Marquee tool not allowing a copy to be made

[ToddDC]

I have used the marquee tool to select an area. Then I press Ctrl C to copy the area. I receive a dialog box with the following message: "Could not complete the Copy command because no pixels are selected."

I have performed this process before but can not longer copy.

I would appreciate knowing what I am doing wrong.

Thanks,
ToddDC

[Jancy]

Make sure you have the correct layer selected in the layers palette - very easy mistake to make - I've made that mistake quite often. :)

[ToddDC]

Jancy:

Thanks. That leads to my next question: How do I know which layer to use? Now you truly know how little I know.

Thanks,

ToddDC

[Diana]

First, make sure you have your Layers Palette open. It's located at the right of your workspace and looks like this:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1z0Ay3qz0lTCojvVtCINIQHc3VApNm_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1z0Ay3qz0lTCojvVtCINIQHc3VApNm)

When you click on a layer in the Layers palette, it turns a different color than the other layers to signify that is the active layer.

If you have made a selection on your image and you get that message, usually it's because you are on a blank layer or a layer with no pixels in the area where you made the selection.

Hope this helps.

Diana

[Jancy]

Todd Diana explained it perfectly! :)

[ToddDC]

Diana and Jancy:

Well, I am making progress. I selected Layer 1 and did not receive the message. However, only a small area of the marquee tool selected area was copied.

As aside to the above, why do I have layers numbered up to about 67? Additional information, I have worked on the picture before but never noticed anything about layers.

I do appreciate your assistance.

ToddDC

[annc]

Another time this kind of problem occurs is when too high an amount of feathering is set. It is sometimes easier to sett Feather at the top to 0px and then use right-click after selecting to set the feather amount.

[Diana]

Diana and Jancy:

Well, I am making progress. I selected Layer 1 and did not receive the message. However, only a small area of the marquee tool selected area was copied.

As aside to the above, why do I have layers numbered up to about 67? Additional information, I have worked on the picture before but never noticed anything about layers.

I do appreciate your assistance.

ToddDC

Hi Todd,

It may be that when you worked on your image in the past, you added new blank layers without knowing it. Here's how to check if the layer is blank:

Hold the Alt key and click on the eye icon next to a layer. That will turn off the visibility for all other layers, so you'll see that layer only. You can toggle back to view all layers by repeating the Alt-click on the same eye icon.

If there is nothing on a layer and you wish to get rid of it, make sure that layer is selected (active), then delete it by clicking the Trash icon.

It sound like you may have one or more layers containing only part of your image if you're getting a partial copy of your selection.

Diana

[ToddDC]

Diana:

Thank you. I will try that.

Todd

[martinwinlow]

Hi - I had this problem regularly - first copy and paste worked fine and the next didn't and brought up your error. I think the problem is that when you first paste a copied snippet, PS creates a new layer to paste it onto. Then when you go to select a new area to copy, you are selcting a blank area of the new layer, hence the 'no pixels' error. All you need to do is swap to the original layer that has the full image and copy from there, or go to Layers and 'Merge Visible' which merges all the layers into one.

Regards, MW.