My stroke outline won't show up.

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried 25 px just now, along with the Outside setting and no luck. The opacity is 100%. The colour background is a pale yellow so the red should stand out easily.

Hi haliburton,
I don't know then, sorry I couldn't be of more help. Have you tried resetting the tools, don't know the method in Elements 11. In elements 12 there is a little box towards bottom of screen on the right. It has a little arrow with some lines next to it. If you select that there is an option to reset all tools.

Shaun

Try this:

Open picture file
Go to Select>all. You should see "marching ants" surrounding the periphery
Open a blank layer above the background layer
Go to Edit>stroke(outline) selection. The color of the stroke should contrast against the background so that you can see it.
Place the stroke inside. Make stroke 5-15 px (Experiment)

Reading your message more carefully, I see you are using Select All. Are you aware that this is selecting the entire periphery of your frame, and no tthe rectangle itself?

As Major said - If OP used 'select all' - and then used "outside" - the stroke won't show up because there is no room on the canvas because the stroke is on the outside of the canvas.

However, OP said he tried "inside" and that didn't work either.  Maybe he's expecting the outline to be around a particular rectangle and that's not what he selected to outline.  And maybe he's not seeing the outline because the stroke is hidden by another layer.

I tried this just now. Using "select all" then Edit>Stroke then "inside" then choosing 40 pixels - I did have the stroke show up.  It was, however, around the perimeter of the project because I chose "select all."

So if OP chose "select all" then "edit/stroke" then "inside" with enough pixel width - the line should've shown up whether you put the stroke on it's own layer or on the photo layer.

Could it be that your stroke is hidden by another layer?? If something solid is on top of the stroke, it won't show up because it will be covered by another layer.

Major has hit on the probable problem - the use of "select all" - "select all" selects the perimeter of the project - not a rectangle which is part of a project.

To select a rectangle that is part of the project, Control/Command Click on the Thumbnail of the rectangle layer - this will give you a selection of the rectangle ONLY. Then open a new layer ABOVE the rectangle and use EDIT>STROKE. That will put your outline around only the rectangle.

If none of the suggestions are working, it's time to explore all those options Sepiana and others have mentioned using a new project.

I suggest you start from scratch - open a new photo - just to explore the suggestions here.

Sometimes when we are making a project, something else is getting in the way. If you start fresh, and learn how to do the procedure, you may be able to figure out what is going wrong on your current project.



HINT

Once you have solved the issue, and you are able to get your stroke -- get in the habit of making your strokes on their own layers so that the stroke layer remains editable - it can be deleted, or the color changed, or the line made smaller/bigger and it can be moved around.  

Just make sure your outline layer is on top of your photo - if it's underneath the photo, it will be hidden by the photo.

Realize - Stroking on the photo layer itself will prohibit any editing of the line at a later date.