Learners Desk: About Photoshop Rectangular Marquee Tool

In PHOTOSHOP Tutorials our first tutorial is about various selection tools. Sometimes we will have to make some selections in PHOTOSHOP like selecting objects, areas or parts etc. because PHOTOSHOP never be able to identify on its own. There are some selection tools like Rectangular marquee tool, elliptical marquee tool, single row marquee tool and single column marquee tool. We will learn about these tools one by one.

RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL (M)

This tool has many uses like every photoshop tool does. You can find Rectangular marquee tool at the very top of Tools panel. Click on it to select. If you want to select the other tools just right click on the Rectangular marquee tool and select the desired one.

Usage of Rectangular Marquee Tool: In an image if you want to remove a part or area you can easily delete it with Rectangular Marquee Tool. At the same time you can fill the color of a selected area or part with another color.

HOW TO DO STEP BY STEP:

Open an image.

click and hold mouse left button at the point where you want to begin selection and drag until the area of your choice and release mouse button.

Now, if you want to fill color to the selected area or part go to IMAGE option in menu bar and from drop-down box go to Adjustment and click on Hue/saturation.

Now you can manage colors of your choice and press ok.

Deletion:

If you want to delete a selected area or part press delete button on your keyboard.

With these prime usages you can also work with some other features which you can find on top at the options bar. Take a look at the image.

1. NEW SELECTION: It is the default one when you select any selection tool like Rectangular marquee tool. Using any selection tool, select New Selection from the options bar, and position the pointer inside the selection border. The pointer changes to a shape. Now you can move the selection to anywhere.

2. Add to selection: It enables you to add another selection (another image or part) to the earlier selection (to already selected image or part).

First make a selection using Rectangular marquee tool.

Select the Add To Selection option in the options bar or press and hold “shift” key in keyboard and drag to add to the selection.

NOTE: A plus sign appears next to the pointer when you’re adding to a selection.

3. SUBTRACT FROM SELECTION: It removes the selected area from already selected area. If you committed a mistake or wrong selection then, you should use this option. Select the Subtract From Selection option in the options bar or press and hold “Alt” key in your keyboard and drag to intersect with other selections. Follow the image.

4. INTERSECT WITH SELECTION: If you selected an entire image, but you suddenly decided to select only a part or half part then you should use this option.

Select the Intersect With Selection option in the options bar or press and hold “Alt+Shift” in keyboard then click outside of already selected image and drag over the portion of the original selection that you want to select. Follow the image.

In OPTIONS BAR you will also find an option called “Style” which enables you to change the style of a selected tool.

1. FEATHER: This option allows you to create a selection outline with soft, feathered edges which is basically used to merge in two images or layers.