Exploring with Marquee Tool (M).

The Marquee Tool - M:

The Marquee tool creates geometric, selection shapes like squares, rectangles, and circles. Select either the elliptical marquee tool or the rectangular marquee tool, then click and drag to create rectangles and ellipses. Use the keyboard shortcut "M" or Shift M to select the marquee tool.


Fill a selection with any foreground color by quickly pressing Alt+Backspace or Option+Backspace for the Mac.

A Selection:

Alternating white and black dashes indicated what has been selected. Click away from a selection to immediately start another selection.

Photoshop - Marquee Options Bar

Located at the top of the stage are the options available for this tool. The first four icons seen here allow one to add or subtract additional selections from a prior selection. Mouse over each icon to see which is which.

Marquee Tool Options:

• Create a New Selection
• Add to a Selection
• Subtract from Selection
• Intersect with Selection

Create any selection:

Next a "feathered" option exists and an anti-aliased checkbox. Feathering nicely blends the edges of a selection with pixels of the background, which in tern softens the transition.

Feathering Box:

Anti-aliasing deserves a lesson all to itself. Anti-aliasing prevents your round selections from having rough, square-like edges. Think back to the graphics that existed in the 1980's. Drawings and computer graphics had pixilated, edges especially curves and circular edges. Keep this box checked until further notice.

Marquee Style Box:

Photoshop - Elliptical Marquee Tool

As the name states, this tool can create selections in the form of ellipses and circles. While dragging with the elliptical marquee tool, pressing down the shift key creates a perfect circle.

A Perfect Circle:

Use the space bar to drag the selection into place while still holding down the mouse button.

Photoshop - Rectangular Marquee Tool

Use this tool to create selections in the form of rectangles or squares. While dragging a new selection you may also press shift or option to create a perfect square. Also pressing the space bar, will stop resizing the selection and instead allow you to move the whole selection about the canvas. Use this technique to reposition and select geometric shapes.

A Perfect Square:

Tips

• Use the space bar to drag selections into place while still outlining a new selection.
• A fixed-ratio of 1:1 outlines a perfect square or circle.
• Set perfect dimensions or a diameter using the fixed size option.
• Use Ctrl+D or Command+D to deselect any selection.