contiguous checked
These setting do make a difference but the MW select is always leaving out at least a few stray pixels. But the problem is not a show-stopper as I may have a work-around (below)
I think ED= 5 by 5 with MW contiguous was the most reliable for picking up almost all of a clearly isolated area of colour. Even that setting leaves some stray pixels out for some reason but nothing serious. All other settings seem to leave holes in the area selected despite no sign of them during the selecting.
I ran some settings more than once and despite this systematic approach it seems I can never get quite the same result twice. I'd expect the edge of the selected area to fluctuate a bit each time, but I also still get little few-pixels-sized holes well inside the area seIected, which spread out of course if I feather.
I think what I am seeing looks worse than it really is because tiny groups of a few pixels each left out of the select will expand when feathered and be quite an eye-sore. So from now on in these cases, if necessary I may work-around by Select > Modify > Expand for one or two pixels in order to capture stray pixels, and then feather. I tried it once and it seemed to capture all the stray pixels without compromising the select outline too much.
Thanks for your help,
Nick

How remove Magic Wand outline after inversion.

My task is to remove cast from different photo regions. I select one region using Magic Wand. Then I chose Photo Filter to identify the cast and remove it by reversing the Lab color "a" and "b" fields. Then I select Adjustment Invert to identify region outside of region selected by Wand. However, now I have in my original background layer the black outline of the (1st) cast removed region selected by the Wand. I cannot remove it. Not by clicking outside the region or using D (the latter a suggestion made on another photoshop site). It's as if the Wand is permanently frozen on even though it's entirely off in the Tools panel. Anyone have an idea about how to remove that black Wand outline?

Your talking about the marching ants (selection outline) made by the magic wand tool?
Have you tried going to Select>Deselect
or Ctrl (Cmd) + D
A screenshot might help us narrow it down if the above doesn't work.

Coloring issues with magic wand tool and paint bucket tool, leaves uncolored areas near drawn lines

Photoshop CS6 doesn't color properly. Whetever I use brush tool or elliptical marquee tool to do the lines (with brush tool I use Hard Round, not soft), it doesn't color the whole area when i fill them with color. This happens with both magic wand tool AND paint bucket tool, there is always a small uncolored area near the lines. I have tolerance on 30, and anti-alias, contiguous and sample all layers boxes checked. (this setting worked on my old CS3) I have tried tolerance from 0 to 100, no difference. I have also tried unchecking the boxes I just mentioned, still no difference. I hope there is a solution for this, because it is tedious to always go to the Select - Modify - Expand every time I need to color some area. So how do I fix this problem? I use seperate layers for lines and colors, like I have always done with other Photoshop versions. Even in school where they have CS5 those normal settings work.

Hello Chris,
I don't think this is a "user error". I think Adobe should be able to program a state of the art paint bucket, which is capable to get this done right.
Other applications are able to get this done right.
Please don't fall into a programmer's ignorance ("this is done right by definition") but listen to us artists and improve this unintuitive behavior. Add something like "ignore transparent pixels", because this doesn't even work if you draw on an empty layer.
Thank you!

Magic wand tool that will select broken-line shapes?

I'm an illustrator... working in both digital & real artwork.
I work mostly in Photoshop CS, but I have been searching for a solution to a digital problem that I can't quite seem to find using either Photoshop or Illustrator.
What I wish to do is scan a pencil drawing and then create selected shapes in a quick and easy method using a magic wand tool.
But it needs to be a magic wand tool that will select an area drawn from a series of broken lines. Photoshop will only select shapes that are 100% intact, so I wind up having to spend lots of time searching to repair broken lines before Photoshop selects just that one area.
I KNOW that such a program exists... because I recall there used to be such a program. It was a free dowloaded program that I got once, way back around 1998. I think it came from Australia... and it was a basic digital paint program of some sort. I can't recall the name.
It allowed one to quickly click and select an area from within a shape drawn with broken line segments...
Does anyone know of any program (hopefully for Mac) that allow this sort of selection?
This would save me hours of frustration. I can't believe Adobe hasn't come up with something like this already.
Thanks...
John Nez
www.johnnez.com

Gerno
I doubt that I will get to trying the proposed method on that sample image this weekend. I can make a few quick comments, however.
Like numerous Photoshop tools, the success of Illustrator tools like Live Trace and Live Paint are very image dependent and some experience helps. Here are some comment on the three steps needed.
First, the Live Trace step must be done well. There are a boat load of parameters for this process. For the subject image my guess would be to start with a preset and the one I would choose would be comic art.
Secondly, once you make a live paint group you have to have automatic gap detection checked (turned on) and you choice of predefined or custom gap sizes specified. You will then see where the gaps are automatically found and fixed and the gap options dialog box will tell you how many have been found. If you like what you see you can just start painting. Usually, however it is an iterative process of painting some of the areas and then resetting the gap detection and painting again. At any point you can automatically close the paths (but you cannot go back), change the settings to auto detect even larger gaps and try again.
Third is the manual phase. If lucky you will have none of this. On the subject image, however, I can see that some of this is required. To preserve the artistic content of the original one draws a line in the very big gaps having no stroke or fill (invisible line)and then you use the live paint bucket. While the above sounds like a lot of work, it can go very quickly with many drawings.
JN
>That's why I think Adobe ought to work on designing a 'smart magic wand tool'... that could select imperfectly closed shapes.
The Live Paint tool in Illustrator does this. It automatically detects gaps and lets you paint as if they were not there.
Paulo

How to use magic move with connection lines?

When I use magic move with connection lines, they disappear and reappear in the next slide. It seems like magic move doesn't recognize the connection lines (or can't match them), so it just redraws them, instead of leaving them there.
I'm trying to use magic move to make a nice presentation that includes connection lines. How can I make without the lines disappearing every time something moves?

Group the shapes and connection line together:
select the objects then Arrange > Group (alt Command G)

I am new to Photoshop CC. I am trying to use the magic wand to highlight a dull sky, and it is just making a weird selection that has nothing to do with my photo

I am trying to use the Magic Wand to highlight a dull sky so that I can add something more interesting.
When I try to isolate this area, the magic wand seems to just make a random selection throughout my photo.
I have anit-alias on, and my tolerance is at 5.

First, is the layer containing the photo of the sky selected? That might help.
But there are probably better ways to make selections than the magic wand, depending on the value ranges in the sky you wish to select.
Try Color Range, Quick Mask, or manual selections using the Polygon Lasso Tool, or combinations of all of the above.
You can also paint your selection on an additional layer (using brushes), and convert the painted area to a selection, make a channel of that selection, and refine manually.

Enhancing a line using Magic Wand

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for