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Photoshop CS3  |  Go to CS4 Help

Crop images

Cropping is the process of removing portions of an image to create focus or strengthen the composition. You can crop an image using the Crop tool  and the Crop command. You can also trim pixels using the Crop And Straighten and the Trim commands.

Using the Crop tool

Crop an image using the Crop tool

  1. Select the Crop tool .
  2. (Optional) Set resample options in the options bar.

    • To crop the image without resampling (default), make sure that the Resolution text box in the options bar is empty. You can click the Clear button to quickly clear all text boxes.

    • To resample the image during cropping, enter values for the height, width, and resolution in the options bar. The Crop tool won’t resample the image unless the width and/or height, and resolution are provided. If you’ve entered height and width dimensions and want the values quickly exchanged, click the Swaps Height And Width icon .

      You can click the triangle next to the Crop tool icon in the options bar to open the Tool Preset Picker and select a resampling preset. As with all Photoshop tools, you can create your own Crop tool preset. See also Create and use tool presets.

    • To resample an image based on the dimensions and resolution of another image, open the other image, select the Crop tool, and click Front Image in the options bar. Then make the image you want to crop active.

    Resampling while cropping uses the default interpolation method set in the General preferences.

  3. Drag over the part of the image you want to keep to create a marquee. The marquee doesn’t have to be precise—you can adjust it later.
  4. If necessary, adjust the cropping marquee:

    • To move the marquee to another position, place the pointer inside the bounding box and drag.

    • To scale the marquee, drag a handle. To constrain the proportions, hold down Shift as you drag a corner handle.

    • To rotate the marquee, position the pointer outside the bounding box (the pointer turns into a curved arrow), and drag. To move the center point around which the marquee rotates, drag the circle at the center of the bounding box. The marquee can’t be rotated in Bitmap mode.

  5. Set options to hide or shield the cropped portions:

    • Specify whether you want to use a cropping shield to shade the area of the image that will be deleted or hidden. When Shield is selected, you can specify a color and opacity for the cropping shield. When Shield is deselected, the area outside the cropping marquee is revealed.

    • Specify whether you want to hide or delete the cropped area. Select Hide to preserve the cropped area in the image file. You can make the hidden area visible by moving the image with the Move tool. Select Delete to discard the cropped area.

    The Hide option is not available for images that contain only a background layer. If you want to crop a background by hiding, convert the background to a regular layer first.

  6. Do one of the following:

    • To complete the crop, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS), click the Commit button  in the options bar, or double-click inside the cropping marquee.

    • To cancel the cropping operation, press Esc or click the Cancel button  in the options bar.

Crop an image using the Crop command

  1. Use a selection tool to select the part of the image you want to keep.
  2. Choose Image > Crop.

Crop an image using the Trim command

The Trim command crops an image by removing unwanted image data in different ways than the Crop command. You can crop an image by trimming surrounding transparent pixels, or background pixels of the color you specify.

  1. Choose Image > Trim.
  2. In the Trim dialog box, select an option:

    • Transparent Pixels to trim away transparency at the edges of the image, leaving the smallest image containing nontransparent pixels.

    • Top Left Pixel Color to remove an area the color of the upper left pixel from the image.

    • Bottom Right Pixel Color to remove an area the color of the lower right pixel from the image.

  3. Select one or more areas of the image to trim away: Top, Bottom, Left, or Right.



Comments

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Comments


Bill Hardcastle said on May 30, 2008 at 9:02 AM :
The crop function in Photoshop has suddenly begun to reduce
anything/everything I try to crop to a tiny (1-3 pixels) no matter how I go
about cropping?
It is unsuable as it is. Do you know what has happened?
No screen name said on Jun 20, 2008 at 1:22 PM :
You've probably inadvertently constrained the horizontal and vertical size.
It's happened to me. With the crop tool selected, check the info in the options
bar at the top of the page, and click the "clear" button to restore normality.
sgstandre said on Aug 2, 2008 at 6:54 PM :
For online web pages I often need a picture of exact pixel dimensions, say 100 pixels by 100 pixels. For the life of me I can't figure out how to accomplish that in PhotoShop. A lot of simpler editors simply show the size of the selected window. Why not PhotoShop? How do I accomplish an exact (in Pixels) crop?
april floyd said on Aug 11, 2008 at 11:00 AM :
Can someone show me how to get an exact pixel dimenision image like the poster above.

It must be easy and it must be a common thing to do
magdalena.bruhn said on Aug 23, 2008 at 6:58 AM :
my problem, when I crop a photo and then want to print it I always get the wrong size. in sweden we have 10x15 cm or 11x16cm when we go to a photodealer and print photos. so my photos always get white frames on one or two sides. can anybody help me out?

 

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