{Solved} How To Deselect In GIMP
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When it comes to editing your photos in GIMP, you have a lot of selection tools to make a precise selection. You also have ways to rotate that selection, expand the selection, and more.
What’s not available is a tool to deselect in GIMP. Instead, you have to navigate to the menu to deselect or use a keyboard shortcut. It’s vital to deselect before moving onto the next editing step. Otherwise, any additional edits will be confined inside of the selection.
Let’s discover how to deselect in GIMP…
Table of Contents
Step 1: Open a New Image To Edit
Open an image that requires editing.
Step 2: Apply a Selection & Make Your Edit
Choose and apply one of the selection tools to select an area that needs to be edited.
Step 3: After Editing Deselect
Once you’re done with your edit, you’ll need to deselect with one of the following options;
- Go to the Select menu and choose “None.”
- Or use the keyboard shortcut; Command Or Ctrl + Shift + A.
How To Deselect a Tool In GIMP
Using the above steps to deselect a selection will not work for deselecting a tool. In fact, it’s not possible to deselect a tool in its entirety. Instead, you can deactivate a tool you started using. This can be done one of two ways;
- One, grab another tool from the toolbox to deactivate the one you’re working with. The tool you chose is now ready to be used.
- Two, hit your Escape key to deactivate a tool you’re currently working on. The tool will still be selected, though.
How To Deselect a Portion Of An Area
Click to enlarge.
No matter how much you try, a selection is not always perfect. This will require deselecting a part of it. Or adding to the selection.
Both are easy to do in GIMP. Here’s how to deselect a portion of a selection or add to it.
- Deselect a Portion - In the Tool Options, look for “Mode” and click on the icon labeled “Subtract from the current selection.” Or use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl.” as you trace the area to deselect.
- To Add To a Selection - Hold down the Shift key or in the Tool Options (under Mode) choose the icon labeled “Add to the current selection.”
Pro Tip:
At the time of this writing, there seems to be a bug in GIMP. If you’re unable to deselect a portion or add to it like me, here’s how to fix it…
Go to the toolbox and select another tool. Any will do. Now, grab the selection tool you were using before and adjust the selection as needed.
You’ll now be able to deselect or add to your selection! If you need to further refine your selection repeat the process of choosing another tool.
How To Get Rid Of the Floating Selection In Gimp
Click to enlarge.
The floating selection occurs when you add what’s inside the selection to a new layer. Here’s how to get rid of the Floating Selection…
- You can anchor it to the current layer with the Anchor Layer keyboard shortcut: Command or Ctrl + H or via the menu; Layer > Anchor Layer.
- Or by hitting the Layer Anchor icon in the Layer Panel.
What's Next?
Now that you know how to deselect in GIMP it’s time to take your editing skills to the next level.
I recommend…
One: How to remove anything from GIMP
Two: One: How to whiten teeth in GIMP
Three: How to remove a background with GIMP
Oh, and check out my Youtube channel too.
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