Photoshop: Empty selection with smooth rounded edges

Posted on 06. Jun, 2009 by Dragos in Design, Photoshop

In this tutorial we’ll try to create an empty rectangle selection and to add smooth edges to it.
There are several methods to accomplish this task, but only one of them worked best in my case.
This is what we are trying to create:

Empty rectangle with smooth edges

Now how to do it?

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Step 1: Select the rounded rectangle tool

Select rounded rectangle tool

Step 2: Select ‘Paths’

Select 'Paths'

Step 3: Draw a rectangle

Click and drag to draw a rectangle with your preferred size.

Draw a rectangle

Step 4: Make a selection from your rectangle path

Right click on your just drawn rectangle and select ‘Make selection’.

Make selection

Now a popup window will show up asking you for some values. Make sure that ‘Rendering’->’Feather radius: is set to 0 and ‘Rendering’->’Anti-aliased’ and ‘Operation’->’New Selection’ are checked. Click ok.

Step 5: Select the selection tool

Select 'selection tool'

Step 6: Stroke your selection

Now right click on your rectangle selection tool and select ‘Stroke’. In the popup window set your preferred values. I suggest you choose the location of the stroke to be ‘Inside’, because if you choose the other values your rectangle will slightly expand. Click ‘Ok’.