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

Fobioid

Inspiring

Cropping raster images is possible with Rasterino, a plug-in by Astute Graphics.

A

Anonymous

Mark,

How did you do with the clipping masks? I just started a new job and the files have a ton of clipping masks built into them. It's driving me crazy. Any tips you can give me?

A

Anonymous

I opened a cs6 illustrator file in CS5 and it doesn't retain any of my layers. If I purchase CS6 I should see my layers, right?

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

You will need to resave a CS6 file as a CS5 file for the Layers to be retained. Did you not get the warning about losing data when opening the CS6 file in CS5?

Bojan Živković11378569

Community Expert

You can "crop" bitmap image in Illustrator using clipping mask and Clip to Artboard option in Save for Web dialog. Trick is to set artboard bounds to same size as clipping path. - See more at: http://adobephotoshopsecrets.blogspot.com/2013/01/crop-and-save-bitmap-images-for-web.html

R

rotten_69

Known Participant

I'd try using photoshop

A

Anonymous

hii

the illustrator was built for vector files u cant crop a pixel photo in a vector software but you can make a clipping mask u have to choose the object and the shape u want tp crop ( the shape must be on the photo ) and then click shift + 7

i hope it was usefull my friend

JETalmage

Inspiring

...u cant crop a pixel photo in a vector software...

Really?

Maybe you should explain that to the makers of FreeHand, Draw, Canvas, Fireworks, Designer Pro...

JET

E

EricaLynneLarson

Adobe Employee

We've recently created videos explaining two methods of doing this.

With Clipping Masks:

With Opacity Masks:

I hope you find these helpful!

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Erica, others,

This thread is quite unique.

E

EricaLynneLarson

Adobe Employee

You're right, it's a lot of discussion for a task that's as simple as cmd7. However, to be honest, a clipping path would not be my first instinct as a new user. Especially with the Crop tool in Photoshop.

A

Anonymous

Follow the steps given below so that you can crop your Photo/Embedded image as you desired/required in Illustrator.

1) Select the Photo/Image you want to Crop then press Ctrl+Shift +Alt +2 to lock all objects other than you selected.

2) Make a clipping mask of your Photo/Embedded image as you required.

3)Choose the "Group Selection Tool" from the Tools palette and choose View>Outline or press Ctrl + Y. It will change your screen to Outline mode. Now select your clipping path(which you created to make a clipping mask) using the "Group Selection Tool" then "Copy" and "Paste in Front" or simply doing by shortcut Ctrl + C and Ctrl + F. Dont Forget to bring back your screen to the Normal mode by using the same shortcut Ctrl + Y.

4)Now fill the path with white ensure the stroke should be none.

5)Choose Window>Transparency and choose the "Multiply" from Blending Mode then make a Opacity to 0%.

6)Choose Select>All or press Ctrl + A.

7)Choose Object>Flatten Transparency give 100 to the Raster/Vector Balance next give desired resolution to LineArt and Gradient Mesh then Check off for all other options and press OK.

Now your photo/image has been cropped as you required.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

bedo,

Regardless of version it may be done by:

1) Create a rectangle where you wish to crop the image,

2) Select the rectangle and the image and Object>Clipping Mask>Make,

3) In the Transparency palette/panel dropdown list select anything but Normal (Multiply is fine),

4) Object>Flatten Transparency, just keep the defaults including 100% Vector.

A

Anonymous

you are right!

C

Commmm-oggzt2

Participant

you can't crop an image in Ill. so U have to make clipin' mark it

JETalmage

Inspiring

And here we are, four years (and hundreds of dollars) later. And illustrator still cannot perform one of the most taken-for-granted functions in graphics.

JET

SeniorSSS

Participating Frequently

And here we are, four years (and hundreds of dollars) later. And illustrator still cannot perform one of the most taken-for-granted functions in graphics.

Not quite right for my opinion. It have been done for a while ago. There is a tool - Artboard Tool. It's do crop function and actually they made it look more like crop tool in PS.