4.5. Fuzzy Selection Tool

The Fuzzy Selection tool is designed to select areas of the current layer or image based on color similarity. Fuzzy Select selects adjacent pixels of similar color. It starts selecting when you click at a spot in the image. The wand will select the color on that spot, and continue outwards until it thinks the color gets too different.

To control the wand's sensitivity, after you position the cursor and press the mouse button, drag the cursor (without releasing the mouse button) from the upper-left corner, either to the right or straight down (it doesn't matter) to increase from a small, stingy selection to a very generous one. Be careful where you start. If you select the wrong spot, you might get the opposite of what you want. In other words, selecting the wrong spot may make the wand select everything except your choice. (If you have a black, antialiased object on a white background, you can end up with a white to gray selection instead of a black to gray one if you are not careful.)

The wand is a good tool for selecting objects with sharp edges. The wand is easy and fun to use, so beginners often starts out using the wand a lot. More experienced users will find that the Path and Color Select tools are often more efficient for selection, and use the wand less. Still, it's useful for selecting an area within a contour, or touching up imperfect selections. The wand is also effective for removing the remains of the background color from a cut-and-pasted selection.

The Fuzzy Selection Options dialog includes a checkbox called Sample Merged. This option becomes relevant when you have several layers in your image, and the active layer is either semi-transparent or is set to another Layer Mode than Normal. If this is the case, the colors present in the layer will be different from the colors in the composite image. If the Sample Merged option is unchecked, the wand will only react to the color in the active layer when it creates a selection. If it is checked it will react to the composite color of all visible layers.

Activate Tool

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

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

Key modifiers (Defaults)

Shortcut

The z key will change the active tool to Fuzzy Select.

Ctrl

Holding Ctrl while creating a free selection will place the selection into subtraction mode (see above).

Alt

Holding Alt will allow movement of the current selection (only its frame, not its content). If the whole image is moved instead of the selection only, try Shift+Alt

Shift

Holding Shift while creating a free selection will ensure that the selection mode is changed to addition (see above).

Ctrl+Shift

Using Ctrl-Shift will change the selection mode to intersection (or union).

Options

Overview

The available tool options for Fuzzy Select can be accessed by double clicking the Fuzzy Select 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 will make your selection appear more correct by antialiasing the edge of the selection with the neighbouring pixels. Antialiasing is discussed in further detail under the glossary entry Antialiasing.

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 Areas gives the Fuzzy Select Tool the ability to select areas which are transparent. If this checkbox is not selected, transparent areas are completely immune to being selected.

Sample Merged will change the way the Fuzzy Select Tool determines where to start and end selections. When Sample Merged is enabled, limits are set using color and pixel information from all layers. For further information regarding Sample Merge, see the glossary entry Sample Merge.

Threshold is a slider that determines how aggressively the Fuzzy Select finds areas to include in the selection region. If you hold the mouse button while making the selection on the canvas, you can adjust the Threshold slider by moving the mouse up or down.

Additional information

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