Selecting Pixels

There are several selection tools for bitmap objects. All of these tools select areas of pixels dependent on the settings in the tool options panel. When you double-click on the tool icon the tool options panel will appear and allow you to specify parameters that influence the way the tools will select pixels.

Marquee tools

There are two marquee tools, rectangular and oval. These tools behave just as the drawing tools behave in vector mode. You can use the same key combinations to create squares and circles or to start drawing the marquee from the center point.

Here is a list of the key combinations and what their effect is:

There are special tool settings in the tool options section of the properties inspector. Some of these options also exist for the other pixel selection tools. Let's look at the settings that are specific to the marquee tools first.

.The first option for the marquee tools is style. There are several styles you can choose from. Click on the list icon to bring up the options.

Normal: The marquee behaves like a normal drawing tool.

Fixed Ratio:
You can enter a fixed ratio between the width and the height of the marquee drawn. This helps if you need to select parts of an image and want a specific ratio of the selection size.

Fixed Size:
Allows you to enter a fixed pixel size. The drawn marquee will automatically assume the predefined size.

Edge settings for pixel selection tools

The edge settings for the pixel selection tools are common to all tools. Since we are looking at the marquee tool first we will look at the edge settings here. Please keep in mind that the edge setting applies to all pixel selection tools.

Hard: The pixels are selected just where the marquee is drawn. No extra pixels outside are selected, the result is a jagged edge.

Anti-Alias: This prevents jagged edges of the pixel selection and adds extra pixels to the outside which allows for smooth blending when the selection is moved.

Feather: Lets you soften the edge of the pixel selection. You can specify how many pixels are added to the marquee.