User Guide

Chapter 5: Painting And Image Editing
You cannot make selections partially transparent in Indexed or Black & White image modes.
To change the opacity of floating selections:
1. With a paint object in edit mode, select part of the image.
2. Click on the Background color icon in the Toolbox.
3. Select a color to use behind the floating selection. This color will start to appear when you
make the selection transparent.
To use the Floating Opacity slider in the Channels palette to lighten a floating
selection: Fill behind the selection with white or a light color.
4. Hold down the Ctrl key and choose Image | Select | Float. Canvas floats the selection and fills
behind it with the background color.
5. Choose Image | Show Channels to open the Channels palette. Set the Floating Opacity value
to less than 100 percent to make the selection become transparent and reveal the
background color behind the selection.
6. To change the mode, choose a new mode from the Mode menu.
Modifying selections
You can use the Expand, Contract, Smooth, and Border commands to modify selections in images.
These commands make it easy to fine-tune a selection by expanding or contracting the selection
border by a specified number of pixels, or by adding or subtracting pixels based on color.
Expanding a selection
You can expand a selection by adding a specified number of pixels to the selection border.
To modify an active selection:
Choose Image | Select | Modify | Expand. Type a value in the Radius text box and click OK. Canvas
adds the specified area to the selection.
Contracting a selection
You can shrink a selection by subtracting a specified number of pixels from the selection border.
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