Softening The Edges Of A Selection - Adobe PHOTOSHOP 6.0 Manual

To select the unselected parts of an image:
Choose Select > Inverse.
You can use this option to select an object placed
against a solid-colored background. Select the
background using the magic wand tool and then
inverse the selection.
Adjusting selections manually
You can use the selection tools to add to or
subtract from existing pixel selections.
Before manually adding to or subtracting from a
selection, set the feather and anti-aliased values in
the options bar to the same settings used for the
original selection. (See "Softening the edges of a
selection" on page 147.)
To adjust selections numerically,
see "Adjusting selections numerically" in
online Help.
To add to a selection or select an additional area:
Make a selection.
1
Using any selection tool, do one of the
2
following:
Select the Add to Selection option ( ) in the
•
options bar, and drag.
Hold down Shift (a plus sign appears next to the
•
pointer), and drag to add another selection.
To subtract from a selection:
Make a selection.
1
Using any selection tool, do one of the
2
following:
Select the Subtract from Selection option ( )
•
in the options bar, and drag to intersect with other
selections.
Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS)
•
(a minus sign appears next to the pointer),
and drag to subtract another selection.
To select only an area intersected by other selections:
Make a selection.
1
Using any selection tool, do one of
2
the following:
Select the Restrict Selection option ( ) in the
•
options bar, and drag.
• Hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or
Option+Shift (Mac OS) (a cross appears next to
the pointer), and drag over the portion of the
original selection that you want to select.
Softening the edges of a
selection
You can smooth the hard edges of a selection by
anti-aliasing and by feathering.
Smooths the jagged edges of a
Anti-aliasing
selection by softening the color transition between
edge pixels and background pixels. Since only the
edge pixels change, no detail is lost. Anti-aliasing is
useful when cutting, copying, and pasting selec-
tions to create composite images.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0 147
User Guide