re: "Select a path in the paths pallete" - how to?
To add to Sam's excellent advice you need to make sure of one or two things before you can stroke a 'Path'.
When you use the 'Pen' tool it needs to be set to make a 'Path'....not a shape. The icons at the top left of the workspace denote which the 'Pen' tool creates. The middle icon is the 'Path' option...
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This creates a 'Work' path. Its called a 'Work' path because you don't really use it as it stands but rather use it as a 'Working' template to do all kinds of other things....erase, blur, feather, text alignment....and stroking.
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Stroking with the 'Brush' tool or 'Pencil' tool is essentially adding pixels to an editable layer using the 'Work Path' as a guide....or template. You therefore need to have an 'Editable Layer' selected for the process to work on....text layers, locked layers, adjustment layers etc do not allow you to place pixels on them and you get the greying out of the 'Stroke' option.
So, make sure you have an editable layer in the stack and that it is selected...
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(As a side note, its all too easy to fill a layer then stroke a path on another layer without changing the foreground colour....it will look as if nothing has happened but in reality its just the same colour stroke on the same colour BG.....make sure to change the FG colour for the stroke!)
Be aware though that once you do 'Stroke' a 'Work Path' the resulting pixels are 'fixed'.....and changing, (editing), the 'Path' will have no effect.....think of the 'Path' as a stencil...once you spray a stencil with paint its permanent....moving the 'stencil' has no effect on previous operations. By all means you can move the layer but as a whole, not as individually 'Stroked' paths.
If you need to have more than one 'Stroke' and keep them separate then 'Stroke' each one one its own layer.
Also, for your amusement, try hitting the 'Return' or 'Enter' key with different tools selected...like the 'Eraser' tool, or the 'Blur' tool.....you can get some really good effects by using this method.
This is also a shortcut to 'Stroking' a path too.
Confusingly, 'Paths' can be either 'Open' or 'Closed'...and so can 'Shapes' for that matter.
Regards.
MrToM.
