Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
video 25:
Selection Basics
The following options modify the selection tool and must be
chosen
before
making a selection:
E
Feather. A normal selection has a crisp edge. Feathering a
selection creates a gradual blend at the selection's edges. Think
of it as the difference between a line drawn with a pencil and
one drawn with a felt-tip marker. Feathered selections are useful
when you want to extract objects.
F
Anti-alias. When working with the Elliptical Marquee tool,
you can select Anti-alias to create a smoother edge for curved
lines (especially if your image is at a low resolution).
G
Style. For the Rectangular Marquee tool and Elliptical Mar-
quee tool, you can choose from three styles in the Options bar:
•
Normal. This is the default option. Click to draw your
marquee freehand.
•
Fixed Ratio. You can set a width-to-height ratio. For
example, to draw a marquee three times as wide as it is
high, enter 3 for the width and 1 for the height.
•
Fixed Size. You c a n s p e c i f y a n ex a c t s i z e for t he m a r -
quee's height and width. You can enter the value in pixels
(px), inches (in), or centimeters (cm).
H
Refine edge. This button refines any selection based on several
criteria. You'll explore this functionality later in this chapter.
Moving a selection
There are a few ways to reposition a selection:
•
While drawing a selection (with the mouse button still
depressed) you can hold down the spacebar and move the
selection.
•
With an active selection, move the tool's cursor inside the
selection border (marching ants). The icon changes to a
triangle with a marquee border. You can then click inside
and drag the selection to move it.
•
To mod i f y a select ion u s i ng cont rol s s i m i la r t To t he Free Tr a n s -
form command, choose Select > Transform Selection. All
the options available to the Free Transform command can be
applied to the selection border. For more on Free Transform,
see Chapter 4, “Sizing Digital Images.”
