Lasso tools

If you want to create selections that are not made up of simple geometrical shapes you can use the lasso tools.

This icon stands for the freehand lasso. When you select this tool you can draw freehand shapes. The shape will automatically close when you release the mouse button. It will close the shape with a straight line. When you come close to the starting point a small square will show up next to the lasso cursor. This means that you are close to the start point and the shape will close smoothly when you release the mouse key.

The polygon lasso tool allows you to draw a marquee that consists of linear segments. You can constrain the segments to 45 degree angles by holding down the SHIFT key. This tool also indicates the proximity to the starting point with a small square that light up next to the lasso cursor.

Here are two examples of marquees created by the lasso tools:

The modifier keys that we spoke about in the section about the marquee tools also work for the lasso tools.

You can add additional selection with the SHIFT key, create cross-sections with the SHIFT+ALT (Macintosh: SHIFT+Option) combination, or remove parts of the selection with the Control (Macintosh: Command) key.