Ansel allows batch-applying editing histories (through copy-pasting, or through styles) or metadata. The target images for those batch-operations are selected images. But even single-image operations (like opening in darkroom to edit, or editing metadata, copy/pasting, etc.) use selections.

Selections are particular objects in Ansel, because :

  1. they are remembered between reboots and across ateliers (views) changes,
  2. they are global in the sofware and used to pass on lists of images between lighttable and other ateliers,
  3. they are disabled and inactive within an atelier (except for the lighttable), which use active images instead (contextual selection),
  4. they are necessarily a subset of the current filtered collection (as displayed in the lighttable),
  5. they can be set only from the lighttable view (no selection can be performed or used from the filmstrip),
  6. they can be turned into a temporary collection themselves, by using the Restrict to selection button in the include/filter toolbar of the lighttable.

Selected images will appear highlighted in the lighttable. Because selections are used to perform (possibly harmful) write operations, Ansel forces “hard” interactions (pressing on an hardware button) on thumbnails to define them. These allowed interactions are :

  • Left click or Space : to select a single image,
  • Ctrl+Left click or Ctrl+Space : to add/remove an image to the current selection (toggle),
  • Shift+Left click or Shift+Space : to extend the selection range from the nearest-selected image to the current image,
  • Global menu 🡒 Selection : to select all/none images from the current collection, or invert the current selection. Associated keyboard shortcuts will be shown in the menu entries,
  • Double left click or Enter will open the hovered image in darkroom, but will also create a singleton selection, because the darkroom can only handle one image at a time. This is a particular behaviour.

A selection will be needed to perform any property editing, even on a single image, among the following :

  • applying star ratings, or rejecting,
  • applying color labels,
  • applying tags, title, copyright or any metadata,
  • changing GPS coordinates or time zone,
  • copying/pasting image histories, deleting them,
  • removing images from library, or from the disk,
  • etc.

Unlike Darktable, Ansel doesn’t implicitely treats the hovered image as a part of any selection, which prevents unpredictable and often unwanted changes on random images when the mouse cursor is left dangling on the thumbnail grid.

If you scrolled far away from the selection and lost it, the global menu Selection 🡒 Scroll back to selection will realign the view on the thumbnail grid to the start of your selection.

A message sitting on the right of the top-most toolbar will tell how many images are selected, among how many in the current collection, and, if there is only one selected, will tell the image index after the # symbol. This index will match the # numbers in the background of the lighttable thumbnails, and is referred to the current collection.

In ateliers (views) other than the lighttable, interactions with the filmstrip will define active images, which are contextual selections relevant only to the current atelier. We don’t call them selection here is to distinguish with the application-wide, global selection. Selections are inactive in views other than the lighttable, and even disabled in darkroom, which forces digital assets management actions from the global menu to always target the main image.