Participant

Answered

How do I crop a photo in Illustrator?

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
May 29, 2008
39 replies
2196007 views

I can't believe I can't figure this out. (I came over from Freehand, and it was simple).

All I want to do is:
1) Crop a placed photo within Illustrator
2) Create a border around it.

I can't seem to find the answer in any help file. Is it so simple in Illustrator that they don't explain how to do it? I don't want to create crop marks for the entire image, just crop off part of a photo without going back into Photoshop. How?

Thanks very much.

Mark

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer

Clipping paths and masks can be temporarily applied, and then released from release (accessible in the objects panel). This can restrict parts of the image for viewing, or make them viewable again layer. Here is a link to a video explanation: click here

Go to view --> show edges or use (control H or cmd H)
Press V on the keyboard (brings up selection tool), then click the picture you are wanting to crop
Somewhere on the screen (probably top), a mask button appears on top of the control panel
Click the Mask button (in that control panel) --> creates a clipping mask

Two buttons at the far left of the same panel that had clipping mask button show up (far most left-two buttons). after you click the first of those buttons, use (keyboard a shortcut) to start clicking anchor points at the far-most corners of the image

After selecting topmost anchor points, use shortcut shift down.
You can select any edge (made of at least two of those anchor points (and use shift key + UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT aft)

ANOTHER TRICK= OPACITY MASK

Use the shape drawing tools (i.e. ellipse tool) --> then use a white fill color (optimally)
Create white circle atop the car (or above the vector artwork)
Use V key to select the white ellipse, then shift select the car to select the image behind the ellipse, and then open the transparency option (window panel ==> transparency panel)
Within the transparency panel, expanding the menu that appears, and select the make mask button, which allows you to see ONLY WHAT YOU HAVE IN THE FILLED SHAPE or ellipse (as shown in the video linked at the top).
you can adjust the mask or the artwork you are trying to restrict and also, you can release any of these clipping masks

Advantages over cropping:

In the video, you can actually modulate some property of the clipping mask (say add a gradient and opacity mask), which actually saves you some time by allowing you to not only crop, but change the entire image, and making it easy to release that mask so your raw materials are usually in tact.

Show previous replies

DESIGN LOG

Participant

use to 'cliping mask' skill

Testunit

Participant

It's not a function for a app like Illustrator but you can make something similar with the commands "Paste in place & Make Clipping Mask".

For that you can draw a shape and then put the image or shape or whatever you want, over the new shape with the crop size. Finally place the two objects inside the doc like you want the crop. Select the two objects, select Clipping Mask from the Edit Menu and try Make. The result of that was a clip form the original content inside the new shape...

I apologize for my grammar... if you need more info about this technique, please let me a message and I try to explain me better...

All the best!

A

Anonymous

Here is a link to a video explanation: click here

A

Anonymous

You can not crop image in Illustrator.

brandbrilliance

Participating Frequently

Quick Crop

If you only want to crop the image in a rectangle, then the quickest way is in CS5 or greater to click the MASK button in the top tool information section (between Trace and Opacity). This creates mask immediately the same size as the image. Then you can click the two smaller toolbar buttons on the very left (if the masked object is selected) to toggle between the mask (clipping path) and the raster image. This allows you to independently size/change each one.

Shape Crop

The second method is a bit more steps, but you create any shape you want, e.g. draw a polyline or use the pen tool and refine your outline. Once you are happy with the outline, select both the outline and the raster image and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make in the menu (or CMD+7 on Mac).

In both cases, Illustrator creates a mask group and in the Layers you will be able to select the mask and the image and move/change them separately (on most older versions as well). You can also copy new images into the mask by double-clicking into the mask group and then pasting a new image. This is handy when you have a lot of evenly sized thumbnails and you want to first line them up and then one by one replace their images inside the masks.

What's also good is to drag a file onto the art board, then illustrator creates a linked file, which can be updated without including it directly into your illustrator file.

If you are on a Mac, and you are running Mavericks, you can also use Preview's built in tools for cropping, auto-background removal, lasso and smart lasso (via the editing options), which all are very easy to use and is very quick (no Photoshop required).

S

Subin ck

Participant

Use clip mask.. that's the easyest way!

A

Anonymous

make me want to jump up and down with frustration

E

EricaLynneLarson

Adobe Employee

Hi everyone,

There are a few Adobe resources out there that show you how to use masks to get an effect similar to cropping in Illustrator, including videos and text explanations. We have now started experimenting with a new format: Visual Tutorials, which use illustrations and minimal text to teach you a technique. If you are wondering how to "crop" an image in Illustrator, follow the Visual Tutorial for creating a mask.