The Color Selection Tool

To edit and apply special effects to portions of your pictures, remove unwanted objects, or cut out objects from one picture and put them on another, that portion or object should be selected using a selection tool or a combination of selection tools in Pixelmator.

The Color Selection Tool is useful for making quick, near-perfect selections. Use the Color Selection to select objects or any similarly colored portions of an image by simply clicking and dragging your mouse.

Step 1

Open an image that has an area or object you’d like to select in Pixelmator.

Step 2

Click to select the Color Selection Tool (W) in the Tools palette.

For smooth selection borders, select Smooth Edges from the Action menu in the Tool Options bar (View > Show Tool Options) before making a selection. For jagged but precise edges, deselect Smooth Edges from the Action menu in the Tool Options bar before making a selection.

To use the Color Selection Tool on all the visible layers in the Layers palette, select Sample All Layers from the Action menu before making a selection. To use the Color Selection only on a single visible layer, deselect Sample All Layers from the Action menu before making a selection.

Step 3

Click and drag over the object or area of color and release the mouse button to make a selection.

The selection area instantly grows or shrinks while dragging the mouse.

Step 4

Selection borders can be easily modified if necessary.

To modify the selection borders, choose one of the following selection modes in the Tool Options bar:

	New	Creates a new selection.
	Add To	Adds new selection to an existing selection.
	Subtract	Subtracts from an existing selection.
	Intersect	Subtracts the overlap of two selections.

And click and drag to add to, subtract from or intersect with the current selection borders.

The selection borders can be modified using any of the selection tools.

Step 5

Once a selection is complete, changes can be applied to the selected region. For instance, a selected area or object can be moved, rotated, scaled, flipped, duplicated, cut, filled, inverted, copied, and pasted elsewhere. Also, color adjustments and corrections, as well as various special effects and filters can be applied to the selection.

The Color Selection Tool simplifies the process of making quick, near-perfect selections.