Select Modify Contract Grayed Out

Mac OSX 10.7
PS CS5
Okay, I know this has been posted before and I've read 4 or 5 threads with no resolve for me. The problem is that after using my select all, or using the marquee tool (tried both ways) to draw the selection my contract option is still grayed out it (like most everyone else has said). Only difference is, it was WORKING fine 30 min ago, I've used it many times while working on numerous documents and now all of the sudden it wont work on anything. I havn't made any changes to any prefs, but maybe I hit a hotkey and locked something? I remember when my define pattern was grayed out, I read a post where I clicked one simple option and voila it was back to normal...something with a spacebar shortcut I think? Too long ago to remember, anyways I was hoping there might be an option for this. I know the work arounds and use them from time to time, but I really would like for shortcut to be normal again
Michael

In CS5, if you chose Select > Select All or had the selection touching the border, the Select > Modify Commands were unavailable.
This issue is solved with today's (10/6/14) release of Photoshop CC 2014 contains a "Apply Effect at Canvas Bounds" option for the follow features:
Select > Modify > Smooth...
Select > Modify > Expand...
Select > Modify > Contract...
Select > Modify > Feather...
Users now have the option to have these commands apply to an entire selection or just the portion of the selection that is not touching the canvas bounds with the "Apply effect at canvas bounds" checkbox.
The checkbox option is remembered for each, individual selection modification option. The checkbox default is "off" on first launch and with preferences deleted.
With the "Apply effect at canvas bounds" checkbox ON, the behavior is equivalent to Photoshop CS3 behavior.
Thank you for your feedback!
Meredith

Similar Messages

Select Modify Contract

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get Select > Modify > Contract to work. I am trying to contract a gradient fill. I have searched on google and fund several people experiencing similar problems. The contract option remains greyed out. Am I doing soemthing wrong or is it a problem with Photoshop?

Adobe changed the way Select - Modify works.
In older versions of Photoshop, you could Select-All, then Select-Modify-Contract. This would give you a selection of nearly all the image, with some pixels around the edge not selected.
Adobe eliminated that possibility at the same time Select - Modify - Border was introduced.
The good news is that you can get there from here by doing something like this:
1. Select - All.
2. Select - Modify - Border, choose twice the number of pixels you would have used for Contract.
3. Select - Inverse.
I used to use Select-All then Select-Modify-Contract all the time. I don't know why they changed it, but doubtless someone thought they had a good reason.
-Noel

Why can't I open the filter gallery in Photoshop CC 2014? I've converted the photo layer into a smart object, but the filter gallery selection is still grayed out.

Why can't I open the filter gallery in Photoshop CC 2014? I've converted the photo layer into a smart object, but the filter gallery selection is still grayed out. How do I make it active?

Please go to Help, System Info and Copy then paste here.
Benjamin

In CC, why can I no longer use Select/Modify/Contract after Selecting all?

I've been using CS3 and am now on CC.
I tried using the Border option then Inverse, but this is a poor substitute.
Any solutions or alternative suggestions?
Many thanks.

This issue is solved with today's (10/6/14) release of Photoshop CC 2014 contains a "Apply Effect at Canvas Bounds" option for the follow features:
Select > Modify > Smooth...
Select > Modify > Expand...
Select > Modify > Contract...
Select > Modify > Feather...
Users now have the option to have these commands apply to an entire selection or just the portion of the selection that is not touching the canvas bounds with the "Apply effect at canvas bounds" checkbox.
The checkbox option is remembered for each, individual selection modification option. The checkbox default is "off" on first launch and with preferences deleted.
With the "Apply effect at canvas bounds" checkbox ON, the behavior is equivalent to Photoshop CS3 behavior.
Thank you for your feedback!
Meredith

ITunes, Sync Contacts, Selected groups is grayed out.

iTunes, Sync Contacts, Selected groups is grayed out. I have a number of groups in my Contacts for different mobile phones. After updating iTunes and the OS I can not click on Selected groups. Does anyone know how to make this available?

Best I’ve been able to figure out via trying and searching:
It appears only groups in a cloud service can be selected, so if one doesn’t have iCloud groups or groups on some other supported cloud service, the option is grayed out.
Big Brother wants it all.
Fortunately I don’t need many contacts on my iOS device since I use it little.
But it’s still annoying to be locked out ’cause me try to avoid Big Brother much as possible.
What a world!

HELP ! why doesn't color picker select specific color ? i make secondary layer and use the tool but no colors are selected and the gray out menu shows nothing !

HELP ! why doesn't color picker select specific color ? i make secondary layer and use the tool but no colors are selected and the gray out menu shows nothing !
what am i missing ??!!

Please add you system info and SpeedGrade version and build number if you actually want help.

