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<div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<div class="titlepage">
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<h3 class="title"><a id="gimp-tool-iscissors"></a>2.7. Scissors Tool</h3>
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<a id="id3321540" class="indexterm"></a>
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<div class="informalfigure">
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<div class="mediaobject">
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<img src="../images/toolbox/toolbox-scissor.png" />
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Intelligent Scissors tool icon in the Toolbox.
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The Intelligent Scissors tool is an interesting piece of
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equipment: it has some features in common with the Lasso,
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some features in common with the Path tool, and some features all
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its own. It is useful when you are trying to select a region
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defined by strong color-changes at the edges. To use the
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Scissors, you click to create a set of "control nodes"
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at the edges of the region you are trying to select. The tool
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produces a continuous curve passing through these control nodes,
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following any high-contrast edges it can find. If you are lucky,
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the path that the tool finds will correspond to the contour you
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Each time you left-click with the mouse, you create a new control
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point, which is connected to the last control point by a curve
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that tries to follow edges in the image. To finish, click on the
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first point (the cursor changes to indicate when you are in the
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right spot). You can adjust the curve by dragging the control
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nodes, or by clicking to create new control nodes. When you are
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satisfied, click anywhere inside the curve to convert it into a
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<th align="left">Warning</th>
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<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
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Be sure not to click inside the curve until you are completely
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done adjusting it. Once you have converted it into a selection,
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undoing takes you back to zero, and you will have to to start
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constructing the curve again from scratch if you need to change
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it. Also be sure not to switch to a different tool, or again all
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of your carefully created control nodes will be lost.
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Unfortunately, there seem to be some problems with the
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edge-following logic for this tool, with the result that the
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selections it creates tend to be pretty crude in a lot of cases. A
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good way to clean them up is to switch to <a href="ch04s03s05.html" title="3.5. Quick Mask">QuickMask</a> mode, and use paint tools to
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paint in the problematic parts. On the whole, most people find
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the Path tool to be more useful than the Scissors, because, even
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though it does not have the intelligent edge-finding capability,
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the paths it produces persist until you delete them, and can be
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<div class="titlepage">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321498"></a>How to Activate</h4>
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The Intelligent Scissors can be activated from an image
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<span class="guimenu">Tools</span>-><span class="guisubmenu">Selection Tools</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Intelligent Scissors</span>;
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from the Toolbox by clicking on the tool icon
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<span class="guiicon">
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<span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/toolbox/scissor.png" /></span>
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or from the keyboard using the shortcut <span><b class="keycap">i</b></span>.
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<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<div class="titlepage">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321577"></a>Key modifiers (Defaults)</h4>
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The Fuzzy Select tool does not have any special key modifiers,
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only the ones that affect all selection tools in the same way.
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See <a href="ch03s02.html#gimp-tool-select" title="2.1. Common Features">Selection Tools</a> for
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<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<div class="titlepage">
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<h4 class="title"><a id="id3321785"></a>Options</h4>
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<div class="informalfigure">
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<img src="../images/toolbox/tool-options-scissor.png" />
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<div class="caption">
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Tool Options for the Intelligent Scissors
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<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
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<table border="0" summary="Note">
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<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25">
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<img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png" />
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<th align="left">Note</th>
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<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
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See <a href="ch03s02.html#gimp-tool-select" title="2.1. Common Features">Selection Tools</a> for
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help with options that are common to all these tools. Only
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options that are specific to the Intelligent Scissors
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tool are explained here.
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<div class="variablelist">
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<span class="term">Show Interactive Boundary</span>
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If this option is enabled, dragging a control node during
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placement will indicate the path that will be taken by the
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selection boundary. If it is not enabled, the node will be
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shown connected to the previous node by a straight line
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while you are dragging it around, and you won't see the
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resulting path until you release the pointer button. On
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slow systems, if your control nodes are far apart, this may
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give a bit of a speed-up.
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