Extract marquee selection into new object

[VIPStephan]

As I’m coming from Adobe Fireworks I’m sometimes still struggling with muscle memory (or memory in general). In FW it is simple to draw a rectangle marquee over an image, for example, and then copy and paste this selection into a new raster object, or, to drag a marquee, switch to the transform tool, and be able to transform that selection (e. g. stretch a part of the image) right there. How would something like this be done in AD?

In AD, I’ve been able to extract part of an image with the workaround of duplicating the image, using the vector crop tool and rasterizing the result. But now, if I resize the object it is adding semi-transparency to the edges; in Fireworks I was also used to being able to resize/stretch such an object while keeping hard edges. What am I missing here? Or am I thinking this from the wrong side?

[Dan C]

Hi VIPStephan

Firstly, make sure the layer you're working on is a (Pixel) layer, not an (Image) layer. You can convert an Image layer to a Pixel layer by right-clicking it and selecting Rasterise.

Secondly, make sure the layer you're working on is not Locked, as this will cause the Move tool to not function as expected.

Provided these two variables are correct, then you should be able to use the Rectangular Marquee tool as you've described. I've created a quick screen recording below showing this!

[VIPStephan]

Ooooh, I see. It’s so simple, but I didn’t think that I had to rasterize the layer before. Thanks.

Edit: Yet, it still seems to “blur” the edges when resizing; this becomes more apparent if the selection is very narrow, and you resize it on the narrow axis. Is there any way to keep hard edges?