Introduction to selection tools

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There are an assortment of Selection tools. Use some for choosing a type of selection, and others to help once a selection has been made.

You can also use a selection like a mask. You can select an area and constrain the paint to the selection. You won’t need to worry about paint going outside the bounds of the selection.

The different types of selection

The version of Sketchbook you are using determines the types of selection available.

 Lasso

Tap-drag and trace around the object to select it.

 Rectangle

Place your finger where you would like the bottom right corner of the selection to be, then tap-drag to expand the selection.

 Oval (Mac/Windows only)

Place your finger where you would like the center of the selection to be, then tap-drag to expand the selection.

 Polyline (Mac/Windows only)

Click to add points to the polyline. When the cursor reaches back to the first point, it will change to indicate that this click will complete the selection. Alternatively, you can automatically close a polyline selection with a double-click.

 Magic Wand

Select a region based on the color of the pixels. Use the Tolerance slider to expand the range of color selected (by increasing the tolerance) or limit it (by deceasing the tolerance).

• Sample one layer/Sample all layers
  When  is displayed, you will be selecting from pixels on the active layer. Tap the icon to change it to  and select based on pixels from all visible layers.

Selection editing tools

 Replace

Tap Replace, then tap-drag to replace the current selection with a new one.

 Add

Tap Add, then tap-drag or click an area to add to the current selection. Use this when your selection is almost perfect and it would be easier to add to it than to start again.

 Remove

Tap Remove, then tap-drag or click areas to remove them from the current selection. Use this when you’ve included too much content to your selection and it would be easier to remove it than to start again.

 Invert

The current unselected content will become the selection, once you’ve tapped Invert.

 Deselect

Tap Deselect to deselect everything. Use this when finished with the Selection tools or if you need to start over.

Remember, you can use your selection as a mask and paint or fill it, distort, or crop it. To select the entire layer, select Edit > Select all or press Cmd+A on Mac or Ctrl+A on Windows.

Using  Quick Transform (Mac and Windows only)

Quick Transform combines selection and transform into a single task. In the toolbar, tap  to accesses the Quick Transform tools.

•  Rectangle (hotkey M) – tap-drag to select a rectangular area.
•  Lasso (hotkey L) – tap-drag to select a closed, freeform area.

Once you've made a selection, the Transform puck automatically appears for moving, rotating, and/or scaling the selected content.

Selection tools in Sketchbook for mobile devices

Once you access the Selection tools on your device, the workflows and tools are the same.

• On a handheld device, in the toolbar, tap , then .
• On a tablet, in the toolbar, tap  and select a tool from the Selection toolbar.

Some of the tools have additional options. Use any additional selection editing tools you need.

1. Lasso selection
2. Rectangle selection
3. Magic Wand selection
   • On a phone device, the three selection icons are grouped together. Tap this icon to select another option
4. Selection editing tools are grouped under this icon: replace, add, subtract, and tolerance setting for Magic Wand
5. Nudge the active selection
6. Invert the active selection
7. Clear the active selection
8. Crop the canvas to the active selection
9. Accept the selection and minimize the sub-toolbar

Tap  to dismiss your selection and exit the tool

The selection tool isn't working!

If you create a selection and the selection line immediately disappears, your selection editing tool is probably set to remove/subtract. Change it to replace or add in order to make a selection.

selection is set to  subtract

selection is set to  replace