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<th colspan="3" align="center" id="chaptername">2.5. Fuzzy Selection Tool (Magic Wand)</th>
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<th width="60%" align="center" id="sectionname">2.5. Fuzzy Selection Tool (Magic Wand)</th>
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<h3 class="title"><a id="gimp-tool-fuzzy-select"></a>2.5. Fuzzy Selection Tool (Magic Wand)</h3>
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<a id="id3320893" class="indexterm"></a>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/toolbox/toolbox-wand.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
Magic Wand tool icon in the Toolbox
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The Fuzzy Select (Magic Wand) tool is designed to select areas of
the current layer or image based on color similarity. It starts
selecting when you click at a
spot in the image, and expands outward like water flooding
low-lying areas, selecting contiguous pixels whose colors are
similar to the starting pixel. You can control the threshold of
similarity by dragging the mouse downward or to the right: the
farther you drag it, the larger the selected region.
</p>
<p>
When using this tool, it is very important to pick the right
starting point. If you select the wrong spot, you might get
something very different from what you want, or even the
opposite.
</p>
<p>
The Wand is a good tool for selecting objects with sharp
edges. It is fun to use, so beginners often start out using it a
lot. You will probably find, however, that the more you use it,
the more frustrated you become with the difficulty of selecting
exactly what you what, no more, no less. Perhaps the most
frustrating aspect is that after you have released the mouse button,
you can't make small adjustments to the threshold: you have to
start over again from scratch. More experienced users find
that the <a href="ch03s06.html#gimp-tool-path" title="6.1. Path Tool">Path</a> and <a href="ch03s02s06.html" title="2.6. Select By Color Tool">Color Select</a> tools
are often more efficient, and use the Wand less. Still, it is
useful for selecting an area within a contour, or touching up
imperfect selections. It often works very well for selecting a
solid-colored (or nearly solid-colored) background area.
</p>
<p>
Note that as the selected area expands outward from the center, it
does not only propagate to pixels that touch each other: it is
capable of jumping over small gaps. The distance it can jump
over is set in the <a href="ch04s18s07.html" title="18.7. Tool Options">Tool
Options</a> page of the Preferences dialog: the "Default
threshold" for Finding Continguous Regions. By raising or
lowering this value, you can make the Magic Wand either more or less
aggressive. (Filling with the Bucket Fill and Blend tools will
also be affected.)
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<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321012"></a>How to Activate</h4>
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<p>
The Magic Wand Tool can be activated from an image
menu as
<span class="guimenu">Tools</span>-><span class="guisubmenu">Selection Tools</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Fuzzy Select</span>;
from the Toolbox by clicking on the tool icon
<span class="guiicon">
<span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/toolbox/wand.png" /></span>
</span>;
or from the keyboard using the shortcut <span><b class="keycap">z</b></span>.
("Z" stands for "Zauber", the German word for Magic.)
</p>
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<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321013"></a>Key modifiers (Defaults)</h4>
</div>
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</div>
<p>
The Fuzzy Select tool does not have any special key modifiers,
only the ones that affect all selection tools in the same way.
See <a href="ch03s02.html#gimp-tool-select" title="2.1. Common Features">Selection Tools</a> for
help with these.
</p>
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<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321441"></a>Options</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/toolbox/tool-options-wand.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
Tool Options for the Magic Wand tool
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25">
<img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png" />
</td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
<p>
See <a href="ch03s02.html#gimp-tool-select" title="2.1. Common Features">Selection Tools</a> for
help with options that are common to all these tools. Only
options that are specific to the Magic Wand
tool are explained here.
</p>
</td>
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</table>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term">Finding Similar Colors</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
These options affect the way the Magic Wand expands the
selection out from the initial point.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul type="disc">
<li>
<p><b>Select Transparent Areas. </b>
This option gives the Magic Wand the ability to select
areas that are completely transparent. If this option is
not checked, transparent areas will never be included in
the selection.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><b>Sample Merged. </b>
This option becomes relevant when you have several layers
in your image, and the active layer is either
semi-transparent or is set to another Layer Mode than
Normal. If this is the case, the colors present in the
layer will be different from the colors in the composite
image. If the "Sample Merged" option is unchecked, the
wand will only react to the color in the active layer
when it creates a selection. If it is checked it will
react to the composite color of all visible layers. For
further information, see the glossary entry <a href="go01.html#glossary-samplemerge">Sample Merged</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><b>Threshold. </b>
This slider determines the range of colors that will be
selected at the moment you click the pointer on the
initial point, before dragging it: the higher the
threshold, the larger the resulting selection. After
the first button-press, dragging the pointer downward
or to the right will increase the size of the
selection; dragging upward or to the left will decrease
it. Thus, you have the same set of possibilities
regardless of the Threshold setting: what differs is
the amount of dragging you have to do to get the result
you want.
</p>
</li>
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