The Scissors Select Tool is very well suited for quickly selecting parts of an image where there is strong edge contrast. The building against the sky in the accompanying image is a good subject for the Scissors Select Tool because of the strong contrast, though it doesn't cope quite so well with the outlines of the storks' nests that have been built on top of the church tower. The edges of the selection around these storks' nests are less accurate.
The Scissors Select Tool is easy to use and is similar in use to the Free Select Tool though it does work in a more intelligent way. You click to place nodes around the edge of the object that you want to select and placing these as accurately as possible will lead to better results in the end. Once you have placed all of your nodes and closed the outline, clicking inside the outline will convert the path to a selection. However, in the process, the areas around the selection are analyzed and the selection is automatically adjusted to match the outline of the object as closely as possible.
You should note that nodes will snap to the point that the Scissors Select Tool believes is correct, but if you want to ensure the node is placed exactly where you click, you can hold the Shift key down while clicking.
There are a few settings that can be adjusted within the Tool Options to refine how the Scissors Select Tool acts in use.
Mode
By default, this is set to Replace the current selection which means that only one selection can ever be active at any one time, but there are other Mode options that allow two or more selections to interact in different ways to produce more complicated selections. The other options are Add to the current selection, Subtract from the current selection and Intersect with the current selection.
Antialiasing
When checked, the selection will have a smoother more natural appearance. If you deselect this and fill a selection with a solid color, when you zoom in to view the edge it will appear quite harsh and jagged.
Feather Edges
When checked, the Radius slider is displayed allowing you to adjust the amount of feathering applied to a selection. If a selection with feathered edges is filled with a solid color, the edges will gently blend to nothing.
Interactive Boundary
If you check Interactive boundary, as you place nodes, you will see the outline path is adjusted as you work to show how the final selection will look. This can slow down the process on less powerful machines, so the default is set to off. This means that nodes are joined by straight lines and the selection is only calculated after the path has been closed and the cursor has been clicked inside the path.
In many cases, the extra time needed to work with the Paths Tool is worth it as it produces more accurate results, however, in cases where images do have very distinct contrast between the object to be selected and the surrounding areas, the Scissors Select Tool can be a quick and easy tool to use.
