7 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.
When dragging a new selection, 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. Pressing the Shift key while a selection outline is already active will cause the new selection to be added to the existing one.
If you hold down Alt as you drag a new selection, 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. Pressing Alt while a selection outline already exists will cause the second selection to be subtracted from the first.
Note - if your Alt key does not appear to be working in Photoshop, you may have another program running in the background that has taken over that key. GuruNet (Atomica) and FlySwat are two such applications. Uninstall them, or reassign the hot key in those programs to regain use of the Alt key in Photoshop.
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, make sure you have the New Selection option selected on the options bar. Then place the pointer inside the selection outline, and drag. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the selection outline into place. 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 elliptical marquee tool’s options palette (split in two because it’s so long). (All the marquee tools show the same options.) To find any tool presets that have been made for this tool, click on the tool’s thumbnail at the left end of the options bar. To reset the tool to its default settings, right-click on the tool’s thumbnail and choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears.
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 (the other marquees have only straight edges).
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.
If you have chosen the Fixed Size style and the units shown for entering
Width and Height values aren’t what you want, right-click directly on
the Width or Height text box. A menu of alternate units will appear. Note
that you have to do this for both text boxes—changing the units
of one does not change the units of the other.
The last 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.
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