Expert: LizaL - 5/13/2006

Question
Hi Liza;
How do I creat a all black layer?  I have a image that I would like to transfer on to a all black background.
Thanks

Answer
Hi Thom,

First make sure your foreground and background color swatches are set to the default, which is black as the foreground and white as the background. To do this, press the keyboard key 'D'.

Now  press Control + Backspace (or Option + Delete on a Mac) and your layer will fill with your foreground color, which should be black. To preserve transparency, hold down the Shift key.

If you have more than one layer, make sure you have the intended layer -- that is, the one you want to fill with black -- selected, in the Layer palette.

Here's what this looks like on a Mac:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/fill.mov

You can't see me using my keyboard here, but I've hit D for default swatches, and then hit Option + Delete.

On the other hand, if you want to fill your layer with the background color, you can press Alt + Backspace (or Command + Delete) on a Mac. And like before, you can hold the Shift key if you want to preserve transparency.

Hope this helps --

Lisa