Paint.NET Rectangle Select Tool Shortcut

This guide provides a quick overview of how to activate the Rectangle Select tool in Paint.NET using keyboard shortcuts. Learning this shortcut speeds up your photo editing workflow by eliminating the need to manually click the toolbar icon each time you need to make a rectangular selection.

The primary keyboard shortcut to select the Rectangle Select tool in Paint.NET is the letter S.

Pressing S on your keyboard automatically activates the selection tool group. By default, Paint.NET prioritizes the Rectangle Select tool. However, the S key is also used to cycle through all four selection tools available in the program:

• Rectangle Select
• Lasso Select
• Ellipse Select
• Magic Wand

If a different selection tool is currently active, press S repeatedly until the Rectangle Select icon is highlighted in the Tools window.

Once the tool is active, click and drag anywhere on your canvas to create a rectangular selection. You can hold the Shift key while dragging to constrain the selection to a perfect square, or hold Ctrl to add to an existing selection.