What is rectangular marquee tool

Step 3. After selecting a marquee tool, left click and hold and drag on the canvas or image layer, then as you expected, it will make the rectangular selection on the canvas or image layer keep in mind that the layer on which you want to make the selection must be activated in the layer panel.

As we know, that by default, the marquee tool makes the rectangular selection. If you want to switch to another variant of the marquee tool then click and hold on the marquee tool option in the toolbar then a small drop-down window will open where you can select another version of the marquee tool. Rectangular Marquee Tool: Rectangular marquee tool is by default selected marquee tool in Photoshop.

Rectangular marquee tool as the name suggests, so obviously you will be able to make rectangular-shaped selection from it.

Below is the demonstration of the rectangular marquee tool and if you click and hold alt key your selection will be created from the center of your click. Square Marquee Tool: Square marquee tool is able to make a square-shaped selection on the image layer. The square marquee tool is the sub-tool of the rectangular marquee tool. If you press shift while making a rectangular selection, it will make a square-shaped selection and if you click and hold the alt key your selection will be created from the center of your click.

With the help of an elliptical marquee tool, you can make an elliptical-shaped selection and if you click and hold the alt key your selection will be created from the center of your click.

Circular Marquee Tool: Circular marquee tool able to make a circular-shaped selection on the image layer. The circular marquee tool is the sub-tool of the elliptical marquee tool. If you press shift while making the elliptical selection, it will make a circular-shaped selection and if you click and hold the alt key your selection will be created from the center of your click.

Legal Notices Online Privacy Policy. Buy now. User Guide Cancel. Make it. Select a marquee tool:. Specify one of the selection options in the options bar. Determines marquee proportions by dragging. Fixed Ratio. Fixed Size. Enter pixel values in whole numbers. The only problem with using this method to force the selection into a square is that the options in the Options Bar are "sticky", meaning they don't automatically switch back to their default settings the next time you go to use the tool.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've tried to drag out a rectangular selection only to have the selection constrained to a square or some other aspect ratio because I forgot to change the Style option back to Normal. So, before we go any further, let's change it back to Normal right now:. The Keyboard Shortcut A much better way to constrain a selection to a square with the Rectangular Marquee Tool is with a simple keyboard shortcut.

Click on the starting point and begin dragging out a rectangular selection as you normally would, then hold down your Shift key as you continue to drag.

As soon as you press the Shift key, you'll see the selection outline jump to a perfect square. Keep holding the Shift key down until you're finished drawing the selection. Release your mouse button to complete the selection, then release the Shift key.

The order you do things here is important. If you release your Shift key before releasing your mouse button to complete the selection, your selection outline will jump back into a rectangular shape and you'll have to press and hold the Shift key again to switch back to the square. Also, if you hold the Shift key down before clicking to begin your selection, you'll enter the Add to Selection mode, which isn't something we need to get into here but it could give you unexpected results if you already have one selection active and try to start a new one.

So remember, to constrain the selection to a square with the keyboard shortcut, first click to set a starting point and begin dragging, then hold down the Shift key. Up to this point, we've been starting all of our rectangular or square selections from the top left corner of whatever it was that we were selecting, and in most cases that works just fine.

But there's no rule that says you must always start in the top left corner. In fact, Photoshop gives us a simple keyboard shortcut that allows us to drag selections out from their center rather than from a corner. Once again, the order you do things here is important. You can drag out a square selection from its center as well. Simply add the Shift key to the keyboard shortcut. Or, for an even faster way to deselect a rectangular or square selection, simply click anywhere inside the document window while you still have the Rectangular Marquee Tool active.

It can be used to prepare an image for cropping , while the similar Crop tool automatically completes the crop when used. Because it is based on a rectangle, there are additional numerical options for modifying its shape:. The selection borders can snap to the image boundary or any Extra e.

This behavior can be controlled in the View menu. The Space bar allows the selection to be repositioned while it is active. Photoshop Wiki Explore.