Softening The Edges Of A Selection - Adobe 13101332 - Photoshop - Mac User Manual

Adobe Photoshop Help
Using Help | Contents
The Border command creates an anti-aliased selection. (See
selection" on page 166.) To paint a hard-edged border around a selection, use the Stroke
command. (See "Filling and stroking selections and layers" on page
To expand a selection to include areas with similar color:
Do one of the following:
(Photoshop) Choose Select > Grow to include all adjacent pixels falling within the
•
tolerance range specified in the magic wand options.
Choose Select > Similar to include pixels throughout the image, not just adjacent ones,
•
falling within the tolerance range.
To increase the selection in increments, choose either command more than once.
Note: You cannot use the Grow and Similar commands on images in bitmap mode.
To clean up stray pixels left inside or outside a color-based selection:
1 Choose Select > Modify > Smooth.
2 For Sample Radius, enter a pixel value between 1 and 100, and click OK.
Photoshop or ImageReady checks around each selected pixel to find any unselected pixels
falling within the specified range. For example, if you enter 16 for the sample radius, the
program uses each pixel as the center of a 33-by-33-pixel area (16 pixels in the horizontal
and vertical directions). If most pixels in the range are selected, any unselected pixels are
added to the selection. If most pixels are unselected, any selected pixels are removed from
the selection.
Note: The relationship between physical distance and pixel distance depends on the
resolution of the image. For example, 5 pixels is a longer distance in a 72-ppi image than in
a 300-ppi image. (See

Softening the edges of a selection

You can smooth the hard edges of a selection by anti-aliasing and by feathering.
Anti-aliasing Smooths the jagged edges of a 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 selections to create
composite images.
Anti-aliasing is available for the lasso, polygonal lasso, magnetic lasso, rounded rectangle
marquee (ImageReady), elliptical marquee, and magic wand tools. (Select a tool to display
its options bar.) You must specify this option before using these tools. Once a selection is
made, you cannot add anti-aliasing.
Feathering Blurs edges by building a transition boundary between the selection and its
surrounding pixels. This blurring can cause some loss of detail at the edge of the selection.
You can define feathering for the marquee, lasso, polygonal lasso, or magnetic lasso tool
as you use the tool, or you can add feathering to an existing selection. Feathering effects
become apparent when you move, cut, copy, or fill the selection.
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