Reverse last lasso selection on the press of a hotkey

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
July 22, 2023
3 replies
1127 views

Oftentimes, especially on keyboards, whose Alt key isn't very reliable, when making complex selections with the lasso, the user may add to the selection when they mean to subtract and vice versa. This is especially annoying and time-wasting when they spent a good amount of time making their selection without realizing they're holding the wrong key (shift/alt) or when it doesn't register as being held when they begin their selection.

What I propose is very simple - the last addition/subtraction using the lasso tool (or any other selection tools like magnetic lasso, square selection, etc.) would be kept in memory and could be reversed at the press of a hotkey - very similar to the hotkey that adjusts the transparency of the last stroke (Ctrl+Shift+F by default). It could even use the same hotkey, since it's not used for the selection tools.

This would be a huge quality of life and time saver feature for me and my colleagues.

Alternatively, I would be very grateful if someone could point me to or write a script that does this function.

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nikolaya39889436Author

Inspiring

What I need is a way to separate the last addition/subtraction as its own selection. If I could do that, I could write an action or script to do what I need it to do. However, it seems Photoshop save only the "before" and "after" of the selections, not the actual selection that leads from one to the other via modifiers like add/subtract.

I would love to be wrong about this, can someone with more experience in scripting let me know if the photoshop scripting API has a call to retrieve just the last addition/subtraction? If so we could save it, undo, invert selection, apply it, then invert again to accomplish the task.

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nikolaya39889436Author

Inspiring

@jane-eNo, this only undoes the last selection, so you'd have to do it again, but with the right modifier this time, which is time-wasting.

What I'm looking for is a hotkey that reverses that last selection, so it becomes correct even if you begin it with the wrong modifier (adding to the selection when you mean to subtract and vice versa), and so you don't have to redo it all over again.