Page #111 (84. Save a Selection for Reuse)


85. Reload a Previously Saved Selection

Before You Begin

84 Save a Selection for Reuse


See Also

86 About Copying, Cutting, and Pasting Data Within a Selection


After you have saved selections for an image, you can reload those selections at any time when working with that same image (even if you close the image and open it later on). When you reload a selection, the Editor reselects the pixels in the area of the original selection. Remember that it's the selection marquee you are reloading, not any saved data. You can reload the selection onto a different layer if you like, although that really doesn't matter because you can move from one layer to another even after reloading a selection, and know that only the data on the current layer is selected.

1.

Choose Select, Load Selection

NOTE

Selections can be saved only in PSD-, JP2-, and TIFF-formatted files. So, if you saved a selection in a file with one of these formats, and then resaved that image in a different format (such as JPEG), the selection will not be contained in the JPEG file and you won't be able to reload it. The selection should still be in the original PSD, JP2, or TIFF fileassuming that you saved that file again after saving the selection.

Open the image in which you've already saved a selection in the Editor in Standard Edit mode and resave it in Photoshop (*.psd) format. In the Layers palette, choose the layer that contains the data you want to select (this can be a different layer than the one on which you created the original selection).

Make a new selection if you like (you can add or subtract from this new selection, using the outline of the saved selection), and then choose Select, Load Selection to display the Load Selection dialog box. If the Load Selection command is grayed out on the Select menu, the current image does not contain any saved selections.

2.

Choose Desired Selection

From the Selection drop-down list, choose the name of the previously saved selection you want to load. If you want to select everything except the saved selection, enable the Invert check box.

3.

Choose Operation

If you did not create another selection before you performed step 1, the only operation you can select is New Selection.

TIP

For a neat effect, create a text selection (using the Horizontal or Vertical Type Mask tool), save it, and then make a new selection to act as the text background, such as a rectangle or a freely drawn shape. When the background for the text is just as you like, reload the text selection with the Subtract from Selection option so that it cuts out of the second selection an area in the shape of the text. Fill this new selection with a color or pattern, and the result looks impressive and unusual.

If you have selected another area of the image when you load a saved selection, you can choose an operation to perform when loading the selection:

  • New Selection. Deselects any existing selections and loads the specified saved selection. Only the pixels in the reloaded selection are selected.

  • Add to Selection. Adds the selection you reload to the current selection so that all pixels in both selections are selected.

  • Subtract from Selection. Subtracts the pixels in the reloaded selection from what is currently selected. Only the pixels that are not part of the reloaded selection remain selected.

  • Intersect with Selection. Selects only the pixels that are common in both the current selection and the reloaded selection. Any pixels that do not exist in both selections are not selected.

Click the OK button to load the selection with the specified options.

4.

View the Result

After loading the selection, make changes to the area within the selection, copy or cut its data to another image or layer, or delete the data within the selection. When you're satisfied with the result, make any other changes you want and save the PSD file. Resave the result in JPEG or TIFF format, leaving your PSD image with its layers (if any) and selections intact so that you can return at a later time and make different adjustments if you want.

In this example, I selected the zebra in the background before I opened the Load Selection dialog box. I wanted to reload the Zebra Head selection that I had previously saved so that I could work on both zebras at once to make similar adjustments to color, contrast, and sharpness. I chose the Add to Selection operation to add the Zebra Head selection to the current selection. When I clicked OK, both the background zebra selection and the Zebra Head saved selection were active. If I had selected the New Selection operation instead, the Zebra Head selection would have been selected and the background zebra would have been deselected.



Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
ISBN: 067232668X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 263

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