The Lasso Tool

The Lasso Tool

To edit and apply special effects to portions of your pictures, remove unwanted objects, or cut out objects from one picture and put them on another, that portion or object should be selected using a selection tool or a combination of selection tools in Pixelmator.

Since the Lasso Tool draws freehand selection borders, it is useful for selecting irregularly shaped portions or objects in images.

Step 1

Open an image with an area or object that you want to select in Pixelmator.

Step 2

Click to select the Lasso Tool (L) in the Tools palette.

For smooth selection borders, select Smooth Edges from the Action menu before making a selection. For the jagged yet precise edges, deselect Smooth Edges.

Step 3

To draw a selection using the Lasso Tool, click and drag over an area. To close the selection, release the mouse button.

Step 4

Once a selection has been made, the selection borders can be easily modified if necessary.

To modify the selection border, choose one of the following selection modes in the Tool Options bar:

New Creates a new selection.
Add To Adds new selection to an existing selection.
Subtract Subtracts from an existing selection.
Intersect Subtracts the overlap of two selections.

Click and drag to add to, subtract from, or intersect with the current selection borders.

Please note that any other selection tools may be used to modify the selection borders as well.

Step 5

After making a selection, any changes can be added to the selected region. For example, a selected area or object can be moved, rotated, scaled, flipped, duplicated, cut, filled, inverted, or copied and pasted elsewhere. Also, color adjustments and corrections, various special effects, and filters can be applied to the selection.

The Lasso Tool is handy for selecting any portion of an image.

Tutorial Comments

  1. Gary - January 15th, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Nice job! Thanks I really enjoyed finally learning how to use a lasso tool properly, and what it is for. I have them in all my editing programs but never bothered to figure out what they are for.

  2. John Daniel - January 27th, 2011 at 2:08 am

    Great tutorial :) I learned a new trick now, thanks!

  3. Seth Kahan - February 23rd, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    Ok – did a search and found out there is a new update, 1.6.5. FYI, the app store did not find it for me. I ran the internal update in preferences and got it quickly. Thx!

  4. Sami - June 18th, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    I know how to use the eraser tool to erase the (3×5) red background of a large vase. Once that is done, and I drag the vase (now on a white background) onto another image, the white 3×5 rectangle background of the vase appears on the new blue background image and stands out like a sore thumb. How do I completely cut out the background leaving JUST the vase and NO white rectangle behind it to appear on the new blue image?

    I’m going in circles trying to do this…please HELP me!!!!

  5. Ausra - July 5th, 2011 at 6:40 am

    Sami,

    1. Open the image that is the destination for the vase image.
    2. Open the vase image. Remove the background, so only the transparent pixels are left there.
    3. Drag and drop the vase image layer from the Layers palette to the destination image.

  6. Bach - August 18th, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    Can pixelmator change eye colors, lips & make-up on a model?

    thanks,

  7. carlos - April 16th, 2012 at 12:54 am

    Would be possible you to tell us which is the effect you used in the flower? thank you

  8. Ausra - April 16th, 2012 at 9:01 am

    @carlos, it should be Hue and Saturation feature (Image > Hue and Saturation).

  9. Loïc - May 16th, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    existe t’il une sorte de lasso intelligent sur pixelmator ?

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