Making Donut Circles,
or How To Make A Circle With A Cutout Centre

Download the entire tutorial for offline viewing

Thanks to Hoods for the tip on how to do this. I was trying to make the round picture frame hanger on my main menu, and couldn't get circles with the middle cut out. The problem is when you make an antialiased, unfilled circle, the outline isn't automatically selected. That means you have to select it to apply an effect, and selecting antialiased objects with the magic wand after they are made doesn't give good clean results.

You can use this technique on circles and ovals. There is probably a way to do this with vector graphics in PSP6, but this is so simple why work with vectors if you don't need to?

I've broken this down into a lot of steps, because this tutorial is designed for real beginners. There are really only 2 main steps: create one circle with the selection tool, create another with the selection tool and the control key held down. Couldn't be simpler than that.

	The Final Product
	STEP 1 - Open a New Image 1) Click File then New     On the New Image Window:     Width = 200 Pixels     Height = 200 Pixels     Resolution = 72 Pixels/Inch     Background Color = white     Image Type = 16.7 Million Colors (24 Bit)
	STEP 2 - Set the Active colors 1) Click on the foreground color box.     On the Color Dialog Window:     Red = 142 Green = 60 Blue = 12 for brown 2) Click on the background color box.     On the Color Dialog Window:     Red = 255 Green = 255 Blue = 255 for white
	STEP 3 - Add a new layer If you are not used to working in layers, this is a perfect chance to start. By putting your selection and donut circle on a new layer, it will be so much easier to tinker with background colors and effects after the donut circle is done. I'll show you that at the end of the tutorial. 1) If your Layers Palette is not open, click on the Layers Palette toggle button in the top toolbar 2) Click on the add new layer icon on the Layers Palette. 3) Fill in the layer properties as shown in the Layers Properties dialog box on the left
	STEP 4 - Activate the selections tool What you are doing:  You are going to select two circles, one on top of the other. The underneath circle will be larger than the one on top. Then you are going to subtract the smaller circle from the larger to make the donut hole. Sounds complicated, but it is quite simple. How to do it: 1) Click on the Selections Tool in the toolbar to activate it. 2) If the Tools Control Box is not open, open it by clicking on the Tools Control toggle in the main menu 3) Set the Selections tool to     Circle     Feather = 0     Antialias = checked to be on
	STEP 5 - Create the outside circle 1) Make sure the layer called circle is active. It will be highlighted in the Layers Palette. 2) Position your cursor on exactly 100,100. Watch the coordinate numbers in the bottom left corner of the PSP window to see where your cursor is. When you are on exactly 100,100 left click and drag to position 180,180. It is very important to start exactly at 100,100 TIP - If your hand is not steady enough to catch the exact 100,100 coordinate, magnify your image once or twice using the magnifying glass. A magnified image is a little more forgiving on cursor positioning and shaky hands.
	STEP 6 - Create the inside circle 1) Staying on the same layer called circle, position your cursor on exactly 100,100. Watch the coordinate numbers in the bottom left corner of the PSP window to see where your cursor is. 2) When you are on exactly 100,100 press and hold down the Control Key AND left click and drag to position 170,170. It is very important to start exactly at 100,100 3) You will end up with a 10 pixel wide donut. 4) Save your image as a psp file.
	STEP 7 - Save your selection to an alpha channel for reuse Why? - If you need to reselect your circle later, you will be out of luck. Selecting it with the magic wand after it is flood filled will not give you smooth edges because of the antialiasing. You will get a precise selection by saving the donut to an alpha channel. I have a complete tutorial on alpha channels that explains this further. For now, just follow these quick steps. 1) In the menu bar choose Selections | Save to Alpha Channel. A new window will open where you define your alpha channel. 2) Click on ok to name a new channel for your active image. A new window will open 3) Type in a name for your saved selection. Call it donut, then press the ok button.
	STEP 8 - Fill your circle with a color 1) Click on the Flood Fill tool to activate it. 2) Set the Floodfill Tool to     Fill Style = Solid color     Blend Mode = Normal     Paper Texture = None     Match Mode = RGB     Tolerance = 20     Opacity = 100     Sample Merged = Not checked 3) Left click inside the selected donut rim. The donut will fill with brown.
	STEP 9 - Fancy it up 1) Apply any special effect you like to make the frame. I've used BladePro with a setting of 1Button7 from Snake. Now to show you the power of layers. Suppose you wanted a different color background. If you had put the donut on the same layer as the initial white background, you would need to reselect the donut from the alpha channel, invert the selection, and flood fill the inverted selection. Instead, click on the background layer in the Layers Palette to activate it. Change your foreground color to a new color. Floodfill anywhere on the white. Instant background change!!