Selections

A selection limits what the tools change, and what's copied, moved or transformed.

Selecting#

• Rectangle Select and Ellipse Select (M): drag a box. Ctrl draws it from the center. Double-clicking with Rectangle Select selects one checkerboard square.
• Lasso Select (L): draw around what you want. Polygon Lasso Select clicks corners; double-click to close it.
• Magic Wand (W): click a color to select it, with Threshold, Contiguous and Sample All Layers like the fill tools.
• Ctrl+click a layer's thumbnail in the Layers panel to select its pixels.

Hold Shift to add to a selection and Alt to take away from it. The rectangle and ellipse tools also have a Mode menu: Replace, Add, Subtract or Intersect.

The Select menu has Select All (Ctrl+A), Deselect All (Ctrl+D) and Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I). Escape drops the selection.

Copy and paste#

Cut (Ctrl+X), Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+V) work on the selection, or the whole layer when nothing is selected. Pictures copied in other apps paste in too: a paste arrives in the middle of the canvas, ready to place.

Delete clears the selected pixels, and Alt+Delete fills them with the primary color.

Moving and transforming#

• The Move tool (V) drags the selected pixels, or the whole layer when nothing is selected. With Auto-Select on, it moves whichever layer you click.
• Edit ▸ Free Transform (Ctrl+T) puts handles around the selection or layer. Drag inside to move, drag a handle to scale (Shift keeps its shape, Alt scales from the center), and use the handle above to turn it (Shift snaps to 15°).
• Press Enter to apply, Escape to cancel.
• Right-click it to turn it 90° or 180°, or flip it. Edit ▸ Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical flip the layer.