Tutorial: Using the Scissors and Paths Tools to Create Selections in GIMP

Two tools that can be confusing, and often get confused, are GIMP's Scissors and Paths tools. Both of these can be used to create selections, but they work in slightly different ways. They are more powerful than the Lasso, and allow you more control than the Magic Wand, so it's worthwhile to learn how to use them.

While these tools have more uses than simply selecting areas of an image, using them to create selections is all that I will be dealing with in this tutorial.

I don't really like trying to describe what the icon of each tool looks like, as that's sort of awkward, so here's a diagram of GIMP'S tool menu:

So, now that we're on the same page, move on to the next section to learn about the Scissors tool.