How can I fill a contour?

Question

I'm as astonished as ashamed. I know my limitations, I know I'm way, way far of even leaving the basic level in terms of design, but I simply can't find a way of fill a random contour I've downloaded in order to make a cursor icon (not ico/cur though).

This is the image (credits):

It was the less ugly I could find but it's transparent outside the contour and inside. This doesn't work for me because, as a cursor, it would be hard to see it when hovering colourful elements.

So I tried to fill the inner part of the hand, making it solid white, like a glove, but of all my attempts, or the contour would become ugly crispy or the painting wasn't "solid enough" — mostly because when I use the Brush Tool I have to paint over and over again the same region to get it a fully solid painting (probably I'm doing wrong).

Anyway, it sounds a simple thing, but I've seen simple things before having a rather complicated way to solve — hope not — but how do I do that?

Answer 1

The problem with making selections or using the Paint Bucket tool is that the graphic has some semi-transparent pixels around the edges. These are what are causing the problem. These semi-transparent pixels are called antialiasing, and are needed to make the lines look smooth, and not jagged.

In Photohsop, one simple but effective method is to proceed as follows. This method also preserves the original transparency of the PNG.

1. Zoom in on the image so that you can see the pixel grid

2. create a new layer

3. drag it under the hand layer

4. use the Bucket Fill tool on that layer by selecting the "All Layers" option in the tool options along the top.

5. use the Pencil tool to paint any pixels that are still transparent. Try not to go over the edge, but if you do, just hit CTRL+Z to undo.

Using layers like this effectively means you can underpaint the transparent pixels on the inside of the graphic.

The finished transparent PNG.

Answer 2

As the file is a Raster file not Vector. Read more about Raster and Vector

You will need to use a Raster editor

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I would do this using a mixture of MS Paint and Photoshop

Just open it in paint and save it (since by default paint doesn't save with transparency,)

Now open it in Photoshop and use the Magic Wand Selection Tool to select the outside of the hand and delete it, now you can save it as a .PNG (to preserve transparency)

This is my result (I used the 100px): _{^{Image in background to show transparency}}

Before ||||| After