When you move or copy a selection, some of the pixels surrounding the border are included, especially when the selection is anti-aliased or feathered. Matting cleans up the border by removing these pixels.

There are three Matting commands: Remove Black Matte, Remove White Matte, and Defringe. Use the Remove Black Matte or Remove White Matte command when the selection is from an image with a black or white background. These commands remove the black or white pixels at the selection edges.

Use the Defringe command when the selection is from an image with a colored background. Defringing bleeds non-feathered pixels in the selection edges outward and over the “jaggies” in the feathered part of the selection.

Important: This command works on 16 million color and greyscale images only.

To use a Matting command:

If the selection is not floating, choose Selections > Float.

Do one of the following:

To remove the black matte, choose Layers > Matting > Remove Black Matte.

To remove the white matte, choose Layers > Matting > Remove White Matte.

To move a colored matte, choose Layers > Matting > Defringe. The Defringe dialog opens. Enter the number of pixels to defringe and click OK.

To fill the specks and holes that may occur in a selection. The Remove Specks and Holes dialog removes specks and holes from the area that you define in square pixels. For example: If you have an area of specs and/or holes in an image that is 20 pixels wide by 20 pixels high, then in the number of pixels field, enter 5 and a scale factor of 100. Because 20 x 20 = 400, and 5 X 100 = 500 then all specs and/or holes in a pixel area less than 500 will be removed.

To remove holes and specks from a selection:

Choose Selections > Modify > Remove Specks and Holes to open the Remove Specks and Holes dialog.

Do one of the following:

Choose the Remove Specks option to remove only specks from the selection.

Choose the Remove Holes option to remove only holes from the selection.

Choose theRemove Specks and Holes option to remove both specks and holes from the edges of the selection.

Note: In the dialog you can click the Toggle Selection button to change between showing only the selection or showing the selection and the rest of the image.

For the Square area smaller than, enter the number of pixels and the scale factor. Start at low values, and increase them as necessary until the specks and/or holes are removed.

Click OK. The holes and specks in the selection are removed.

Use the Smooth command to smooth the edges of a selection.

To smooth the boundary of a selection:

Choose Selections > Modify > Smooth to open the Smooth Selection dialog.

For Smoothing amount enter a number for the level of smoothing for the corners of the selection.

Note: In the dialog you can click the Toggle Selection button to change between showing only the selection or showing the selection and the rest of the image.

For Corner scale enter the number of pixels at the corners of the selection to smooth.

Anti-alias mark this check box to smooth the edges of the selection.

Preserve Corners mark this check box if you want the corners preserved. Clear this check box if you want the corners to be smoothed.

Click OK. The corners of the selection are smoothed.

Use the Recover Anti-alias command when you want to restore the original anti-aliasing of an object that was pasted into an image. This command is useful if you made the selection without anti-aliasing, and now want the edges of the selection to be smooth.

To recover the anti-alias:

Choose Selections > Modify > Recover Anti-alias to open the Recover Anti-alias dialog. the selection with the anti-alias added in the right preview window.

To apply the anti-alias to all layers of the selection, mark the Sample merged check box.

To apply the anti-alias and copy the result to a new layer mark the Result on new layer check box.

For the Anti-alias mark an option:

Inside to anti-alias the inside of the selection marquee.

Outside to anti-alias outside of the selection marquee.

Click OK to anti-alias the selection edges.

Use the Shape-Based Anti-alias command to anti-alias a selection based on its shape.

To anti-alias based on shape:

Choose Selections > Modify > Shape-Based Anti-alias to open the Shape-based Anti-alias dialog.

For the Anti-alias mark an option:

Inside to anti-alias the inside of the selection marquee.

Outside to anti-alias outside of the selection marquee.

Click OK to anti-alias the selection edges.

Use the Select Selection Borders command to add a border around the selection. This command is useful when you want to add a border around the selection, and then fill that border using the Flood Fill tool.

To change the shape-based anti-alias:

Choose Selections > Modify > Select Selection Borders to open the Select Selection Borders dialog.

Choose whether you want to add a selection border Inside, Out­side, or on Both sides of the selection border.

Mark the Anti-alias check box if you want to smooth the edges of the selection border.

Enter the width of the border in pixels.

Click OK to add a selection border.

You can move a selection and leave the space empty or you can move a copy of the selection and leave the original data.

To move a selection:

Do one of the following:

To move a selection by cutting it from a layer and leaving a transparent area or area of background color, use the selection tool (Selection, Freehand, or Magic Wand tool) to drag the selection.

To move a copy of the selection while leaving the original unchanged, float the selection before moving it or press Alt while using the selection tool to drag the selection.

To move the selection one pixel at a time, press Shift while pressing the up, down, left, or right arrow key.

To move the selection 10 pixels at a time, press Shiftwhile pressing the Page Up, Page Down, Home, or End keys.

When you move the selection with any of these methods, it becomes a floating selection.

To convert a selection into a layer, use the Promote to Layer command on the Selections menu. The original selection contents are unchanged; a copy of the selection becomes a new layer. By converting the selection into a layer, you can modify it without changing the original image data.

