Using the marquee tools

The marquee tools let you select rectangles, ellipses, rounded rectangles (ImageReady), and 1-pixel rows and columns. By default, a selection border is dragged from its corner.

To use the marquee tools:

1. Select a marquee tool:
• Rectangle Marquee to make a rectangular selection.
• (ImageReady) Rounded Rectangle Marquee  to select a rounded rectangle such as a Web page button.
• Elliptical Marquee to make an elliptical selection.
• Single Row or Single Column Marquee to define the border as a 1-pixel-wide row or column.
2. In the options bar, specify whether to add a new selection , add to a selection , subtract from a selection , or select an area intersected by other selections .
3. Specify a feathering setting in the options bar. Turn anti-aliasing on or off for the Rounded Rectangle tool or the Elliptical Marquee tool. (See Softening the edges of a selection.)
4. For the Rectangle tool, the Rounded Rectangle tool, or the Elliptical Marquee tool, choose a style in the options bar:
• Normal to determine marquee proportions by dragging.
• Fixed Aspect Ratio to set a height-to-width ratio. Enter values (decimal values are valid in Photoshop) 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 to specify set values for the marquee's height and width. Enter pixel values in whole numbers. Keep in mind that the number of pixels needed to create a 1-inch selection depends on the resolution of the image. (See Understanding image size and resolution.)
5. For aligning your selection to guides, a grid, slices, or document bounds, do one of the following to snap your selection:
• (Photoshop) Choose View > Snap, or choose View > Snap To and choose a command from the submenu. The marquee selection can snap to a document boundary and more than one Photoshop Extra. This is controlled in the Snap To submenu. (See Using the Snap command.)
• (ImageReady) Choose View > Snap To > Guides.
6. Do one of the following to make a selection:
• With the Rectangle tool, the Rounded Rectangle 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 Shift to keep the shape contsrained). 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)
• With the single row or single column marquee, 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, rounded rectangle, or Elliptical Marquee, first drag to create the 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.