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_bdkennedy1_
Participant
July 15, 2008
Question

How do I crop a clipping mask?

  • July 15, 2008
  • 12 replies
  • 78432 views
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?

12 replies

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OldBob1957
OldBob1957
Inspiring
July 16, 2008
Here's a workaround that (I believe) came from this forum:

How do I crop an image in Illustrator?
LenHewitt - 03:10am Jan 18, 2007 Pacific

Cropping an Image to a clipping mask

Place your image in Illustrator as an emebedded image.
Create your clipping mask using any of the drawing tools.
Select both image and clipping mask and select Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

The visual image will be 'cropped' to within the clipping mask. If the clipping mask is released the whole image will again become visible.

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'.

The image will be permanently cropped to the smallest rectangle that will enclose the clipping mask. Releasing the clipping mask will not reveal the original image. Releasing the clipping mask will not reveal the original image.
    P
    Patton330488005pmm
    Participant
    October 20, 2023

    You saved my day!

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    _Clint_Weatherwalks_
    Participant
    July 16, 2008
    Unfortunately, in Illustrator, you can't. For some reason unknown to the rest of the world, the Illustrator programmers seem to think this is the way the application SHOULD work.

    There have been many requests to fix this behavior, but since it's not a new, snazzy feature that you can put in a press release, it's pretty far down the list of things for the Illustrator team to do.
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    _japchap_
    Participant
    November 3, 2008
    According to Mordy Golding's blog, CS4 adds this functionality at last.<br />He wrote:<br /><br /> Clipping Masks. One of the biggest complaints about the masking features<br />in Illustrator has been that when artwork is clipped, you can still select<br />that artworkeven if it isn¹t visible. In Illustrator CS4, masked artwork is<br />now truly hiddenfrom view and from your selection tool. However, this new<br />functionality is only in place for clipping masks, not for layer clipping<br />masks.<br /><br />The blog is at: <br />http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2008/09/illustrator-cs4-facts.html<br /><br />Jeff<br /><br /><br />On 08/07/16 11:03, in article 59b5db08.0@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI,<br />"Clint_Weatherwalks@adobeforums.com" <Clint_Weatherwalks@adobeforums.com><br />wrote:<br /><br />> Unfortunately, in Illustrator, you can't. For some reason unknown to the rest<br />> of the world, the Illustrator programmers seem to think this is the way the<br />> application SHOULD work.<br />> <br />> There have been many requests to fix this behavior, but since it's not a new,<br />> snazzy feature that you can put in a press release, it's pretty far down the<br />> list of things for the Illustrator team to do.
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