Paint Bucket Tool

The Paint Bucket Tool fills adjacent pixels of similar color with your chosen foreground color or pattern. It works similarly to the Fill command but offers the convenience of a single-click operation with tolerance-based edge detection.

This tool is commonly used for filling large areas with flat color, applying patterns, and quickly coloring line art or segmented regions. It is most effective on images with clearly defined areas of uniform color.

Where to Find It

The Paint Bucket Tool is grouped with the Gradient Tool in the toolbar. Click and hold the Gradient icon to reveal the flyout, then select Paint Bucket Tool. Press Shift+G to toggle between them.

How to Use

• Select the Paint Bucket Tool: Press Shift+G until the Paint Bucket is active.
• Set the foreground color: Choose the color you want to fill with from the Color Picker.
• Set fill type: In the Options bar, choose Foreground to fill with solid color, or Pattern to fill with a selected pattern.
• Adjust Tolerance: Set the Tolerance value (0–255). Lower values fill pixels very similar to the one clicked; higher values fill a broader range.
• Click to fill: Click on the area you want to fill. All contiguous pixels within the tolerance range are filled with the chosen color or pattern.

Settings & Options

• Fill Source: Choose Foreground (solid color) or Pattern (selected pattern fill).
• Pattern Picker: When Fill Source is set to Pattern, choose from available patterns or load additional pattern libraries.
• Tolerance: Controls the range of colors to be filled (0–255). Start with 32 and adjust as needed.
• Anti-alias: Smoothes the edges of the filled area.
• Contiguous: When checked, only fills pixels adjacent to the clicked point. When unchecked, fills all matching pixels in the entire image.
• All Layers: Fills based on the combined colors of all visible layers.

Pro Tips

• Use the Paint Bucket on a separate layer set to a blending mode like Multiply to add color to line art without losing the line details underneath.
• For pixel art or flat vector-style illustrations, uncheck Anti-alias to maintain crisp, hard edges between filled and unfilled areas.
• Experiment with different Tolerance values: start low (16–32) and gradually increase if the fill doesn't cover the intended area completely.

Common Mistakes

• Using the Paint Bucket on low-resolution or JPEG images: Compressed images have color variations that cause the Paint Bucket to leave gaps or fill unevenly. Use the Fill command (Shift+F5) on selections for more reliable results.
• Forgetting about Contiguous: With Contiguous unchecked, clicking on a color fills every pixel of that color in the entire image, which can be unexpected. Keep it checked unless you intentionally want a global fill.