Is there any way to do this? Specifically, I have a vector circle and I want to cut out the center to turn it into a ring-shaped object.

Don't know what app you are using, but the simplest way is to define the circle as "none" and then add a frame to the outside or inside of the circle to the desired thickness and fill it with whaterver color is needed.

I'm using Photoshop 7.0. I'm not exactly sure how to carry out your instructions, as I've just recently started to use vector shapes and as a result I know very little about working with them.

I think I know what you are trying to do...

1. Use the shape tool or create a shape with the pen tool. For this ex. we'll go with the circle.

2. Create the shape layer with the circle tool.

3. Ctrl (or Cmd for Mac) - click on the layer thumbnail (this will create a selection around the shape)

4. to get the "ring", go to Select-Modify-Contract, select the # of pixels that you would like the ring to be.

5. Select-Inverse

6. Click on the layer and click the mask icon. This will allow you to adjust the size if needed after.

Hope that helps.

Ok I did it and it turned out like this:



Notice the weird triangular indentions that appeared on the inside edges. The inside edge of the ring is also rasterized, which doesn't allow for much resizing freedom.

weird how that happened to yours..

ok, better way: (I have PSCS2, so this may/may not be the same in 7)
1. Create the shape...
2. select the Exclude overlapping shape areas (icons listed at the top of the page, its the 5th one over)
3. draw your circle on top of the previous circle... it will then cut out that shape.

Let me know if that works for you.

Thanks, it worked perfect. That's exactly what I was trying to accomplish.