Fill is creating a new layer instead of filling.

[Stokestack]

So often, Fill obliterates everything instead of filling the area you clicked on. I just realized why: It's creating a new layer instead of filling the area you click on. Not good.

 

[walt.farrell]

Please let us see the complete application window.

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the reply. What do you think is germane but not shown? It's a large area.

[walt.farrell]

The complete Context Toolbar. The Tools panel. 

There's basically nothing I can see in your existing recording to understand what you're doing. 

[Stokestack]

I'm clicking on an empty area with the Fill tool. Instead of filling the area, the Fill tool is creating a new layer... visible in the layer list right next to it. There's nothing going on anywhere else on the screen.

[Old Bruce]

You should try clicking on the Pixel layer if you want to "fill" that pixel layer's clear/transparent space.

[Stokestack]

Thanks. Seems like an odd extra step to have to do.

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, Stokestack said:

Seems like an odd extra step to have to do.

Perhaps the need for layer selection becomes clearer if your document has more than 1 layer (regardless of your "Source" setting):

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the reply. This is a good point. Now it's clear that this behavior stems from the odd proclivity of Photo to have no layer selected. I don't recall encountering this so often (or maybe ever) in Photoshop. I wondered if it was even possible to have no layer selected in Photoshop; but a quick search shows that there's auto-layer-selection that you can turn off. But it seems that it is far less common to encounter this condition in PS for some reason.

Very often I perform actions in Photo that do nothing... only to find that once again no layer is selected. Not sure exactly what this stems from, but it's compounded by the many places in Photo where a tool or control should be greyed out (because it's inapplicable) but isn't. I'm not saying that's the case with Fill, because you can argue that it least it's doing something...

[walt.farrell]

On 6/21/2024 at 7:55 PM, Stokestack said:

Seems like an odd extra step to have to do.

 

12 hours ago, Stokestack said:

This is a good point. Now it's clear that this behavior stems from the odd proclivity of Photo to have no layer selected.

Not exactly.

First, you are supposed to click on a pixel in a layer, as the FIood Fill Tool first samples a color, then floods the similar pixels in that layer. Even if no layer were selected, clicking on it (first step in Flood Filling) would select it assuming it is not Locked in some way.

Help:

Quote

The Flood Fill Tool works by replacing the color of pixels on the current layer with the Fill color set on the Color panel. The pixels affected are determined by the following:

• The color of the pixel under the tool when you click on your page.

 

You did not click on a layer, which would be OK as in that case the Tool can simply do nothing, as there's nothing for it to sample and thus it can't do any Flood Filling.

And with some application settings nothing at all would have happened. But in your case, you probably have an Assistant Setting as below, which I think is a default setting:

So, you clicked outside the layer with the Flood Fill Tool, and it did nothing because it had nothing to sample. But first, you had no layer selected, and you had clicked with a painting tool, so that Assist setting came into play and the Assistant created a new layer for you to paint on.

So, in a way, you may be right that it's related to layers becoming unselected (and I have no thoughts on how you might have done that, but clicking outside of any layers while you have the Move Tool active would do it by design). But it's mostly related to incorrect usage of the Flood Fill Tool combined with default Assistan settings, I think.

[Stokestack]

Thanks for that detailed explanation. Even if there had been a layer selected, however, there would still be nothing for the tool to sample unless you count transparency as something. And if there is something to sample, then presumably there's something to select... obviating the need to select a layer beforehand.

I never would have seen these settings, which demonstrates another UI pitfall: Don't bury settings under cutesy names ("Assistant", "Studio" and the like) that have no inherent meaning to the user... who expects to find settings under Preferences or Settings, and meangingful subcategories therein.

Regardless, thanks for taking the time to point out that info!

[thomaso]

20 minutes ago, Stokestack said:

Even if there had been a layer selected, however, there would still be nothing for the tool to sample unless you count transparency as something. And if there is something to sample, then presumably there's something to select... obviating the need to select a layer beforehand.

You still seem to miss a point: The app not only needs to know what layer you want to fill, it also offers the option to respect existing contents of other layers which may reduce the current transparency of a new layer for the fill colour. See below the different fill with the second "Source" setting: Though no layer was selected the fill of the new layer excludes the contents of the existing layer:

30 minutes ago, Stokestack said:

I never would have seen these settings, which demonstrates another UI pitfall: Don't bury settings under cutesy names ("Assistant", "Studio" and the like) that have no inherent meaning to the user... who expects to find settings under Preferences or Settings

Note that you may add this "Assistant" to the Toolbar buttons for quick access (faster than app preferences). Depending on the users habits it may be wanted to changed more often – including the option to temporarily disable the Assistant with a click – than other general app preferences.
(Personally I wish I could de/activate the transparency background that easily instead of having its checkbox placed more cumbersome in Document Setup > Colour)

[Stokestack]

Thanks for the info. I don't know where that point was made (to be missed), since that's the first I've ever heard of the "Source" drop-down or a flood fill respecting contents of layers you're not filling. Pretty handy, that.

[thomaso]

20 minutes ago, Stokestack said:

that's the first I've ever heard of the "Source" drop-down

The "Source" menu becomes visible to you as soon you select the Flood Fill Tool. And it was mentioned in this post yesterday:

[Stokestack]

Since it was prefaced with "regardless," I happily disregarded it!

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Stokestack said:

Since it was prefaced with "regardless," I happily disregarded it!

Are you suggesting that @walt.farrell should do the same?

13 hours ago, Stokestack said:

Regardless, thanks for taking the time to point out that info!

 

[Stokestack]

Sure; and since there's no "of" after it, he enjoys considerable freedom in his disregard!