How to Use the Magic Wand Tool in Paint Shop Pro

The Magic Wand tool in Paint Shop Pro is absolutely essential to prepare for editing with other tools in the program. It is used to select areas, which can then be manipulated in a variety of ways.

Instructions

1. Open the image you wish to edit. Select the Magic Wand tool in the toolbar. This tool is in the drop-down menu under the Selection tool.

2. Choose your select mode in the Tool Options Palette above the image. You may select Replace, Add (Shift) or Remove (Control). Replace is the default mode. Then select the Match Mode. You may choose from RGB Value, Color, Hue, Brightness, All Opaque and Opacity. The first four of these are the ones you will probably use most often. Select whether you wish to feather or anti-alias your selection. Click Select Merged to select all layers of your image, and deselect it to select only the layer that is currently active.

3. Left-click within the image on the color or brightness value you wish to select. Determine how much of that particular value was selected in relation to how much you were intending to select. If the Magic Wand tool selected too few values of color or brightness, or selected too small an area, increase the tolerance in the Tool Options Palette. If it selected too many values or too wide an area, reduce the tolerance. To deselect the selection, right-click anywhere in the image.

4. Press Shift and left-click to add an area to your selection. Press Control and left-click to remove a portion of an area you have already selected. Zoom in to your image by selecting the Magnifying Glass tool in the toolbar or turning the scroll wheel.

5. Increase the selected area by a specific number of pixels by clicking Selections > Modify > Expand. Select the number of pixels to expand within the dialogue box. Select Auto-proof to automatically preview your selection within the window. You may decrease the area of the selection by clicking Selections > Modify > Contract. You may select colors, hues or brightness values that are close to those selected by clicking Selections > Modify > Select Similar or Select Color Range. This will give you more control over the final selection than the values in the Tool Options Palette.

6. Select which tool you would like to use to alter your selection. For example, if you click Adjust > Brightness and Contrast, only the selected areas will be affected. The same applies for Color Balance, Hue and Saturation, and any other tools you might like to use on the selection. No changes will be made to any unselected areas. Also, the tools in the toolbar will apply only to the selected area. If you select the Clone Tool, for instance, you may select your source image outside of the selected area. However, only the area within the selection will be changed when you begin to draw with the tool. You may also cut or copy and paste any selected area into the same image or into another image, or paste as a new image. If you paste the image within the same image, it will apply outside of the selection area.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the Magic Wand tool to select backgrounds for color balance, brightness and contrast correction.