Revision Date: 27 February 2024

Edit Menu

The Edit Menu commands cover navigation through the image history, clipboard commands, manipulation of the selected region and the selection itself.

 Undo

This undoes the most recent action that has affected the image open on the canvas, if any.

If multiple images are open simultaneously, Undo operates only on the one in the Editing window at the time the command is invoked.

This command can also be accessed via the History Window or via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z.

 Redo

This reverses the most recent action that has been 'undone', if any.

If multiple images are open simultaneously, Redo operates only on the one in the Editing window at the time the command is invoked.

This command can also be accessed via the History Window or via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Y.

 Cut

The Cut command is used to remove a selected portion of the active layer AND store a copy of it in the clipboard.

Selections can be any shape or size and made with any of the selection tools or any combination of them.  Once Cut is invoked, the operation removes the selected pixels from the active layer and replaces them with transparent white pixels (RGB #FFFFFF with opacity/Alpha of zero).  The current selection outline is removed following the completion of the action (i.e. the selection is deselected).

This command can also be accessed via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + X.

 Copy

This command copies the selected region to the clipboard. The selection remains in situ on the active layer.  The current selection also remains active. If there is no selection, the entire layer will be copied.

Copy can be invoked from the keyboard via the Ctrl + C combination.

 Copy Merged

This command copies all the layers to the clipboard without having to use Image→Flatten first. If there is an active selection, only the region under selection will be copied. If there is no selection, the entire image is copied.

Copy Merged can be invoked from the keyboard via the Ctrl + Shift + C combination.

 Paste

If there is an image in the clipboard, this command will paste it onto the active layer. Pixels being pasted will overwrite existing pixels in the same location.  The pasted pixels will be selected following the paste operation and the Move Selected Pixels tool will automatically be activated.  This allows the pasted pixels to be moved, scaled or rotated with ease.

If the pasted image is too wide and/or too tall for the current canvas size, a prompt will appear asking if the canvas should be resized.  This quick shortcut to the Image → Canvas Size command allows a neat fit for the pasted image when it is larger than the current canvas.

If the image is zoomed in when pasting, the pixels will be placed within the current viewport, regardless of where it originally came from

Paste can be invoked from the keyboard via the Ctrl + V combination.

 Paste into New Layer

This is similar to Paste, except that a new layer is created to house the clipboard image.  In this respect, the action is non-destructive and will not overwrite any existing pixels, though the layering characteristics of the image may lead to some pixels being obscured by the newly pasted ones.

The new layer is created immediately above the current active layer. The newly created layer is made active prior to the paste operation being performed and retains the focus at the conclusion to the operation.

Paste into a New Layer can be invoked from the keyboard via the Ctrl + Shift + V combination.

 Paste into New Image

This is similar to Paste, except that it first creates a brand new image, makes it active, then pastes the contents of the clipboard into it.  The new image will be exactly the same size as the clipboard image.

Paste into a New Image can be invoked from the keyboard via Ctrl + Alt + V.

 Copy Selection

This command copies the current selection geometry to the clipboard. It is particularly useful if you wish to preserve a selection shape in order to apply it to another layer, image, or save it for later use.

The selection geometry is copied to the clipboard as JSON text. The data itself is a list of polygons with the vertexes recorded in [x,y] pairs.

{
  "polygonList": [
    "3,4,9,4,9,19,3,19,3,4"
  ]
}

The simple format of JSON makes it easy to use external utilities (like Notepad or PSPad) to maintain a list of different selection shapes. These utilities can even be used to edit the raw JSON data.

Copy Selection can be invoked using Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C

Paste Selection

The natural pair to Copy Selection, Paste Selection takes a JSON polygon list from the clipboard and reconstructs it as an active selection on the active layer.

Selection combine modes are supported via the Paste Selection submenu so, for example, the clipboard selection geometry can be added to an existing selection. Below a circular selection has a rectangular selection (see above) added to it using Paste Selection > Add (union).

 Erase Selection

This command erases the currently selected region of the active layer.  All pixels that lie within the selected region are replaced with transparent black pixels (RGB #000000 with opacity/Alpha of zero).  The selection outline is removed following the completion of the action (i.e. the selection is deselected).  The command can be invoked with the Delete key on the keyboard.

 Fill Selection

If there is a selection active, this command will fill it with the current Primary color.  The current selection remains active following the Fill operation.

The command can be invoked with the Backspace key on the keyboard.

 Invert Selection

If there is a selection active, this command will cause all pixels that are selected to be deselected, and vice-versa.

The keyboard shortcut for this command is Ctrl + I.

 Select All

This causes the entire active layer to become selected.

The keyboard shortcut for this command is Ctrl + A.

 Deselect

Deselect forces all selected pixels to be deselected. In other words, no pixels will remain selected.

The keyboard shortcut for the Deselect command is Ctrl + D.