"Copy Selected Albums" Option Grayed Out for Synchronizing Photos--Help!!

I purchased a 60GB Video iPod a week ago. I cannot get it to sync my photos. When I select "Synchronize photos from iPhoto," the option to "Copy all photos and albums" is selected and the option to "Copy Selected Albums" is grayed out. If I try to sync all the albums, I get an Error -50. I can, however, copy & sync photos by selecting my Pictures folder (either all folders or selected folders). But, that won't give me my photos organized by album in iPhoto.
I rebuilt the iPhoto database and deleted/trashed preferences. No help. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Apple has been no help and I have searched and searched these forums over many days, with no success.

I had this problem after I imported a bunch of photos. I narrowed it down and found that two of my pictures had the word "photo" in the filename, example(photo003.jpg and photo004.jpg). I deleted these files and the "copy selected ablums" was available again.
Hope this helps!!

Why is my "selected calendars" button grayed out?

I have trouble syncing my calendars so I would like to see if I can sync a brand new calendar So I created one in Outlook but itunes doesn't let me pick it. The "selected calendars" button is grayed out and it doesn't display the different calendars. I am on Windows XP running Outlook 2007.
Have already tried every possible fix I could find on apple.com and google to fix my calendar sync problems.
Without the calendar, this is a really expensive toy to me

I figured out my problem. See my solution.
http://discussions.apple.com/edit!default.jspa?messageID=5105194

"Delete Selection"i is grayed out

In edit view, the "delete selection" icon n the toolbar is grayed out. I've made a selection in the waveform i want to delete, but Audition won't let me. Can anybody help me figure out why? Thank you.

This caught me out too this morning, but it may be just that you have the pause button selected on the track which stops delete from working.

46G310U - Can't select Cinema Mode: Grayed out

Hi everyone,
I have a 46g310u and was trying to change the Cinema Mode from Video to Film but the option appears in the menu grayed out (unselectable). The LCD is connected to my laptop via HDMI. Thanks
Please help!

If you can't solve your issue and no one in the community can help, contact support to speak with a tech support agent at (800) 631-3811.
- Peter

If I have a document that is 10 pages and I only want to print pages 2.4.6 how can i select just those. The selection button is grayed out

i want to print only selected pages not the whole document.. HELP

Firefox allows printing of a'' range of pages'', for example, page 2 to 5. But not a non-contiguous set of pages.
Firefox allows you to print a ''selection'', but by that Firefox means the part of the page you selected with the mouse or keyboard, so again, a continuous range.
If you don't want to print 3 times, I suggest using a PDF printer driver as an intermediary. Then you can print any individual pages you like using the much more full-featured print dialog in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.
If you do not have one, here are two free PDF printer drivers I have used:
* PrimoPDF - http://www.primopdf.com/
* PDF Creator - http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator
If you are just printing for quick reference and don't mind a "trial edition" banner on your PDF, I really like this one due to its handy preview-before-save feature:
* pdfFactory - http://fineprint.com/pdf/

Color table grayed out - how to select PS7

Im using photoshop 7 and opened several pictures (jpg, png) when I click image/mode/color table - the color table is grayed out - cannot select
Im trying to create background transparency with the current black colored background.

Here's what i did (assuming your earth is a separate layer from the apple template)
(the other layers are just my simulated template)
1. Selected the Ellipitical Marquee Tool and drew a circle around the earth and
then went to Select>Modify>Contract and used a 1 Px value.
2. Added a layer mask by clicking the Add Layer Mask button on the bottom of the layers pallete.
(you can paint on the layer mask with the brush tool if you need to modify the edges of the earth)

TRIM TO SELECTION GRAYED OUT!!!!

On my iMovie when I select a clip the "trim to selection" option is grayed out. I need this feature and any help to fix this would be appreciated.

This feature works in the Project pane, not the Events pane. You your mouse to drag over the portion of the clip you want to keep, right-click, and select "trip to selection".
If you want to reject footage in an event, use the Reject Tool.

Select Modify Border always feathers

Hi All,
Apologies if this has already been discussed somewhere previously, but I'm getting very frustrated that I can't seem to easily accomplish what should be a very simple task:
I am using CTRL+A to "Select All" and then trying to contract the selection by X pixels. Apparently my only option after a Select All command is to use the "Border" command, but this always seems to feather the selection, no matter what I do. I know there are some "workarounds" to get the selection I want, but seriously, this is so dead simple of a task I'm going bonkers here.
Is it just me or did this used to be a lot easier in earlier versions of PS? Seems to me that in CS5 Adobe is trying to get "fancy" with their UI and making things a lot harder than they need to be.
Could someone from Adobe let me/us know why the UI is making it impossible for me to do a simple Select > Modify > Contract command (following a Select All)? I distinctly remember being able to do this without hassle in every other version of PS I've ever worked with.
Your in Frustration,
Funkmasta

Howdy.
Is it just me or did this used to be a lot easier in earlier versions of PS?
It's not just you. It's pretty easy in CS3.
The screenshot is after Ctrl+A has been applied. The Contract command is still active. And the selection will not be feathered.
According to MTSTUNER's link (thank you), CS3 is the only version that will do this. Sometimes it's good to be behind the curve.
Maybe the referenced script will fix you up. I don't know anything about scripts, but I do know a little about actions. So out of curiousity, I hacked together an action which should work in CS5. It's based on expanding the canvas, contracting the selection, then cropping back to the original size. It looks like a long way to go to accomplish something so simple, but Ps does it all in the blink of an eye.
1. Merge Visible (Ctl+Alt+Shft). This creates a proxy for the original image size after the canvas is enlarged. This layer will be deleted at the end of the action.
2. Canvas Size. I set it to 105% in both axis. The percentage doesn't matter, as long as it's more than 100. The point it to get the canvas border away from the proxy border.
3. Set Selection. Ctl +Click on the thumbnail on the proxy layer. This will select the perimeter of the proxy layer, which is the same as the original canvas.
4. Contract. Menu>Select>Modify>Contract. Enter the number of pixels. This can be changed later. As you can see in the screen shot above, I have made this a conditional action. It will stop here for you to approve or change the settings. When you hit enter, the action continues.
5. Layer Via Copy. This layer preserves the contracted selection. It's really being used as a channel. This layer will also be deleted at the end of the action.
6. Set Selection. Ctl+Click on the thumbnail for the Merge Visible layer from step 1.
7. Crop. Menu>Image>Crop. The image is now the original size.
8. Set Selection. Ctl+Click on the layer thumbnail created in step 5. You should now be looking at the contracted selection. We're done, except for a little housecleaning below.
9. Delete. Delete the top layer, which should be the contracted channel. (This doesn't affect the selection.)
10. Delete. Delete the top layer, which should be the Stamp Visible layer. Now we're back where we started, but we have a contracted selection.
Stop Recording.
It may look ridiculous on paper, but it works like a charm, so far as I've tested it. And the beauty of actions is you only have to make them once. No matter how much trouble they are.
Once the action is made, it's quick and easy to use. Just click on the action button.
The contract pixel dialog box appears.
OK or change and OK, and you're done. The selection appears at the desired location, and is not feathered. In practice, the only downside is you get a few extra history states.
You get where you're going, and you get there quick. So quick no one will notice you got there via Paris, London, and El Paso.
I'm not 100% sure this will work in CS5, as I've never laid eyes on it, but the issue seems to be that when the selection touches the canvas border, Contract Selection is not available. Nowhere in the action does a selection touch the canvas border, so it should work the same as it does in my CS3. If you're interested in testing it, I can send you the Droplet, or you can create it from scratch using the instructions above.
Anyway, that's all I got, and it could all be wrong.
Peace,
Lee

CS4 Select---- Modify behavior changed/broken?

Hi,
In previous versions, I could Select--->All, then Select--->Modify--->Contract, which is very useful for creating frames, vignettes, etc. In CS4, after Select--->All, all of the Modify options are ghosted out (inactive) except Border, which is not at all the same as Contract.
Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks,
Neil

J & Josh,
Thanks for the great techniques, guys I do appreciate it. Here are the steps I've been using, which are, I believe, actionable, but since I can do it in 30 or 40 seconds, I haven't bothered. Just lazy, I guess. Bear in mind, I don't generally batch process, and every "frame" is a little different, so I haven't canned this. This is a technique that I just concocted by necessity over the last year or so of processing photos. The bat is just one of a thousand variations/examples. So for that particular frame, if memory serves...
SHIFT-CTRL-N
CTRL-A
CTRL-ALT-[ (my shortcut for Contract Selection)
50 [ENTER]
SHIFT-CTRL-I
CTRL-ALT-D
1 [ENTER]
Choose Bucket Fill & pick a color & fill
CTRL-A
CTRL-ALT-[
30 [ENTER]
SHIFT-CTRL-I
CTRL-ALT-[
10
CTRL-ALT-D
1 [ENTER]
Choose Bucket Fill & pick a color & fill
(It looks longer on paper than it is, believe me.)
So if I were to create an action, I'd have 7 "input" variables I could play with. But without the action, I can also add or subtract steps to increase/decrease the complexity of the frame. I know you guys might disagree, but for me this is fast, and gives me a lot of control over the process, and an infinite variety of "one of a kind" frames I can season to taste. But the methods you propose are also excellent. Thanks. I still hope that Adobe will find it in their hearts to put this back the way it was...

Select Modify Contract Grayed Out

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for