If you expand the Type tool (click and hold on the ‘T’ in the Tool box, you will see the text selection tools.
Or you can type normally and CTRL + click on the ‘T’ thumbnail in the Layers palette, to make a selection around the pixels in the layer (or vectors I suppose for text).
Here’s what I do:
Make a copy of my original.
Close my original.
Select the pen tool.
Select the quick mask.
Zoom, zoom, zoom, so I can see the little pixels.
Carefully click my way around what I want to retain. (I use a Wacom pen, it’s sooooooo much easier with soooooo much more control)
Once I have it selected, I right click to ‘make selection’, I leave quick mask mode. I then have to choose to re-select.
I SAVE my selection.
I SAVE my psd.
I then invert the selection and either delete or blur the background, depending on what I want to do.
There are tons of ways to do this, but this is what works best for me personally.
Personally, I just start with the pen tool, draw a rough vector shape around the object, and then add anchor points to tune it. Once done, load selection from the Paths Palette.
Another quick and dirty way is to use a selection tool, like the magic wand – then right click on the selection and Make Work Path. Enter a value (1.0 works well for me), and then you have most of the work done. You can move along deleting or adding anchor points and fine tune the selection.
It’s times like this that I wish I had read the Question! Sorry Angus, ignore my gibberish!
….and I thought it was me!
I’m with you Tony. The best thing I ever did was to learn how to use the Pen tool. With a lot of practice, it is probably one of the fastest and most accurate way to select most objects. I say most because hair flying in the wind is another whole story.
