Photoshop

Select with the marquee tools

The marquee tools let you select rectangles, ellipses, and 1‑pixel rows and columns.

  1. Select a marquee tool:
    Rectangular Marquee 
    Makes a rectangular selection (or a square, when used with the Shift key).

    Elliptical Marquee 
    Makes an elliptical selection (or a circle, when used with the Shift key).

    Single Row  or Single Column  Marquee
    Defines the border as a 1‑pixel‑wide row or column.

  2. Specify one of the selection options in the options bar.
    Selection options

    A.
    New

    B.
    Add To

    C.
    Subtract From

    D.
    Intersect With

  3. Specify a feathering setting in the options bar. Turn anti-aliasing on or off for the Elliptical Marquee tool. See Soften the edges of selections.
  4. For the Rectangle Marquee tool or the Elliptical Marquee tool, choose a style in the options bar:
    Normal
    Determines marquee proportions by dragging.

    Fixed Aspect Ratio
    Sets a height-to-width ratio. Enter values (decimal values are valid) for the aspect ratio. For example, to draw a marquee twice as wide as it is high, enter 2 for the width and 1 for the height.

    Fixed Size
    Specifies set values for the marquee’s height and width. Enter pixel values in whole numbers.

    In addition to pixels (px) you can also use specific units such as inches (in) or centimeters (cm) in height and width values.
  5. For aligning your selection to guides, a grid, slices, or document bounds, do one of the following to snap your selection:

    • Choose View > Snap, or choose View > Snap To and choose a command from the submenu. The marquee selection can snap to a document boundary or to a variety of Photoshop Extras, controlled in the Snap To submenu.

  6. Do one of the following to make a selection:

    • With the Rectangle Marquee tool or the Elliptical Marquee tool, drag over the area you want to select.

    • Hold down Shift as you drag to constrain the marquee to a square or circle (release the mouse button before you release Shift to keep the selection shape constrained).

    • To drag a marquee from its center, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) after you begin dragging.

      Dragging a marquee from the corner of an image (left), and from the center of an image (right) by pressing Alt/Option as you drag

    • With the Single Row or Single Column Marquee tool, click near the area you want to select, and then drag the marquee to the exact location. If no marquee is visible, increase the magnification of your image view.

    To reposition a rectangle or elliptical marquee, first drag to create the selection border, keeping the mouse button depressed. Then hold down the spacebar and continue to drag. Release the spacebar, but keep the mouse button depressed, if you need to continue adjusting the selection border.