2.3.  Ellipse Selection Tool

Revision History
Revision $Revision: 2176 $ 2006-02-09 j.h

Figure 12.5.  Ellipse Select icon in the Toolbox

Ellipse Select icon in the Toolbox

The Ellipse Selection tool is designed to select circular and elliptical regions from an image, with high-quality anti-aliasing if you want it. For information on selections and how they are used in GIMP see Selections; for information on features common to all selection tools see Selection Tools.

This tool is also used for rendering a circle or ellipse on an image. To render a filled ellipse, create an elliptical selection, and then fill it using the Bucket Fill tool. To create an elliptical outline, the simplest and most flexible approach is to create an elliptical selection and then stroke it. However, the quality of anti-aliasing with this approach is rather crude. A higher quality outline can be obtained by creating two elliptical selections with different sizes, subtracting the inner one from the outer one; however this is not always easy to get right. The command SelectionBorder... makes it easy.

2.3.1.  How to Activate

The Ellipse Selection Tool can be activated from an image menu as ToolsSelection ToolsEllipse Select; from the Toolbox by clicking on the tool icon ; or from the keyboard using the shortcut e.

2.3.2.  Key modifiers

[Note] Note

See Selection Tools for help with modifier keys that affect all these tools in the same way. Only effects that are specific to the Ellipse Select tool are explained here.

Ctrl

Pressing the key after starting your selection, and holding it down until you are finished, causes your starting point to be used as the center of the selected ellipse, instead of a corner of the rectangle that may contain it. Note that if you press the Ctrl key before starting to make the selection, the resulting selection will be subtracted from the existing selection.

Shift

Pressing the Shift key after starting your selection, and holding it down until you are finished, constrains the selection to be a circle. Note that if you press the Shift key before starting to make the selection, the resulting selection will be added to the existing selection.

Ctrl+Shift

Pressing both keys combines the two effects, giving you a circular selection centered on your starting point.

2.3.3.  Options

Figure 12.6.  Tool Options for the Ellipse Select tool

Tool Options for the Ellipse Select tool

[Note] Note

See Selection Tools for help with options that are common to all these tools. Only options that are specific to the Ellipse Select tool are described here.

You can access to the Ellipse Selection options by double-clicking on the icon.

Modus; Antialias; Rounded corners
[Note] Note

See Selection Tools for help with options that are common to all these tools. Only options that are specific to the Rectangle Select tool are explained here.

Modus; Antialias; Rounded corners

All these options work exactly the same way, they were described for the rectangular selection already. See for Section 2.2.3, “ Tool Options details.