Centering a Selection

[Sepiana]

Question:

I’m working on a project that involves drawing a selection with either the Rectangular Marquee or the Elliptical Marquee tool. That I can handle! The problem is that the selection has to be centered, i.e., its center should be exactly on the center of the image. How can I do it?

Answer:

This is going to require two steps. First, find the center of your image; second, draw the selection.

First Step – Find the center of the image:

There is more than one way to do this. See . . . How to Find the Center of an Image.

NOTE:

You can also draw the two diagonal lines with the Brush or the Pencil tool. Just make sure to draw each line on a separate layer. To draw a straight line with either one of these tools, see . . . Drawing Straight Lines. 

Second Step – Draw the selection:

1. Place your cursor on the center of the image.
2. Hold down the Alt/Option key. (To draw a perfect circle or a perfect square, hold down the Shift and the Alt/Option key.)
3. Draw your selection.

[Chris]

Thank you very much Sepiana for sharing this information. I went through the steps and it works great and is very easy to remember. I will look forward to trying this out with one of my future projects.


Kind regards
Chris

PS There is also another method I have found, although it's not as simple as your method.
PSE cannot automatically centre selections, but it can automatically centre objects on a different layer relative to the canvas.
To centre a selection it's possible to convert the selection to an object, center it, and then convert the object back to a selection.

1- Create a selection anywhere on the canvas
2- Control + J to convert the selection to an object on a separate layer
3- Select the new object on its own layer with the move tool
4- Then Control + A to select the whole canvas
5- Center the object relative to the canvas by clicking the Align/Centre button




6- If necessary, convert the object back to a selection by clicking on the new object layer and using Control + left click. If the object is no longer needed, click on the Background canvas and delete the object layer. The centered selection will still be there.

[Sepiana]

Chris,

Thanks for trying these tips and posting your feedback!

And thanks for your tip! It works like a charm! As you pointed out, Elements cannot automatically center a selection but it can align objects on a layer using the Move tool. Placing the selection on its own layer did the trick. A great example of the beauty of Elements -- more than one way to do something.

And here is another tip -- how to center a circular selection and have Elements automatically snap it to the edges of the frame so that the selection will fill the frame.

1. Find the center of your image.
2. Change the Elliptical Marquee tool settings: Aspect > Fixed Size, W & H dimensions > same as your image.
3. Hold down the Alt/Option key and click on the center of the image.