Color Range
Select only pixels that fall within a color range, as a selection or a mask.
Select only the pixels that fall within a color range, producing either a selection or a mask. Unlike the Magic Wand, Color Range looks at color similarity across the entire canvas at once.
Opening
Right-click on a layer → "Color Range...".
- If the mask of the layer is active, the menu reads "Color Range to Mask..." and the result is written directly to the mask channel.
- The window is modeless — you can continue interacting with the canvas while it is open.
Select Mode
Choose the selection criterion from the dropdown at the top.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Sampled Colors (default) | Select based on colors picked with the eyedropper |
| Reds / Yellows / Greens / Cyans / Blues / Magentas | Auto-select that color family |
| Skin Tones | Auto-select skin-tone regions |
| Highlights / Midtones / Shadows | Select by brightness range |
Pick (Eyedropper)
Available in Sampled Colors mode.
+ Add— Sample a color from the canvas and add it to the samples (Shift modifier shortcut).- Remove— Remove the closest matching sample (Alt modifier shortcut).Clear samples— Clear all samples.
Clicking the canvas in any other mode (Reds, Skin Tones, etc.) automatically switches to Sampled Colors and adds the picked color as a sample.
Sliders / Options
- Fuzziness (0 – 200) — Color tolerance. Larger values widen the selection.
- Localized Color Clusters (toggle) — Restrict the selection to the area around the click.
- Range (0 – 100) — Visible only when Localized Color Clusters is on; distance threshold.
Detect Faces (Skin Tones only)
When Skin Tones is selected in the dropdown, a Detect Faces button appears at the bottom. Pressing it auto-detects candidate face center points, adds them as samples, and switches back to Sampled Colors mode.
Confirming
Press OK to commit the selection, or Cancel to discard it.