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<ul class="navigation"><li class="prev"><a accesskey="p" class="prev" href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7700a.html" title="Making selections"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Previous" width="17" height="17" /></a></li><li class="next"><a accesskey="n" class="next" href="WS176F07AB-1BF4-4c95-A736-433C4CC37D8Ea.html" title="Select, deselect, and reselect pixels"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Next" width="17" height="17" /></a></li></ul><div class="hierarchy" id="hierarchy"><a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7701a.html">Selecting and masking</a> /
     <a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7700a.html"><b>Making selections</b></a> 
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                <h1>
                    About selecting pixels
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                <div><p>A <dfn class="term">selection</dfn> isolates
one or more parts of your image. By selecting specific areas, you
can edit and apply effects and filters to portions of your image
while leaving the unselected areas untouched.</p>
<p>Photoshop provides separate sets of tools to make selections
of raster and vector data. For example, to select pixels, you can
use the marquee tools or the lasso tools. You can use commands in
the Select menu to select all pixels, to deselect, or to reselect. </p>
<p>To select vector data, you can use the pen or shape tools, which
produce precise outlines called <dfn class="term">paths</dfn>. You can convert
paths to selections or convert selections to paths. </p>
<p>Selections can be copied, moved, and pasted, or saved and stored
in an <dfn class="term">alpha channel</dfn>. Alpha channels store selections
as grayscale images called <dfn class="term">masks</dfn>. A mask is like the
inverse of a selection: it covers the unselected part of the image and
protects it from any editing or manipulations you apply. You can
convert a stored mask back into a selection by loading the alpha
channel into an image. </p>
<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:  </span>To select a specific color or a range of colors within an
entire image or within a selected area, you can use the Color Range
command.</div>
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                    <div><p><a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-76c2a.html">About masks and alpha channels</a></p><p><a href="WS74B356C9-353F-4483-8632-7B1A102F2A2Ea.html">Create and edit alpha channel masks</a></p><p><a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-737ba.html">Convert paths to selection borders</a></p><p><a href="WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-74f4a.html">Selection tools gallery</a></p>
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