The Magic Wand tool allows you to select areas of pixels that are similar in color. By adjusting the Magic Wand's Tolerance and Edge options in the Property inspector, you can control how the Magic Wand selects pixels.

To select an area of pixels of similar color range:

  1. Select the Magic Wand tool.
  2. Select an Edge option in the Property inspector. For more information, see Bitmap selection tool options.
  3. Set the tolerance level by dragging the tolerance slider in the Property inspector.

    Tolerance represents the tonal range of colors that are selected when you click a pixel with the Magic Wand. If you enter 0 and click a pixel, only adjacent pixels of exactly the same tone are selected. If you enter 65, a wider range of tones is selected.

  4. Click the area of color you want to select.

    A marquee appears around the selected range of pixels.

    This is a picture of the feature being described.

    Pixels selected with a lower tolerance (above), then a higher tolerance (below)

To select similar colors throughout the document:

  1. Select an area of color with a marquee or lasso tool, or with the Magic Wand tool.
  2. Select Select > Select Similar.

    One or more marquees show all areas containing the selected range of pixels, according to the current Tolerance setting in the Property inspector for the Magic Wand tool.

    NOTE

    To adjust the tolerance for the Select Similar command, select the Magic Wand tool and then change the Tolerance setting in the Property inspector before using the command. You can also select the Live marquee box so that you can change the Tolerance setting while using the the Magic Wand tool.