Tip of the Day

Tip #20. When you are making selections with the Marquee Tools, take a look at the Status bar. There are three choices in the Style drop down box. If you select Normal, you will create a selection that has any dimensions for width and height. If you select Fixed Ratio, you will be able to create a selection that is any size, but it will always be the same in proportion. You have to enter the width and height that you want to the right of the Style option. If you were to select 4 for height and 6 for width, no matter how large or small an area you select, it will always have that 4x6 ratio. A 1 to 1 ratio will give you perfect circles or squares. If you select fixed size, you can enter a specific size. You can use ‘px’ for pixels, ‘in’ for inches, or ‘cm’, for centimeters. When you click on your image, a selection appears in marching ants that is the size you told it to be. This works for both the Rectangular and the Elliptical Marquee tools. For example, an image that I want to use as wallpaper for my laptop would be ‘1920 px’ in width and ‘1200 px’ in height if I’m using fixed size. If I’m using a ratio, it would be ‘8’ wide and ‘5’ high.