Selection won't contract if selection was made by Ctrl+a or simply selecting everything

[alexa50707689]

So I wan't to make a selection of an entire page with an equal border around it that isn't selected. To achieve this I used Ctrl+a to select everything and then Select>Modify>Contract. However, for whatever reason this won't actually reduce the selection around the canvas. I also have this problem if I select the entire canvas manually using the rectangle marquee tool.

If I make a selection has some areas not touching the border, then only the areas not touching the border will contract. So how do I contract a selection if it's touching the edge of the canvas?

[davescm]

Hi

Use Ctrl+A followed by Select >Transform Selection

Dave

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Alex,

That does not sound right, as you're not able to contract a selection around the canvas in Photoshop, could you please let us know the version of Photoshop and operating system you're working on

Also, does it happen with a specific document or all files?

Could you try resetting the preferences of Photoshop and let us know if it helps?

Preferences in Photoshop

Note: Please make sure that you back up all custom presets, brushes, actions etc before resetting the preferences.

Regards,
Sahil

[alexa50707689]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I am using Photoshop CC 2019 and my creative cloud app says it's up to date. I deleted my Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Prefs file in the tutorial you sent me but the problem is still present. It is every file where the problem is present.

[Jeff Arola · Accepted solution]

What version of photoshop are you using?

In more recent versions of photoshop one can check Apply effect at canvas bounds in the Contract Selection dialog to contract the selection from the edge of the canvas.

[alexa50707689]

Thank you very much. That worked

[D Fosse]

Normally, a selection is sticky to the document edges. For most practical purposes this is a good thing - but sometimes it's not. So that's why they added the option to unstick.

[Larry33937276ubut]

Apparently the developers forgot to retain this option in Photoshop Elements 2023 v21.0 and it's making me crazy that I cannot easily contract a full canvas selection by a fixed number of pixels.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

This Forum is dedicated to Photoshop. (Edit: … and Photoshop for iPad and Photoshop on the Web.)

Not Photoshop Elements. 

[Larry33937276ubut]

A workaround is to Select>Transform Selection to a width and height of 99.9% (or whatever is needed to reduce the selection by 1 pixel) and then following that up with Select>Modify>Contract by the additional number of pixels desired.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Technically this could prove problematic with rectangular instead of square formats. 

[Jeff Arola]

In photoshop elements when using Transform Selection you can uncheck Constrain Proportions, change the Width and Height fields to pixels and enter the desired size of the selection.

Right click inside the Width and Height fields to change to pixels.

The Contract Selection dialog shown above in the screenshot from photoshop has never been in photoshop elements, though it would nice if it were.