Selection Brush Tool

Quickly select areas with the new Selection Brush tool , which combines brushand lasso gestures .

Add to or subtract from a selection , and adjust the brush's Hardness and Opacity setting to create selection with varying opacity and softer, featured edhes. This lets you easily select, compose, and apply filters and fills with the flexibility you need .

Simply paint or trace on the canvas where you want to create a selection. This feature allows you to select areas with a brish faster without using the Quick Mask mode or the Brush tool in the Select and mask workspace .

The Selection Brush tool works like any other selection tool in Adobe Phjotoshop. The difference is that the selected area is displayed as a colored overlay, with users only seeing the dotted edge when switching to another tool.

The overlay makes it easier to visualize and adjust : choose a different color for the overlay from the color drop-down menu under the gear icon.

1. Select the Selection Brush tool from the Lasso tool group in the Toolbar.

To intuitively and easily select areas and objects, use the Selection Brush tool, which is located in the Lasso tool group.

2. Draw a lasso on the canvas to create an overlay over the desired selection area.

Note. To display a dotted edge around the selected area instead of an overlay, you can switch to another tool.

3. (Optional) To change the overlay color, open the Color drop-down menu under the gear icon in the Options panel.

4. Change the brush hardness and opacity if necessary.

5. To refine your selection, switch between the Add Brush and the Subtract brush .

Lasso tool

To draw selections of the border of the selected area of any shape, use the lasso tool.

1. Select the lasso tool and enter a Feather value in the options bar to determine the width of the feather. Note the Smooth box is selected by default .

For more information about feathering and anti-aliasing, see Softening the edges of selections .

2. To add to, subtract from , or intersect with an existing selection, select the appropriate function in the Options bar.

add, sebtract, or intersect with an existing selection in the bar

3. Do one the following :

- Click and hold the mouse button to select an area of any shape.

- To switch between freeform selections and straight section, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS) at the start and end points of the sections. T5o erase the most recently drawn straight section, press and hold the delete key.

4. To  close the border of the selected area, release the mouse button without pressing the Alt or Option key.

5. (Optional) To further adjust the selection area border, click Select and Mask .

Polygonal lasso Tool

To draw straight sections of the selected area, use the polygonal Lasso tool .

1. Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool , then select the Selection Options in the options bar .

2. (Optional) Set the Anti-aliasing option and the deather value in the Options bar. See Softening the Edges of Selections .

3. Click on the image to set the starting point.

4. Do one or more of the following :

- To draw a straight section, click and drag the cursor to where you want the end points of the following section .

-To draw a straight line at 45° angle to the previous line, hold down the Shift key as you move the cursor to the end of the next section.

-To draw a free-form segment, nhold down the Alt (Windows) or option (Mac OS) key before you start dragging. When you finish drawing, release the Alt or option key and the mouse button.

- To erase the last drawn segments, press "Delete".

5. Close the border of the selected area as follows.

-Click and drag the Polygonal Lasso tool cursor to the starting point ( a closed circle will appear above the cursor ).

- If the pointer is not over the starting point, double-click the Polygonal Lasso tool pointer; or Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS).

6. (Optional) to further adjustthe selection area border; click select and Mask .

Magnetic Lasso Tool

When you use the Magnetic Lasso tool, the border snaps to the edges of the  specified area of the image. The Magnetic Lasso tool is nor available for 32-bit per channel image .

Note. The Magneticc Lasso tool is esecially useful for quickly selecting objects with complex edges  from high-contrast backgrounds.

1. Select the Magnetic Lasso tool.

2. Select an option to determine how the selection will work.

3. (Optional) Seet the Anti-aliasing option and the feather value in the Options bar. See Softening the Edges of Selections .

4. Set any of the following options :

Width To specify the width of the selection, e,ter a value in pixels in the width field. The Magnetic Lasso tool only finds edges within a certain distance of the cursor.

Note. To change the lasso cursor so that it shows the width, ress the Caps Lock Key. The cursor can only be changed when the tool is selected but not in use . Click the right square bracket (]) to increase the width of the Magnetic Lasso Tool edge by 1 pixel; click the left square bracket ([) to decrease its width by 1 pixel.

Contrast  To set the lasso's sensitivity to image edges, enter a value vetween 1% and 100% for Contrast. A higher value displays edges that stand out clearly from their surrounding.

Frequency  To specify the frequency with which the lasso will set anchor points, enter a value fom 0 to 100 for the Frequency parameter. A higher value will set the anchor points of the selection borders more quickly.

Note. For an image with well-defined edges, try setting a large width and high contrast and draw a rought selection border. For an image with low contrast and draw a more precise selection border.

 Pen pressure  When working on a tablet with a pen, you should set the Pen Pressure option. When this option is selected, increasing the pen pressure decreases the edge width.

5. Click on the image to set the first anchor point. Anchor points fix the border of the slected area in a specific place.

6. Release the mouse button or hold it down, and then move the pointer along the desired edge.

The moste recent segment of the selection border remains active. As you move the cursor, the active segment snaps to the most visiible adge of the image within the detection width set in the Options bar. Periodically, the Magnetic Lasso toool adds anchor points to the selection borders to anchor previous segments.

7. If the border is not where you want it, click once to set anchor points manually. Continue tracing the edge and adding anchor points as needed.

Anchor points anchor the boundaries of the selection to its edges.

8. To temporarily switch to other Lasso tools, do one of the following : 

- To switch to the Lasso tool, hold down alt (Windows) or option (Mac OS) befor you start dragging.

- To access the Polygonal Lasso tool, Alt-click (Windows) or option-click (Mac OS).

9. To erase the last drawn fragments or anchor points, press the "Delete" key until the anchor points of the desired fragment are erased.

10. Close the border of the selected area as follows.

-To close the magnetic segment border, double-click the mouse or press enter or Return. (To close the border manually, click and drag the cursor to the sstarting point.)

- To close a bordder with a straight line segment, hold down Alt (Windows) or option (Mac OS) and double-click.

11. (Optional) To further adjust the selection area border, click Select and Mask .