6.0 Marquee Tools
Used for making
rectangular, elliptical, or single row selections
Found at #1 in the Toolbar diagram at left
The four marquee tools are grouped together in the toolbar. To find the
one you want, click on whichever is showing in the toolbar, and select
the one you need from the pop-up menu.
You can constrain the rectangular marquee to draw a perfect square by holding down the Shift key while dragging your selection. Doing this with the elliptical marquee tool will get you a perfect circle.
If you hold down Alt as you drag, the selection will draw outward from that point, i.e. the initial click will be the center of your selection, and, as you drag, it will radiate outward from that point.
To move a selection border as you drag, hold down the spacebar, and reposition your outline. To move a selection outline after you have completed it, place the pointer inside the selection outline, and drag. To move the contents of a selection, use the move tool.
The keyboard shortcut for these tools is the letter M. Hold down the Shift key while pressing the shortcut key to toggle between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools.
The first illustration below is the ellipse marquee tool's options palette. (All the marquee tools show the same options.) Choose a Feather amount, [usually 2-5 pixels] if you want a softer edge. Be aware, that current location colors will move with the feathered edge if the contents of the selection are moved. Anti-aliasing, which smooths pixel edges on curvy lines, is available only for the elliptical marquee tool [naturally].
If you choose Fixed Size from the Style menu, shown center below,
and enter dimensions in the Width, and Height boxes, a marquee
will appear to those dimensions when you click in the image. You can then
place the pointer inside the selection outline and drag to move it.
The third illustration, below is a numbered, larger scale version
of the buttons from the left end of the options bar which determine how
the selection you draw will interact with any existing, active selections.
They are:
1) make a new selection (no interaction)
2) add to an existing selection
3) subtract from an existing selection
4) select only the overlapping area in this new selection, and an existing
selection
If you have doodled with a tool's options and want to get back to the default settings, click that tool's icon at the far left end of its options bar. Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop's .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
Photoshop Tips | 6.0
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