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Selection Tool Properties

Select a specific area of the canvas and perform operations on this selected area.

Activate the Selection tool by clicking the button in the Tools panel or by tapping the M shortcut.

There are five types of Selection tools available:

Rectangle - Create rectangular selections by clicking and dragging on the canvas. Activate the rectangular selection by tapping Ctrl + Alt + R (on Windows) / Cmd + Alt + R (on macOS).

Ellipse - Create elliptical selections by clicking and dragging on the canvas. Activate the elliptical selection by tapping Ctrl + Alt + E (on Windows) / Cmd + Alt + E (on macOS).

To transform the rectangular and elliptical selection, click the Transform tool in the Tools panel or use shortcut Ctrl + T on Windows or Cmd + T on macOS.

You can move, scale selection propotionally, rotate or flip selection horizontally or vertically.

Use Shift to scale the selection horizontally, vertically or both.

Use Alt to scale the selection relative to its center.

Use Shift to enable lock rotation at a 15-degree angle. You can change the default angle in Preferences > Tools > Transformation.

Polygon - Create polygonal selections. Click to place a corner point, release the mouse button and click to place the next point. To finish creating a polygonal selection either click on the first point again or hit Enter - the last point will be linked back to the first point automatically. Activate the polygonal selection by tapping Ctrl + Alt + P (on Windows) / Cmd + Alt + P (on macOS).

Note

Confirm the rectangular, elliptical and polygonal selection by hitting Enter or by clicking on the viewport outside the selected area.

Freehand - Create freehand selections by drawing an outline around the area you want to select. When the mouse is released, the end of the line will be automatically connected to its start. Activate the freehand selection by tapping Ctrl + Alt + F (on Windows) / Cmd + Alt + F (on macOS).

Magic Wand - Create selections based on the tone and color of the pixels. Activate the Magic Wand selection by tapping Ctrl + Alt + W (on Windows) / Cmd + Alt + W (on macOS).

You can specify any of the following:

  • Tolerance - Determines the color range of selected pixels. Enter a value in pixels, ranging from 0 to 255. Value 0 means that only the pixels that are the same color as the specific pixel you clicked on will be selected. A value larger than 0 represents the shades of pixels darker and lighter that will be selected as well.
  • Antialiasing - When enabled, Antialiasing creates a smoother-edged selection.
  • Contiguous - Selects only adjacent areas using the same colors. Otherwise, all pixels in the entire image using the same colors are selected.
  • Use Alpha - Determines the alpha channel of selected pixels.

There are three modes of how a new selection can be added to any current selection on the canvas:

New Selection - Replace the current selection with the new one.

Add to Selection - Add a new selection to the current selection to create a new result. (shortcut: Shift)

Subtract from Selection - Subtract the area of the new selection from the current selection to create a new result. (shortcut: Alt)

Invert selection - Invert the current selection. You can invert the selection also with Ctrl + Shift + I (on Windows) / Cmd + Shift + I (on macOS) or via Edit menu > Invert Selection.

Select All - Select the content of the layer. You can 'select all' also with the shortcut Ctrl + A (on Windows) / Cmd + A (on macOS) or via Edit menu > Select All.

Deselect All - Deselect the current selection from the canvas. You can 'deselect all' also with the shortcut Ctrl + D (on Windows) / Cmd + D (on macOS) or via Edit menu > Deselect All.

Video tutorial

Learn more about Rebelle's Selection tool in this video: Selection Tool, Transform Tool.

More information about how to use selections in Rebelle can be found in the Working with Selections section.