Select, transform, copy and paste

Selecting parts of the image

Use the Select rectangle (S), Select ellipse (A), Lasso (O), Wand (W) and Select with pencil (I) tools to select a region of the image.

• Select ellipse and Lasso support antialiasing, i.e. feathering the edges of the selection. This is turned on by default. You can turn it on/off using the button below the toolbar.
• By pressing Ctrl, Shift or Shift+Ctrl when using these tools, you can subtract from the selected area, add to it, or intersect it with the newly selected region, respectively.
• After using the Select rectangle and Select ellipse tools, the selected region can be adjusted with the handles.

• Switching to another tool or pressing Esc hides the handles.

• To transform (move/resize/rotate) the selection itself, switch to the Transform (F) tool.

Transforming the selection

After you are done with selecting a region of the image, switch to the Transform (F) tool to move, resize or rotate it. The outline of the selection will change from black-and-white (editable selection) to blue-and-white (floating selection), and only the bounding box will be shown.

If the Transform tool is already active and the selection is still editable (i.e. its outline is black-and-white), switch to any other tool and back.

After activating the Transform (F) tool, you can:

• Move the selection.
• Resize the selection with the blue handles or by dragging its edges.
• Rotate the selection with the red handle.
• Rotate the selection in 3D by pressing Shift and dragging anywhere in the image.
• Skew the selection by pressing Shift and dragging an edge of the selection.
• Move one corner of the selection by pressing Shift and dragging a blue handle in one of the corners.

In short, you can do perspective transformation by pressing Shift.

You can fine-tune the position and aspect of the floating selection with Edit | Transform | Transform selection. Here you can enter exact numeric values.

You can merge the floating selection with the layer below by pressing Esc or Ctrl+D, or by choosing Edit | Deselect All.

Note that the floating selection acts like a layer meaning that it shows up in the layer list as a separate entity. Here you can drag this "pseudo-layer" around to position the floating selection over a different layer.

Copy and paste

You can delete, cut, copy and paste the selection as you normally would, with the Del, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keys.

Edit | Paste as New Page (Ctrl+Shift+V) and Edit | Paste as New Document (Ctrl+Shift+D) are also useful.

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