Selections are a fundamental part of the AVA software. They are required to complete certain functions in the software but they are also helpful in achieving exciting design effects. It is important to master using selections in your working methods to make your workflows more effective.

When you use Edit Menu > Select > Tonal, it may appear that it is doing exactly the same as Edit Menu > Select > Snap. However, there is a very important difference. Edit Menu > Select > Snap takes an existing selection and makes it cling to the pixels within it. Edit Menu > Select > Tonal snaps to the pixels within the active selection, but in addition to clinging to the pixels on the layer, it also understands the tones of those pixels. This means you can edit the tones of layers in your design based on the tones of other layers.  It is a very powerful tool.

Creating a tonal selection

1. Activate the layer you want to select in the Layers Palette. 
2. Make your selection:
   • If you want to select the whole layer, go to Edit Menu > Select All
   • If you want to select a specific area, use the Rectangular Selection Tool, Magic Wand Tool or Lasso Tool to do this.
3. Go to Edit Menu > Select > Tonal. The active selection will snap to the pixels on the layer:

What you do with this selection is up to you.  One great use for it is to use the Gamma Window to adjust the tones of another layer, based on the tonal movement of this selection.   To do this, follow these instructions:

1. Keeping the selection active in the design, activate the layer you want to adjust.
2. Go to Edit Menu > Gamma to open the Gamma Window. 
3. Adjust the gamma accordingly.  In the example below, the tonal selection has been used to pull some of the tones out of an 8 bit pad layer, thus creating a tonal base layer for the design: