Creating a Selection in Photoshop with no Feathering or Anti-aliasing

Question

EDIT: TL;DR I can't get rid of anti-aliasing and/or feathering, even though they are disabled.

Some visuals, so you can actually see it happen...

First this is me trying to erase, clicking madly; http://i.imgur.com/lmURwvM.gif

The next is attempting to fill the selection using the pencil; http://i.imgur.com/6ILgU83.gif

Finally, a pic of the results of a simple 'fill' (100% black); http://i.imgur.com/1gs4i0t.png

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Detailed explanation;

I am working with images that require that there be no anti-aliasing or feathering of any kind. The 'jagged' look you can see in the image (end of post), where I have managed it, is the desired result. Photoshop seems to force gradations on me despite attempts to eliminate them.

I have attempted the following settings;

• Brush hardness and opacity of course at 100%
• Anti-alias unchecked, presumably disabled
• Feathering set to minimum possible (.2)
• Edit -> Preferences -> General > "Image Interpolation" set to "Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)" (though I gather this is more for preserving pixel appearance when resizing, thought I'd try it anyway)
• possibly other things I've forgotten...

All of these settings to no avail, as Photoshop simply will not let me draw (or erase) cleanly within a selection. It insists on creating partially opaque pixels surrounding every pixel I am working with, both in and outside of the selection (even when working with a single pixel at a time). The tool I'm using doesn't seem to matter - either brush, pencil or eraser. The method of selection doesn't appear to matter either.

Erasing a single pixel requires some half a dozen clicks as it is gradually erased, partially erasing all of its neighbors as it does so. Say, 80% transparency the first time I click, 60% the second, and so on, meanwhile making all adjacent pixels reduce to partial trans. as well. It's maddening. Can I not simply click on a pixel and have it gone, while NOT simultaneously effecting its neighbors? And can I not simply draw a single pixel (in or out of a selection) and have it 100% opaque, while also not effecting adjacent pixels? What is this behavior, and can it be stopped?

Repeated Google searches havn't answered this for me. Bottom line, what do I need to do to completely stop any and all anti-aliasing and/or feathering, and simply draw a solid, 100% opaque image within a selection?

Example image can be seen here;

Answer 1

Create a document 800px X 600px and set resolution to 10 px/in

You can still see anti aliasing on hard brush stroke.

Undo that

Now change Image Mode to Index Colour

Select Palette to Uniform

Now painted with hard brush with no effect of anti aliasing or semi transparent pixels.

Answer 2

If you are using the any of the Selection tools, all you need to do is set Feather to 0px and un-check Anti-alias:

If you have a selection with a feather already applied to it (for example, if you use the 'Make Selection...' command on a path there seems to be a minimum feather) you can use Refine Edge (Select → Refine Edge...).

Setting the Contrast to 100% will give you a hard edge with no feathering. It may not be perfect but if you are stuck with a feathered selection it is the best you will get without manually remaking the selection. You may be able to adjust the other settings to get a better result.

A better option (as @joojaa pointed out) is to enter Quick Mask Mode (Q) and use Threshold (Image → Adjustments → Threshold...)

Answer 3

It turns out, at least for this particular pic, that the issue was the pen tool. I was using more than one tool to do some fairly intricate selections, but they began with 'pen tool>make selection'. There is an option that pops up during that process where both anti alias and feather options are, that I completely missed. Anti alias was checked. So far, making the adjustments there (unchecking it) is working for me. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Answer 4

Do this: enlarge the image by 10x, and reduce the size of your selection circle a lot.

The selection-circle-to-pixel-size ratio automatically controls the amount of feathering applied at a soft edge. I don't like it but that's the way photoshop is at the moment. You will have to zoom in and be more precise with the way you outline with the selection tool but at least you won't get a soft selection. Photoshop is trying to be intelligent and match the natural ambiguity of the edge that it detects. I guess that is good in some cases but I agree there really should be a way to finely control it.