Blurring edges in Photoshop 7

[garry2005]

HELP!

In P7, how does one blur the edges of an irregular-shape object, and end up with just that object? Example: I need to end up with, say, a circle or rounded-rectangle with blurred edges for 2-D effect. I know I can paste the object on a white background, and then use the blur tool in P7, and then crop...but you end up with the object inside a rectangular whit square (well, square white corners).
I need just the bluured object that I can paste somewhere else, and then superimpose another (slightly smaller) object on top of it for 2-D, shadow effect.

This can be done in Paint...one pixel at a time...black to dark gray, to lighter gray, and so on...but that is a monumental effort! Seems like P7 must have those capabilities, but I'm NOT very profficient with it at all.

Thanks in advance for any help
Garry
(garry@jetcoder.com)

[morea]

not sure if I understand right, have you tried feathering the object?

select the piece you want blurred, go to select > feather and decide how many pixels. Hope that helps.

welcome to the forum!

[vtwin_gary]

i'm a little confused as to your final object.
if you are trying to make a "shadow" why not import that image into ps & add it there then export the whole thing back out to what ever.
maybe that made sence well maybe not.

[jimking]

Maybe this will work for ya. I'm doing this in PS 4. I think what you want is feathered egdes. Draw a marquee around the area you want feathered, then inversed the selection, go to the feather feature in PS, I chose 25, make sure you choose WHITE in your tool box then hit the delete button, presto. (make sure your canvas is large enough to allow for the feathered edges!!!) Then if you only want the feathered edges only, just inverse again, hit delete and only your feathered edges remain. :)