Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Flow

The Flow setting determines how much of the opacity you've specified will show up on your first paint stroke. When the Flow setting is set to 20%, you'll get 20% of the opacity you've specified in the options bar each time you paint across an area (Figure 1.46). Each time you pass over the same area with that setting, you'll build up another coat of 20% of the opacity you've chosen. No matter how many times you paint across an area, you will not be able to achieve an opacity higher than what's specified in the options bar, unless you release the mouse button. If you set the Flow setting to 100%, then it will effectively turn off this feature, so that you'll get the full opacity that you've requested each time you paint. The Pencil tool ...