Rounded corners in Photoshop Elements

Rounded corners is a desired effect for pictures, web graphics, or just about any type of image.

Pain in the Tech wrote tips on how to create rounded corners in Photoshop CS and rounded corners in GIMPShop, both tips have been quite popular.

This article will introduce a method to create rounded corners in Photoshop Elements (version 4.0, Windows). Photoshop Elements is much less expensive alternative to the full version of Photoshop.

Elements costs around US $90, as opposed to Photoshop, which retails for about US $650. Elements includes many of the great capabilities of Photoshop, so you won’t be without features. You can download a trial version of Elements, which lasts for 30 days.

Draw the rounded rectangle

To begin creating rounded corners, select the layer that your image or artwork resides on.

Choose the Rounded Rectangle tool:

Set your rounded rectangle preferences:

On a new layer, above your image layer (the layer that you want to add rounded corners to), draw the rounded rectangle anywhere on the canvas.

If there is a “fill color” inside your rounded rectangle, change the opacity to 0%, in the Layers palette:

You should now have a rounded rectangle “highlight” around your canvas.

Choose “Make Selection”

With the rounded rectangle tool still selected, right-click anywhere on the canvas. Choose “Make Selection.”

In the Make Selection dialog box, make sure Feather Radius is 0, and Anti-aliased is checked.

Copy/Paste onto new canvas

Now, choose Edit > Copy Merged:

Then choose New > Image from Clipboard:

You should see your flattened image with rounded corners.

More Tips

You should now have your image on a new canvas, with the edges lining up to the side of the canvas:

If you want to see the rounded corners a little better, increase the canvas size.

You can also add another layer, below the current layer, in order to change the background color.

Here is the example image, with rounded corners applied: