So you're learning how to use Photoshop, you're testing the tools, and suddenly "marching ants" appear—tiny lines moving rhythmically over the screen. They can be pretty annoying because after they've appeared, nothing works the way it used to. So you may be wondering how to get rid of marching ants in Photoshop.
You may also know very well what these moving lines are, and you have a different problem with them—how to hide marching ants in Photoshop, so that you can benefit from their presence without them covering a part of your picture.
In this short tutorial, I'll answer both of these questions!
What You'll Learn in This Marching Ants Photoshop Tutorial
- What are marching ants in Photoshop?
- How to get rid of marching ants in Photoshop
- How to hide marching ants in Photoshop
What You'll Need
You can use any photo for this tutorial, but if you like the picture of a cute ant that I've used, you can find it here:
1. What Are Marching Ants in Photoshop?
In Photoshop, you may often want to select one area of the image and edit it separately from the rest—or remove that part, copy it to a different layer, etc. Marching ants indicate the border of that selected area. So to bring the ants onto the screen for the purpose of this tutorial, you can use any of the selection tools:
Here, I've used the Lasso Tool (L) to outline the head of the ant:
Now, I can use the Move Tool (V) to move the selected area somewhere else:
Or change the color of the head with the Hue/Saturation (Control-U) adjustment:
2. How to Get Rid of Marching Ants in Photoshop
OK, so you've edited your selected area, and now you want to get rid of the marching ants. How can you do it?
It's very simple: go to Select > Deselect, or use the Control-D shortcut.
3. How to Hide Marching Ants in Photoshop
As you can see, the marching ants are very useful because they're showing you which area has been selected. However, if you want to see what the image will look like after editing, these ants may stand in the way. So if you want to hide the marching ants without removing the selection, use the Control-H shortcut.
Caution: always remember to deselect (Control-D) after editing, or make the ants come back by pressing Control-H again. Otherwise, the invisible selection will stay there, leading to a lot of confusion later.
Good Job!
Now you know how to get rid of marching ants in Photoshop, as well as how to temporarily hide them when needed.
Recommended Tutorials
If you liked this marching ants Photoshop tutorial, you may also enjoy our other tutorials for beginners:
