How do I cover a transparent layer in Photoshop with black?

0

In Photoshop CS4, I created a new completely transparent layer. I then selected the entire canvas and right-clicked to fill it up with a color.

However, I received the following error:

Could not move selection because the selected area is empty.

Of course, the area is empty, but that is why I selected the area; to fill it up with a color. How do I do that?

David Faux

Posted 2012-01-21T21:59:16.177

Reputation: 4 477

Answers

1

First, make black your background color, by pressing D, then X. Select the transparent layer.

enter image description here

Then, press

  • Ctrl-Backspace on Windows

  • Cmd-Delete on OS X

to fill the layer with the selected background color.

enter image description here

To do the same, using the foreground color, use alt instead of Ctrl or Cmd.

Holding down Shift while doing so will also preserve transparency values.

slhck

Posted 2012-01-21T21:59:16.177

Reputation: 182 472

Thank you! That was very helpful. Also, do you know how to select all the transparent areas of a png image efficiently in Photoshop? – David Faux – 2012-01-21T22:19:04.650

1I don't know what exactly you mean, but you can Ctrl-click the layer thumbnail to select all visible pixels, and then inverse the selection with Ctrl-Shift-I. – slhck – 2012-01-21T22:32:03.207

Asked: 2012-01-21T21:59:16.177

Viewed: 251 times

Active: 2012-01-21T22:09:21.967