Photoshop Tutorial: Making Selections - The Marquee Tools

Sometimes, learning Photoshop can seem more difficult than it needs to be simply because of the names that Adobe chose to give things inside the program. The Marquee Tools are an obvious example of this. If you were to ask someone who's never used Photoshop before what they thought the Rectangular Marquee Tool in Photoshop does, they'd probably think it has something to do with creating theater signs. If you told them that it's actually used to drag out rectangular-shaped selections inside an image, they'd most likely say, "What does that have to do with theater signs?", at which point you could respond with a confident "Beats me, I don't know".

At least, that might be your response if you had never read this section, and since you're obviously about to read this section, you'll be better prepared with an answer. The reason they're called "Marquee" tools is because Photoshop displays the outline of selections as a series of moving dashed lines which do resemble a theater marquee sign with its flashing, moving lights. Adobe couldn't call them the Rectangle Tool or the Elliptical Tool because there actually is a "Rectangle Tool" and an "Ellipse Tool" in the Tools palette which are used to draw rectangular and elliptical shapes. They also couldn't simply call them Selection Tools because, well, there's plenty of other selection tools in Photoshop besides these ones. So Adobe chose to call them Marquee Tools based on their similarity in appearance to a marquee sign with its flashing, moving lights.

As a side note, many people refer to the moving dashed lines around selections in Photoshop as "marching ants". If you think the name "Marquee Tools" is confusing, imagine if Adobe had called them the "Marching Ants Tools".

Now that we've cleared up the mystery behind their odd names, let's look at each of the Marquee Tools individually. We'll stick to the tools themselves for now and then look at the various options for the tools in another section, since they all share the same options for the most part and there's no sense repeating the same information for each tool.

The Rectangular Marquee Tool

All of the Marquee Tools in Photoshop are located in the top left corner of the Tools palette, and by default, the Rectangular Marquee Tool is the one that's showing in the Tools palette, as shown below:

The Rectangular Marquee Tool is used for dragging out simple rectangular-shaped selections inside an image.

Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool is about as easy as things get in Photoshop, with only two exceptions that I can think of, both of which we'll get to in a moment. To use the Rectangular Marquee Tool, just click anywhere inside the document window and start dragging your mouse. As you're dragging the mouse, you'll be dragging out the selection from the point at which you first clicked the mouse. When you have the size you need for the selection, simply release the mouse and you're done. It's that simple. You'll see the outline of your selection displayed as moving dashed lines (the "marquee" or "marching ants") both as you're dragging out the selection and once you've completed the selection, as shown below:

Go ahead and give it a try to see just how easy it is. Here's a few tricks you can use as well with the Rectangular Marquee Tool:

Constrain The Selection To A Square (Shift Key)
To constrain the selection to a perfect square with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, hold down the Shift key as you drag out the selection.

Move The Selection Around The Screen As You Drag (Space Bar)
If, after you've started dragging out your selection, you realize that you started the selection in the wrong place, hold down the Space Bar on the keyboard, which will temporarily freeze your selection at the size it's currently at and allow you to move it around on the screen until you have it in the right spot. Once you're happy with its new location, release the Space Bar and continue dragging with the mouse.

Drag From The Center Of The Selection (Alt Key for Windows, Option Key for Mac)
Normally when you're dragging out a selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, Photoshop uses the location where you first clicked the mouse as the location of one of the corners of the selection and then drags out the rest of the selection from that corner. If you'd rather use that spot as the center of your selection instead of a corner, simply hold down the Alt key (Win) or the Option key (Mac) as you drag.

The Elliptical Marquee Tool

The Elliptical Marquee Tool is very similar to the Rectangular Marquee Tool. In fact, the only difference is that it allows you to drag out a elliptical selection rather than a rectangular one. It's found in the exact same location in the Tools palette as the Rectangular Marquee Tool, except that by default, it's hiding behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool. You'll need to click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the Tools palette and hold the mouse down for a second, which will cause the tools hiding behind it to appear in the flyout menu. Then you can simply select the Elliptical Marquee Tool by clicking on its name in the list:

Click and hold on the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the Tools palette to allow the hidden tools to 'fly out' from behind it, and then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool by clicking on its name in the list.

Once you have the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, you can drag out an elliptical-shaped selection the exact same way you would drag out a selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Simply click anywhere inside the document window, which will serve as the starting point for your selection, and then continue holding the mouse button down and drag out your selection. When you're happy with the selection, just release the mouse and you're done, as shown below:

A selection created with the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Just as with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, creating a selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool is incredibly easy. You can even use the same tricks we saw with the Rectangular Marquee Tool to get similar results:

Constrain The Selection To A Circle (Shift Key)
To constrain the selection to a perfect circle with the Elliptical Marquee Tool, hold down the Shift key as you drag out the selection.

Move The Selection Around The Screen As You Drag (Space Bar)
Just as with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, if, after you've started dragging out your selection, you realize that you started the selection in the wrong place, hold down the Space Bar on the keyboard, which will temporarily freeze the selection at its current size and allow you to move the selection around on the screen. Once you're happy with its location, release the Space Bar and continue dragging with the mouse to complete the selection.

Drag From The Center Of The Selection (Alt Key for Windows, Option Key for Mac)
Often times with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (more so than with the Rectangular Marquee Tool), it's more convenient to drag the selection out from the center rather than from the edge, yet by default, Photoshop will drag out your elliptical selection from the edge. To tell Photoshop you'd prefer to drag the selection out from the center, simply hold down the Alt key (Win) or the Option key (Mac).

Again, we'll be taking a look at the various options for these Marquee Tools in another section.

The Single Row And Single Column Marquee Tools

Like the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the "Single Row" and "Single Column" Marquee Tools are hidden, by default, behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the Tools palette. To access either one of them, simply click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool (or the Elliptical Marquee Tool if it's the one currently showing in the Tools palette) and hold the mouse button down for a second, which will cause the tools flyout menu to appear, allowing you to then choose the Single Row or Single Column tools from the list:

Click and hold on the Rectangular Marquee Tool or the Elliptical Marquee Tool (whichever one is currently displaying) in the Tools palette to access the tools flyout menu, where you can select either the Single Row or Single Column Marquee Tool.

The Single Row and Single Column Marquee Tools do exactly what their names imply. The Single Row Marquee Tool will select an entire row of pixels inside the document window, while the Single Column Marquee Tool will select an entire column of pixels, as shown below. First, the Single Row Marquee Tool:

A selection created with the Single Row Marquee Tool.

And here's the results of the Single Column Marquee Tool:

A selection created with the Single Column Marquee Tool.

I said above that using the Rectangular Marquee Tool was as easy as it gets in Photoshop, with only two exceptions that I can think of. These tools are the two exceptions. All you do is click once inside the document and Photoshop will automatically select either an entire row or an entire column of pixels, depending on which tool you're using.

You're probably wondering what possible use you could have for the Single Row and Single Column Marquee Tools, and in all honesty, you could very easily go your entire Photoshop life never having a need for these two tools. However, they're both there in case you ever do find yourself needing them.

Now that we've taken a look at Photoshop's Marquee Tools, let's take a look at what options we have available with them, which we'll do in the very next section.