Contiguous Selection Tool

toolselectcontiguous

This tool, represented by a magic wand, allows you to make Selections by selecting a point of color. It will select any contiguous areas of a similar color to the one you selected. You can adjust the “fuzziness” of the tool in the tool options dock. A lower number will select colors closer to the color that you chose in the first place.

Hotkeys and Sticky keys

  • Shift + mouseleft sets the subsequent selection to ‘add’. You can release the Shift key while dragging, but it will still be set to ‘add’. Same for the others.

  • Alt + mouseleft sets the subsequent selection to ‘subtract’.

  • Ctrl + mouseleft sets the subsequent selection to ‘replace’.

  • Shift + Alt + mouseleft sets the subsequent selection to ‘intersect’.

New in version 4.2:

  • Hovering over a selection allows you to move it.

  • mouseright will open up a selection quick menu with amongst others the ability to edit the selection.

Note

You can switch the behavior of the Alt key to use the Ctrl key instead by toggling the switch in the General Settings.

Tool Options

Selection Extent
Threshold

This controls whether or not the contiguous selection sees another color as a border.

New in version 5.1:

Spread

Set how far the fully opaque portion of the selection should extend. See Fill Tool for extra explanation.

Adjustments
Anti-alias

This will smooth the jagged edges present in the selection. It differs from feathering in that this will smooth in the direction of the edge instead of all directions, and only if the edge is jagged (high contrast).

Grow Selection

This value extends (positive values) or contracts (negative values) the selection.

Feathering Radius

This value will add a soft border to the selection.

Reference

New in version 4.3.

Select which layers to use as a reference for the contiguous select tool. The options are:

Current Layer

Only use the currently selected layer.

All layers

Use all visible layers.

Color Labeled Layers

Use only the layers specified with a certain color label. This is useful for complex images, where you might have multiple lineart layers. Label them with the appropriate color label and use these labels to mark which layers to use as a reference.

Labels Used

Select the color labels of the layers that should be used as reference.