3.2.5. Select By Color Tool

The Select By Color tool is designed to select areas of the current layer or image based on color.

Activate Tool
  • The Select By Color Tool can be called in the following order, from the image-menu: Tools/ Selection Tools/By Color Select.

  • The Tool can also be called by clicking the tool icon:

Key modifiers (Defaults)
Shortcut

There is no shortcut key for this tool.

Options

Overview

The available tool options for Select By Color can be accessed by double clicking the Select By Color tool icon.

Mode

Replace mode will cause any existing selection to be destroyed or replaced when the new selection is created.

Add mode will cause the new selection to be added to any existing selection regions.

Subtract mode will remove the new selection area from any existing selection regions.

Intersection mode will make a new selection from the area where the existing selection region and the new selection region overlap.

Antialiasing

This option performs no function for this tool and is present to unify the user interface between the various selection types.

Feather Edges

The Radius slider adjusts the amount of feathering in pixels for the next selection that is created. For further information regarding feathering, see the glossary entry Feathering.

Finding Similar Colors

Select Transparent Regions: Selects transparent regions (which have no color to select by).

Sample Merged: The color used for the basis of the selection is the combination of the colors at that point in all visible layers.

Threshold: This slider gives control over the range of color values that will be deemed "near" the selection color. A higher number selects a bigger area.

Additional information
[Note] Note
Selections can exist on the visible canvas only. However, selection movements and changes are kept in the undo buffer should you need to repair an error.