Cropping an Image


When an image is cropped, unneeded edges or portions of the image are cut away. An entire image can be cropped using the Crop tool, Crop command, the Trim command, or the new Crop and Straighten Photos command.

The Crop tool

The Crop tool is used to drag a marquee around the area you want to keep. It’s fast and easy to use. Open an image in Photoshop and follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Crop tool from the Toolbox.

    Before you create the cropping marquee, you can find out the width, height, and resolution of the image you are going to crop by clicking the Front Image option on the Options bar.

  2. To set the Crop tool to create a cropping marquee using specific dimensions, enter the dimensions you would like to use in the Width and Height text boxes.

    Or you can select preset dimensions using the Tool Presets button on the Options bar.

  3. Drag a marquee over the portion of the image you want to keep.

    Figure 4-9 shows the selected area of the image. If you want to darken the unselected area outside the cropping marquee as shown in Figure 4-9, put a check in the Shield check box on the Options bar.

    click to expand
    Figure 4-9: Use the Crop tool to select the area of the image you want to keep (left). After cropping, the marquee disappears (right).

    If you’re cropping a layer, the Options bar offers you the choice of either deleting the cropped area or hiding it.

  4. Use the radio buttons on the Options bar to make a selection (Delete is the default).

    For more about layers, turn to Chapter 8.

  5. Resize, reposition, or rotate the cropping marquee if you need to.

    To resize the cropping marquee, position the mouse over a corner, and drag the tiny square handle. If you want to reposition the cropping marquee, position the mouse pointer inside the marquee, and then drag it to its new location. To rotate a cropping marquee, position the mouse pointer outside the cropping marquee, and then drag in a circular direction.

  6. Click the Commit button on the Options bar to accept the cropping.

    Instead of clicking the Commit button, you can also double-click inside the cropping marquee, or press Enter (Return on a Mac) on the keyboard.

Tip

Before you click the Commit button, you can cancel the entire cropping process by clicking the Cancel button on the Options bar or pressing Esc on the keyboard.

The Crop command

The Crop command is very simple, but it’s also very basic. Use this command if you don’t need any of the options — such as a specifically sized cropping marquee, marquee rotation, or cropping only one layer — that the Crop tool offers. Open an image and try out this command:

  1. Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Toolbox or press M on the keyboard.

  2. Drag a marquee selection around the area of the image you want to keep.

    To find out more about using the Rectangular Marquee tool to make selections turn to Chapter 7.

  3. Choose ImageCrop.

    The entire image outside of the selected area is cut away and discarded.

Remember

You can always undo an action if you decide you don’t like it. If you just completed the action, choose Edit→Undo or press Ctrl+Z (z+Z on a Mac) on the keyboard. If you completed the action a while ago, you can undo it using the History palette. For more about the History palette, take a look at Chapter 14.

The Trim command

The Trim command removes the excess color or transparent areas from around an image. It’s easy to use and very basic. Here’s how:

  1. Choose ImageTrim.

    The Trim dialog box shown in Figure 4-10 opens.

    click to expand
    Figure 4-10: Use the Trim dialog box to set the trimming color (or trans-parency) and areas of the image to be trimmed.

  2. Select the trim color or transparency that you want to use to trim the image.

    In the Based On area of the dialog box, set whether the trim color (or transparency) should be selected using the pixel at the upper left corner of the image or the bottom right corner of the image.

  3. Use the Trim Away check boxes to select the areas to be removed.

    In the Trim Away area, put check marks in the boxes corresponding to the sides of the image you want to remove pixels from.

  4. Click OK.

    Photoshop samples the pixel color (or transparency) and removes that color or transparency from the sides of the image you selected to remove.

The Crop and Straighten Photos command

If you want to scan several photographs at one time, and then separate them into separate image files, Photoshop CS can help.

Photoshop CS

The new Crop and Straighten Photos command automatically looks for rectangular areas in an image and then separates each area into a separate image file.

Scan several photographs at one time (see Chapter 3 for more on importing scanned images into Photoshop), and then try out this command:

  1. Open the image file containing the scanned photographs or scan several photos at one time.

  2. Choose FileAutomateCrop and Straighten Photos (PhotoshopAutomateCrop and Straighten Photos on a Mac).

    The Crop and Straighten Photos command goes to work, looking for rectangular areas, and quickly extracting the photographs into individual image windows. The images in the separate image windows are only temporary and held in memory, so be sure to save them.




Photoshop CS For Dummies
Photoshop CS For Dummies
ISBN: 0764543563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 221

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