Outlining anatomy?

Hikeri · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:46 am Post subject: Outlining anatomy?

Hi all, first time poster here. Quick background info: I'm a PhD student working in neuroscience, but I'm somewhat computer illiterate as far as Photoshops/Illustrator and the likes goes. For my current project, I need to be able to outline several anatomical landmarks on an anatomical MRI scan (which I can transfer to Photoshop just fine), and then copy all these outlines on a "blank" image. An easier to understand analogy would be this: I have an image of a worldmap, I want to outline a number of countries on this map, and then transfer the outlines to a blank document. However, here's the important part: the relative distance (the spatial relation) between the outlines have to stay the same while transferring the outlines. I'm going to be using these outlines to calculate positions in the brain, so as you can imagine I don't want to mess up the relative position of each outline.

I've just started working with Photoshop 5.5, and have managed to do the following:

- transfer scan image to photoshop
- outline individual parts of the brain, and save these outlines as "paths"
- transfer paths to a blank document.

What I'm having trouble with, and would like to sollicite some help from you kind people is:
- what the "proper" way to transfer paths between documents is (I'm currently doing it in an extremely roundabout way, so a little guidance on the "proper" way to do it would be nice)
- how to transfer all of my paths to a blank document, keeping the relative distances between the outlines the same. Again, I can't afford to have the outlines shift while transferring them
- displaying all the outlines on one layer. I can only seem to get PS to display one path at a time, even when I try to copy all the paths to a single layer.

I'd read a manual, but our lab has long since lost the manual for Photoshop, so I'm slightly stuck here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a ton in advance,

H.

neontester · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:18 am Post subject:

Create your paths on layer above the scan,and then hit ctrl+C, go to your new doc and hit ctrl+V.

They should appear together on the background layer of new document.

You could do it direct on the background if you want and as long as you dont select all first, then ctrl+c will only copy the outlines.

I cant think of a quicker way of doing this.

Hikeri · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:38 am Post subject:

Thanks for the reply. The problem with that method is that it severely messes up the spatial relation between the different paths. To continue with my previous analogy: if Finland and Sweden are next to each other on my original worldmap, copying their paths to a new document often results in there being a major gap between the two copied outlines (despite there not being a gap). I can't seem to find a way to "fix" the outlines' relative position.

neontester · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:06 am Post subject:

Ae you using the same size document to paste your outlines into?
Same size and same resolution?
When you create your blank document you can select to use the size of the scan doc, if it is already open, in the preset dialog.

hawkeye · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:39 am Post subject:

If I understand you correctly...you don't need to use a new document at all.

The MRI scan would be the background layer. Add a new blank layer above it, use the pen tool to trace the outline then in the paths palette, stroke or fill the path with an appropriate size/color brush.

Now go to the next item and outline it with the pen tool and stroke. Do this as many times as necessary to get all the details you want. All the outlines will all be on a single layer in the proper positions.

When you're done delete the background layer. Add a new white (for instance) background layer below the outline layer. Add text or whatever you need to the image. Flatten the image when you are done.

neontester · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:15 am Post subject:

True, unless there is some special reason for creating a new document, then you could just do that.

Hikeri · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:56 am Post subject:

Thanks for the replies all - I think I've got it figured out now. Thanks again.

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