Important: This command works on 16 million color and greyscale images only.

To promote a selection to a layer:

Make a selection in the image.

Choose Selections > Promote to Layer.

The new layer is placed above the original selection’s layer and is named Promoted Selection.

Note: To place a selection as a layer within another image, copy the selection, open the other image, and choose Edit > Paste > As New Layer.

You can turn a selection into a custom, seamless pattern which you can use for applications like painting, adding text, or creating Web page backgrounds.

To create a custom pattern:

Make a selection in the image.

Choose Effects > Image Effects > Seamless Tiling to open the Seamless Tiling dialog.

Choose the tiling method, direction, settings, and corner style, and then click OK.

Note: To use the pattern that you create, save it in the Patterns folder of the Paint Shop Pro program folder and select it as your foreground or background material. You can then use the pattern to paint, create text, or fill an entire image.

It’s helpful to save complicated selections that you may use again or to save selections to use in other images to create effects. Save a selection in one of two ways:

Save the selection as a file with a .PspSelection extension on a hard disk or removable disk

Save the selection as an alpha channel within the image. The selection is stored as part of the image, not as a separate file.

When you save a selection to a hard disk or a removable disk, Paint Shop Pro saves the selection as a separate file with a .PspSelection extension. You can then load this selection into the current image or another image.

To save a selection file:

Make a selection in the image.

Choose Selections > Load/Save Selection > Save Selection to Disk to open the Save Selection to Disk dialog.
The Selection files group box shows selections files in the default directory for selections. To change the default directory, or to add another directory, click the Edit Paths button.

In the File name edit box, type a name for the selection.

Click Save.

Load a selection (with a .PspSelection extension) or image file that you have saved to a hard disk or removable disk. When you load an image, Paint Shop Pro creates a selection based on luminance, non-black pixels, or opacity.

To load a file or selection from disk:

Choose Selections > Load/Save Selections > Load Selection from Disk to open the Load Selection from Disk dialog.
The Selection Files group box shows selections files in the default directory for selections. To change the default directory, click the Edit Paths button.

Choose the selection file you want to load.

In the Operation group box, select an option to determine whether to replace the selection or add to or subtract from it.

With an image, decide what Paint Shop Pro creates the selection from the Create selection from group box.

Click Load. The selection displays on the current layer.

Save a selection to an alpha channel within the current image or within another image. An alpha channel is a data storage area in an image that holds selections and masks. Alpha channels are like secret compartments within a suitcase—use them to store things you may need later. Selections and masks stored in alpha channels have no effect on the look of an image. To use the stored selections or masks, load them into the same image or another image.

When you save the image to a file format other than .PspImage format, the alpha channels are not saved. Always keep a master copy of your image in .PspImage format.

To save a selection to an alpha channel:

Make a selection in the image.

Choose Selections > Load/Save Selections > Save Selection to Alpha Channel to open the Save Selection to Alpha Channel dialog.
The Add to document drop-down list displays the image name and below it are the alpha channels in the image (if any).

To save a selection to another image’s alpha channel, select the image name in the Add to document drop-down list. The image must be open in Paint Shop Pro.

To edit the default name for the new alpha channel, type a new name in the Name edit box.

To move the selection to the upper left corner of the image canvas, mark the Move to upper left of canvas check box. This option is helpful when the selection is larger than the current image and may not otherwise show up on the image.

Click Save. The selection is saved to the alpha channel.

When you save a selection as an alpha channel within a .PspImage image, you can load that selection from the alpha channel into the same image or into any other image.

To load a selection from an alpha channel:

Choose Selections > Load/Save Selection > Load Selection from Alpha Channel to open the Load Selection from Alpha dialog.

Note: In the Preview group box, click the Transparency button to show the area around the selection as either transparentor black .

In the Load from Document drop-down list, select the image that contains the alpha channel you want to load. To load from another image’s alpha channel, the image must be open in Paint Shop Pro.

In the drop-down list below the document name, choose the alpha channel that contains the selection you want to load.

In the Operation group box, choose whether the selection you load replaces, adds to, or subtracts from the active selection in the image (if there is one).

A message in the Operations group box indicates how the original alpha channel rectangle (which is the saved selection) intersects the canvas of the current image: completely intersects, does not completely intersect (part of the selection is off the canvas), or does not intersect at all. If it partially intersects or does not intersect, mark the Move to Upper Left of Canvas check box to move the selection onto the image canvas.

In the Options group box, choose from these check boxes:

Mark the Move to upper left of canvas check box to place the loaded selection in the upper left. If the check box is cleared, the selection remains in the same position it was on the original image.

Mark the Clip to canvas check box to clip the selection at the places where it goes beyond the image canvas.

Mark the Invert image check box to select everything outside the original selection.

Click the Load button. The selection displays on the current layer.

If you saved selections to alpha channels that you no longer need, you can delete them. You can delete alpha channels from the current image only.

To delete an alpha channel:

Choose Image > Delete Alpha Channel to open the Delete Alpha Channel dialog.

Select the alpha channel that you want to delete, or mark the Delete all alpha channels check box.

Click Delete.