The Selection Tools - 1

All references to the mouse buttons assumes a standard PC mouse. If you have reversed the buttons then please make the necessary allowances.

The Selection Tool was covered briefly in PSP101. Here we will investigate it further.

The Selection Tool has several different ways of making a selection.

Before you can use this tool you will need to open a graphic. To avoid doing any unwanted changes to your graphic, duplicate it by using the keyboard Shift+D. Now close your original graphic and play around all you like with the duplicate. Your original is tucked away safe and sound in its folder.

Tip: Always do this when you open a graphic - that way if the changes you make are not to your liking, you still have the graphic you started with. You can save over it when you are ready.

Preset Shapes Selection Tool  

Open up the Tool Options window by clicking on the button in the top toolbar . If you do not have it there, then right click on the Selection Tool button and choose Tool Options, or simply press the keyboard letter O.

When you click on the Preset Shapes Selection Tool button this is what you see in the Tool Options panel. Here you have a variety of selection shapes, from the usual rectangle, square, circle etc, to some interesting other shapes. You can try these out later. Right now choose the Rectangle shape, Feather = 0, and leave the Antialias box unchecked.

The rectangle selection - this is normally used to select a rectangular area of a graphic for cutting or copying a section of a graphic, and for selecting an area for cropping the image to.

After you have clicked on the button, move your cursor over a graphic and you will see your pointer change to crosshairs - position this at one corner of an area you want to mark out as a selection. Hold down the left mouse button and move the cursor to an opposite corner - you will see a rectangle drawn over the graphic. When you release the mouse button you have your selection marked out with a dotted line called the "marquee" or sometimes referred to as "marching ants".

What if you are not quite in the right position with your selection. No problem, there is a way to move the marquee without affecting the graphic.
Click on the Mover Tool , then right click inside the marquee and while holding the right mouse button down, move the marquee to where you want it.

There is a very precise way of doing this instead of relying on the steadiness of your hand and sharpness of your eyesight. Double click on the Selection Tool button and up pops a Select Area panel. You can set the starting top left-hand corner and the ending bottom right-hand corner of your rectangle. This is only available for a rectangle shape.

To use this tool you first need to have your rulers turned on. You can do this from the View Menu, select Rulers. Postion the graphic you are working on at one side of the your working window so that when you open the Select Area panel you can move it off the graphic. Now use the rulers to determine the Left, Right, Top and Bottom locations where you want the selection made. In this example you see the Left is at 25 pixels over, and the Right at 130 pixels. The Top is at 5 pixels down, and the Bottom is at 105 pixels down.

The selection marquee will not appear until you have clicked on OK, then the Select Area panel will close. If the selection is not quite in the right place, open the panel again and adjust your numbers. It remembers the settings you have just used.

If your ruler is not displaying the measurement in pixels you need to change the measurement unit in the menu - File >Preferences > General Program Preferences > Rulers and Units. Select Ruler Display to be Pixels.

Try using some of the different shapes but don't cut anything out yet. Cancel the selection again by clicking on the Select None button in the top toolbar if you have it there, or from the menu Selections - Select None, or the keyboard Ctrl+D. You will have found that the other shapes have a different starting point to the rectangle. The Circle shapes have the starting point in the center.

Feathering, what's that? With Feathering set to 0 the selection will have a hard edge. Feathering softens the edge - the larger the feathering, the softer the edge. Try it and see - pick a feathering of 20 and select an area. You will see that your marque expands when you release the mouse button. Now drag the selection off the graphic. You have a smudged patch with your current background color showing.

Hit the undo button a few times - remember that from PSP101? Your graphic is now back to normal. This time use the ellipse shape and select an area in the center of your graphic using feathering of 20 and a nice background color. Pick your background color in the Color Palette first. Now invert the selection - Selections - Invert ( Shift+Ctrl+I ). Click in the selection - the outer area - and drag that off your graphic. See what you have done!

I have used a yellow-brown as the background color here, see below for a similar look using the same background color (white) as this page.

Just for something different, instead of dragging the selection off the graphic, use the delete key instead. This will leave the area still selected. Invert the selection again then using the Effects Menu, go to 3D Effects - Cutout. Make sure the Fill interior with color is unchecked. Pick a shadow color by clicking in the color box. Set opacity to 100, Blur to 2, Offsets to 5.

You can click the Proof button to see the effect of your adjustments without making them permanent. Play around a bit, use a different shadow color, different other settings and see what effect you get.

Here is exactly the same effect but using the same background color as this page so your selected area blends right into the page. I have used a different shadow color.

Now you can see some amazing possibilities just by playing around with the Selection Tool.

Make a graphic as above, using your own picture, and put aside as part of your homework for this lesson.

The content and design of this site are the property of WebTech University
and may not be used without written consent of the owner.
Copyright © 1998-2010 WebTech University. All rights reserved.
Privacy Statement