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Overview

Selection tools allow you to isolate regions of your sprite for editing, moving, or transformation. Aseprite provides multiple selection methods to suit different workflows.

Rectangular Marquee

Select rectangular regions

Elliptical Marquee

Select circular/elliptical regions

Lasso

Freehand selection

Magic Wand

Select by color

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Selection Tools

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Rectangular Marquee

Keyboard Shortcut: M
1

Select the Tool

Press M or click the rectangular marquee icon
2

Draw Selection

Click and drag to define the rectangular area
3

Adjust if Needed

Use modifiers while dragging for different behaviors

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Modifiers

Hold Shift while dragging to constrain to a perfect square
Hold Alt to draw the selection from center point outward
Combine both modifiers for a square drawn from center
After drawing, hold Ctrl+Shift and drag to rotate the selection outline

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Elliptical Marquee

Keyboard Shortcut: Shift+M (cycle through marquee tools) Works identically to rectangular marquee but creates circular/elliptical selections.
Hold Shift to constrain to a perfect circle, just like the rectangular tool constrains to a square.

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Lasso Tool

Freehand selection: Draw any shape by hand
1

Select Lasso Tool

Click the lasso icon or cycle through selection tools
2

Draw Selection Outline

Click and drag to draw freeform selection boundary
3

Close the Selection

  • Release mouse to auto-close with straight line
  • Or connect back to starting point
The Lasso uses the Freehand Controller and connects points with lines. For pixel-perfect lasso selections, enable Pixel Perfect mode.

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Polygonal Lasso

Click point-by-point to create polygonal selections:
  • Click to place corner points
  • Double-click to finish selection
  • Esc to cancel

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Magic Wand

Select by color: Click a pixel to select all connected pixels of similar color
1

Select Magic Wand

Click the magic wand icon in the toolbar
2

Set Tolerance

Adjust tolerance in context bar (0-255)
  • 0: Exact color match only
  • 255: All colors
3

Click to Select

Click on a pixel to select connected regions of similar color
How Tolerance Works:Tolerance determines the color difference threshold:
Low Tolerance (0-30):   Very precise, similar colors only
Medium Tolerance (31-100): Moderate variation
High Tolerance (101-255): Broad color ranges
For indexed color mode, tolerance works differently - it compares palette indices rather than RGB values.

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Selection Modes

Modify how new selections interact with existing ones:
Default mode: New selection replaces current selection
  • Starts fresh each time
  • Clears previous selection

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Working with Selections

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Moving Selection Contents

Once you have an active selection:
1

Create Selection

Use any selection tool to select a region
2

Move Selection

  • Ctrl+T: Enter transformation mode
  • Or simply drag with Move tool (V)
3

Apply Changes

  • Enter: Apply transformation
  • Esc: Cancel

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Moving Selection Boundaries

To move just the selection outline without moving pixels:
  • Use selection tool and drag inside selection
  • Or hold Ctrl while dragging with selection tool
  • Arrow keys move selection by 1px
  • Alt+Arrow keys move boundaries only

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Transform Selection

With an active selection:
Keyboard Shortcuts
Ctrl+T      - Transform
Ctrl+X      - Cut
Ctrl+C      - Copy  
Ctrl+V      - Paste
Ctrl+D      - Deselect
Ctrl+Shift+D - Reselect
Ctrl+Shift+I - Invert selection

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Selection Operations

Select All

Ctrl+ASelects entire canvas area

Deselect

Ctrl+DRemoves current selection

Reselect

Ctrl+Shift+DRestores previous selection

Invert

Ctrl+Shift+IInverts selection (selects everything except current selection)

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Modify Selection

Select → Modify Selection opens advanced options:
Convert selection to a border/outline
  • Specify border width (in pixels)
  • Useful for creating outlines
  • Can be filled or stroked
Grow selection by specified pixels
  • Increases selection size uniformly
  • Useful for adding margins
Shrink selection by specified pixels
  • Decreases selection size uniformly
  • Useful for removing edges

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Selection Implementation

Understanding how selections work under the hood:

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Selection Ink

// From: source/src/app/tools/inks.h:428
class SelectionInk : public BaseInk {
  bool isSelection() const override { return true; }
  
  // Uses XOR rendering for visual feedback
  void prepareInk(ToolLoop* loop) {
    setProc(get_ink_proc<XorInkProcessing>(loop));
  }
};
Selections are internally represented as masks - 1-bit per pixel indicating selected (true) or not (false).

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Tile-Based Selections

When working with tilemaps:
Selections can snap to tile boundaries:
  1. Enable Tilemap Mode (Shift+Ctrl+M)
  2. Selections snap to grid
  3. Select entire tiles instead of pixels
  4. Useful for tile-based editing
// Auto-snaps to tile grid boundaries
snapPointsToGridTiles(loop, stroke);

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Practical Workflows

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Selecting Specific Colors

1

Use Magic Wand

Select Magic Wand tool
2

Set Tolerance to 0

For exact color matching
3

Click Target Color

Selects all connected pixels of that exact color
4

Add More Areas

Hold Shift and click other areas to add to selection

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Creating Outlines

1

Make Selection

Select the object you want to outline
2

Modify Selection

Select → Modify Selection → Border
3

Set Border Width

Enter desired outline thickness (e.g., 2px)
4

Fill Outline

Edit → Fill or G with Paint Bucket

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Copying to New Layer

1

Create Selection

Select the region you want to copy
2

Copy

Ctrl+C to copy selection
3

New Layer

Create a new layer
4

Paste

Ctrl+V to paste on new layer
Quick Layer from Selection: Use Edit → New Layer from Selection to create a new layer and move the selected pixels in one step.

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Advanced Features

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Selection Tools with Pixel Perfect

When Pixel Perfect mode is enabled, selection tools create cleaner outlines:
  • Freehand lasso selections have cleaned corners
  • Removes redundant pixels from selection boundaries
  • Better results for pixel art workflows

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Transform Options

When transforming selections (Ctrl+T):

Rotate

Click outside corners and drag to rotate
  • Hold Shift: Snap to 45° increments
  • Display angle in status bar

Scale

Drag corner handles to scale
  • Hold Shift: Maintain aspect ratio
  • Hold Alt: Scale from center

Skew

Drag edge handles to skew
  • Shifts selection at an angle
  • Useful for perspective effects

Flip

Use Edit menu or right-click context menu
  • Flip Horizontal
  • Flip Vertical

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Related Topics

Tool Overview

Transforms

Layers

Fill Tool