Using the Lasso And Polygon Lasso Tools

The Lasso tool creates a free-form selection boundary around an area. Wherever you drag, you draw a selection outline. When you release the mouse button, the selection area closes automatically. To close the selection area yourself, return to the first point of the selection. As you come close to the beginning, the pointer displays a small square. To close the selection, release the mouse when you see the square.

The Polygon Lasso tool draws straight-line segments. This tool works differently than the Lasso tool; instead of dragging the tool to make the selection, click for your first point, move to a new location, and click again to define a line segment. Just as with the Lasso tool, you'll see a small square by the pointer when you are close to the beginning point. Click when you see the square to close the selection. You can also double-click to close the selection, even if you have not moved the pointer back to the beginning point.

As with the Magic Wand tool, you can control the edges of the selection you draw with the Lasso tool. Read about this in the note in the section "Using the Magic Wand Tool," earlier in this lesson.

In the next exercise, you will select the gift in an image using the Lasso and Polygon Lasso tools. To more easily see the edges of the gift, you will want to enlarge the view. You can use the Magnification pop-up menu at the bottom of the document window or the Zoom tool. The Zoom tool enlarges the image at the point where you click.

1.	Open the gift.png file in the Media folder within the Lesson01 folder. This is a picture of a gift on a gray background.
2.	Select the Zoom tool and click the gift. Depending on the size of your monitor, you may want to zoom in again. You want the image large enough to show the edges of the package.
3.	Select the Polygon Lasso tool from the Tools panel and change the edge setting to Anti-alias and select Live Marquee in the Property inspector.
4.	Click the top-left corner of the package with the Polygon Lasso tool. Move the pointer to the bottom-left corner. As you move the pointer, you'll see a blue line connecting the point you clicked and the new position of the pointer. Click when you are over the bottom-left corner. Continue to move and click over the remaining corners. When you run out of straight edges on the gift, double-click to close the selection area. Now you have the package selected, but not the ribbon. You'll use the Lasso tool to add the ribbon to your selection.