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How do I save a selection in Photoshop for later use?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
January 22, 2024
3 replies
2767 views

I would like to save a selection that I make in one photoshop file that I can open in another file.

Currently the only thing I can do is make, save then load a selection that is restricted to the file I saved the selection in. IE: I load picture A and make a selection called selection A. Then I want to use that exact shape/selection in picture B. At the moment, the only time I can "load" selection is when I open the same file I created the selection in, ie, picture A. When I open picture B and try to load selection, the option is greyed out. I have Photoshop CS5.

I expected the whole point of saving a selection is so I have the ability to load that selection for later use - in any file. That's not the case here, at least not for me.

Windows

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Correct answer jane-e

My method is similar. I save the selection in one document, then drag and drop the alpha channel from one to the other. Same as with layers, the Shift key will center the alpha channel in the new document.

Jane

Semaphoric

Community Expert

It depends on the pixel dimensions of the source and destination documents. They have to be identical to be able to copy or load selections.

You can save a selection as a new document via Select > Save Selection, but again, it can only be loaded into documents of the same pixel dimension. It also has to be open at the same time as the destination doc.

S

stephanie28346195yge9Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for this answer, it partially answers my issue. Sorry for the late response on my part, all the notifications went to my spam folder.

I tried to create a test selection in an image with a given dimension, then opened another image with the exact same dimension and I was able to load the test selection I saved earlier from another image. It does not let me load the selection in a new file that has a different dimension than the file where I got the original saved selection from, so it seems you are right about the two files needing to be the same dimensions.

However, when I load the previously saved test selection in a new file, I cannot move the selection around and the selection cuts in the same location relative to the canvas bounding box. To illustrate my point, say there was a nice pattern in one image in the top right corner that I made a selection of and I wanted to crop a piece of that exact shape from another image of the same dimensions. The area that I want to crop from in the second image is in the bottom left. By loading the selection in the new image, the entier selection and bounding box is loaded and I can only crop from the top right, where the original selection was, and not repositioned to the bottom left. This is the same when I use the click and drag of the alpha channel method recommended by D Fosse.

Semaphoric

Community Expert

You say the selection and bounding box — are you using the Move tool to reposition the selection? That will move the contents of the selection. Try using one of the Selection tools; you should see just the selection, and the cursor will turn into a move arrow when positioned inside the selection. Note this does not work if it has been positioned with the Move tool.

D Fosse

Community Expert

I don't know of any direct way (for all I know one may exist) - but it's easy enough to copy the alpha channel and paste into a new channel in the other document.

jane-e

Correct answer

Community Expert

My method is similar. I save the selection in one document, then drag and drop the alpha channel from one to the other. Same as with layers, the Shift key will center the alpha channel in the new document.

Jane

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

There is a bug where view magnification affects how a dragged layer is aligned. If magnification is not equal, a dragged layer, even one of identical dimensions, won't align properly.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

With CS5, I think the only thing you can do is save the selection as either a channel or layer in a separate file. Then you can open that file and import the channel or layer into your working file. It's not ideal.

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