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Stylize filters

Last updated on Jan 13, 2022

Diffuse

The Diffuse filter shuffles pixels in a selection to make the selection look less focused according to the option you select: Normal moves pixels randomly, ignoring color values; Darken Only replaces light pixels with darker pixels; Lighten Only replaces dark pixels with lighter pixels; and Anisotropic softens all pixels.

Emboss

The Emboss filter makes a selection appear raised or stamped by converting its fill color to gray and tracing the edges with the original fill color. You can set the embossing angle, height, and a percentage for the amount of color within the selection.

Extrude

The Extrude filter gives a three-dimensional texture to a selection or layer.

Apply the Extrude filter

In the Edit workspace, select an image, layer, or area.
Choose Stylize > Extrude from the Filter menu.
Set the following options and click OK:

Blocks

Creates objects with a square front face and four side faces.

Pyramids

Creates objects with four triangular sides that meet at a point.

Size

Determines the length of the object’s base, from 2 to 255 pixels.

Depth

Indicates how far the tallest object appears to protrude from the screen, from 1 to 255.

Random

Gives each block or pyramid an arbitrary depth.

Level-based

Makes each object’s depth correspond to its brightness—bright objects protrude more than dark.

Solid Front Faces

Fills the front face of each block with an averaged color of the block. Deselect Solid Front Faces to fill the front face of each block with the image. This option is not available for Pyramids.

Mask Incomplete Blocks

Hides any object extending beyond the selection.

Find Edges

The Find Edges filter identifies areas of the image with significant transitions and emphasizes edges. Like the Trace Contour filter, Find Edges outlines the edges of an image with dark lines against a white background and is useful for creating a border around an image.

Note:

After using filters like Find Edges and Trace Contour that highlight edges, you can apply the Invert filter to outline the edges of a color image with colored lines or a grayscale image with white lines.

Glowing Edges

The Glowing Edges filter identifies the edges of color and adds a neon-like glow to them. You can set the edge width, brightness, and smoothness.

Solarize

The Solarize filter blends a negative and a positive image, for a result similar to exposing a photographic print briefly to light during development.

Tiles

The Tiles filter breaks up an image into a series of tiles, offsetting the selection from its original position. You can set the number of tiles and the offset percentage. You can also choose one of the following to fill the empty area between the tiles: Background Color, Foreground Color, Inverse Image, or Unaltered Image, which puts the tiled version on top of the original and reveals part of the original image underneath the tiled edges.

Trace Contour

The Trace Contour filter finds the transitions between major areas of brightness and thinly outlines them for an effect similar to the lines in a contour map. You can set the level for evaluating color values, and specify whether to outline pixels that are below (Lower) or above (Upper) that level.

Note:

Use the Info panel in grayscale mode to identify a color value that you want traced. Then enter the value in the Level text box.

Wind

The Wind filter creates tiny horizontal lines in the image to simulate a wind effect. You can set the wind strength and direction.

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