Free Adobe Photoshop Website Designing Video Tutorial - Marquee Tools

In this Free Photoshop Website Designing Video Tutorial, we will show you how to use marquee tools and its functions. "Marquee Tools" are selection tools. They are used to select an area in an image or to draw geometric shapes. These tools are very helpful in web designing. While designing your layout of website you can draw rectangles or squares (with rounded corners), ellipses and circles using these tools and also make selections. We suggest that you view our "Marquee Tool Video Tutorial" to understand this visually and more easily.

There are four types of marquee tools - rectangular marquee tool, elliptical marquee tool, single row marquee tool and single column marquee tool. By default rectangular marquee tool is visible. If pressed it shows various options of Marquee Tool. Press ”M” to select Marquee Tool and “Shift + M” to switch between Rectangular Marquee Tool and Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Functions of different Photoshop Marquee Tools:

1. Rectangular Marquee Tool: This tool is used to make rectangular selection and to draw rectangle or square. Holding the Shift key while dragging your selection restricts the shape to a square.
2. Elliptical Marquee Tool: This tool is used to make elliptical selection and also to make ellipse or circle. Holding the Shift key while dragging your selection restricts the shape to a circle.
3. Single Row Marquee Tool: Single row marquee tool is used to draw a 1-pixel-wide row.
4. Single Column Marquee Tool: Single column marquee tool is used to draw a 1-pixel-wide column.

1. Select File > Open.
2. Select Rectangular Marquee Tool or Elliptical Marquee Tool from the toolbar.
3. Set the options (i.e. style, feather) you want in the Tool Options Bar.
4. Click and drag the mouse over the part of the image that you want to select.
5. If you want to fill this selection with some color then select the foreground color. Fill this color by pressing “Alt + Backspace” or choose bucket tool from the toolbar.
6. For giving stroke, select Edit > Stroke. A dialogue box will appear; you can set stroke width, color, location (inside, center, outside) and opacity of your stroke in the dialogue box.
7. Now, if you want to make a single column or row of 1pixel then select Single Row or Single Column Marquee Tool and click on the image.
8. Choose color from the foreground color. Fill color using bucket tool from the toolbar or press “Alt+Backspace”.

Some Shortcuts:

• For deselecting, press “Ctrl + D”.
• Press Shift+Drag for adding some area to your current selection.
• Alt+Shift+Drag: To select only overlap (intersected) area of your current selection with new selection area.

Marquee Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

When you select any marquee tool, related tool options appear in the Tool Options bar.These options are described below:

1. Selections:
   
   • New selection: For making new selections.
   • Add to selection: Add a part to the selection.
   • Subtract from selection: This is used for removing a part from the selection.
   • Intersect with selection: Make a selection that intersect your first selection then only the areas that are intersecting will remain selected. You can also do this by pressing " Alt+Shift+Drag".
     
     
2. Feather: This is used for giving a blurry effect. This effect depends upon the number you entered.
   
   
3. Anti-aliased: Smoothes the jagged edges. Turning off this option produces a hard edges. This option is only available for Elliptical Marquee Tool.
   
   
4. Style: Types of style
   
   • Normal: This allows you to create selections as required by you.
   • Fixed aspect ratio: Set a height-to-width ratio. If you want to make square or perfect circle then use this option.
   • Fixed size: With one click, your selection will be formed in the size you mentioned here.