Using the Flood Fill Tool

Different ways to use the Flood Fill tool or fill a layer with color.

The Flood Fill tool (also known as the paint bucket tool) is used to fill in areas of your image that are connected together by a common color.

The Flood Fill tool is the tool that looks like a bucket with paint spilling out of it. (Keyboard shortcut "K"). Your cursor will turn into a paint bucket while over the canvas: Click anywhere on your blank canvas, and it will fill it in with your selected color. Below tolerance is the option to select "Anti-alias".  If this box is not checked, then flood fill will have a sharp boundary at its edges.  If checked, the flood fill tool will bleed a little on its edges, for a smoother transition.

Adjusting the Tolerance

Flood Fill has a option called "Tolerance". When you are using Flood Fill on an image with a gradient or an area with more than one color, you can adjust the tolerance to fill in more than one color on the canvas. The higher the tolerance is set, the more colors it will fill in with your selected color.

Here is an example:

You can also use Flood Fill to fill in Shapes. With the Flood Fill tool selected, just click inside the shape to fill it with your color. Note: The Anti-alias option has no effect on shapes.

Fill an Entire Layer with a Color

In Acorn, there is an easy way to fill an entire layer with a color without using the Flood Fill tool.  Pick your desired color in the colors palette, then drag and drop the color swatch into the appropriate layer.  The entire layer will then be filled with that color.  

Edit ▸ Fill

If you want additional control over filling a layer with color, try Edit ▸ Fill.  This command will bring up the options of what color, opacity, and blending mode you want to apply to the fill.