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_bdkennedy1_
Participant
Jul 15, 2008 9:34 PM UTC
Question

How do I crop a clipping mask?

I created a clipping mask and now I have a big transparent bounding box around the image. How do I crop out all the extra empty space to just leave the image as my object?

17 replies

MindyLL
Participant
Dec 13, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

I've tried everything but nothing is getting rid of that space and I need to save it as a JPEG and PNG but I'm getting a ton of empty space from my clipping mask. Any other suggestions?

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Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
Dec 13, 2015 8:49 AM UTC

Select the clipping path and go to Object > Artboards > Fit to Selected Art.

Check the "Use Artboards" option when exporting

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michaelbrown7878785446
Participant
Apr 26, 2012 1:07 PM UTC

classic case of illustrator making easy things hard, or in this case impossible.

no crop tool? i wanted to make sprite sheets for my game and Paint.net only lets you rotate in 90% increments, so i spent 7 hours downloading the illustrator trial. after figuring out the whole clipping mask thing, now i cant get rid if the white space around my sprite pieces. time to uninstall illustrator and go back to free Paint.net which lets you crop, jesh.

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Wade S Zimmerman
Participating Frequently
Nov 3, 2008 3:04 AM UTC
I want a crop tool to crop every thing.
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Wade S Zimmerman
Participating Frequently
Nov 2, 2008 3:13 PM UTC
A crop tool is a must have!
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_japchap_
Participant
Nov 2, 2008 11:58 PM UTC
I second that - a crop tool for raster images on the artboard<br />would be a thing of beauty.<br /><br />Jeff<br /><br /><br />On 08/11/03 0:13, in article 59b5db08.8@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI,<br />"Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com" <Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com> wrote:<br /><br />> A crop tool is a must have!
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JETalmage
JETalmage
Inspiring
Nov 2, 2008 2:14 PM UTC
Be aware that the Flatten Transparency workaround also outlines all strokes. Thus, it is not a substitute for the much-needed proper cutting capability which Illustrator still embarassingly lacks.

JET
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_nicholasmcroberts_
Participant
Nov 1, 2008 5:27 PM UTC
The solution to having it broken up into different images is then to do a pixelisation (setting the resolution to 600 or something high) and then it's just one block... like if Adobe had thought fit to include an Object - Flatten clipping mask feature!
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_RenéG_
Participating Frequently
Jul 16, 2008 4:23 PM UTC
OK, thanks for letting me know.
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OldBob1957
OldBob1957
Inspiring
Jul 16, 2008 3:40 PM UTC
Sometimes it does that to me too. I don't know why. Often, if I just start over and do it again (same image, same crop), I get it as one image. On the other hand, when it does cut up the image like that, it has always printed fine for me.

Probably why it's a workaround, though, and not a feature. ;)
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_RenéG_
Participating Frequently
Jul 16, 2008 2:44 PM UTC
>Embedded images can be permanently cropped within Illustrator to reduce file size:
With the image and clipping mask still selected, in the transparency palette select any mode other than 'Normal'.
Select Object > Flatten Transparency. Set the Raster/Vector Balance to 100 (Raster). Click 'OK'.

Good tip.

But now my image is separated in 5 sections (i.e. I have 5 embedded imags in the links palette); is that normal?
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_bdkennedy1_Author
Participant
Jul 16, 2008 2:29 PM UTC
This worked. Thanks!
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