how do i use the knife tool to cut a photo image?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 5, 2019
4 replies
6257 views

My knife tool works when I cut shapes i created; but I used the clipping mask on a photo and now i want to trim it with the knife but the strokes do not appear.

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Harshika Verma

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

If you’re just getting started and trying to understand the Knife Tool, it works directly on vector paths and shapes, but it won’t affect raster images (like photos). This quick tutorial explains the difference between the Knife Tool and Scissors Tool, and when to use each, so you can choose the right approach for your design.

Feel free to watch and explore how it can help improve your workflow. If you have any questions or feedback, drop them in the video comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Harshika

Ares Hovhannesyan

Community Expert

How to use and edit clipping masks in Illustrator

Edit paths within a clipping set

To edit portions of a path that fall outside of the clipping mask, you must first select the specific path within in the clipping mask boundary, and then edit the path.

Do one of the following:
- Target the path in the Layers panel.
- Position the Direct Selection tool over a portion of the path that appears within the mask. When the path’s outline appears, click it.
Note:To select a clipped path by clicking it, you must click the portion of it that appears inside the mask.

Edit the path.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Which version of Illustrator are you using?

In recent versions of Illustrator there is a dedicated crop function for raster images. You should see it in the Control panel as soon as you are selecting a raster image.

A

annagbennettAuthor

Participant

Im using 2019. Im not that familiar with the raster image concept but I did read one thing about that. My image is a creative commons photo from the internet and I cropped it with the clipping mask, now I just need to trim it some more. Could you walk me through what to do with the command your talking about? Im not sure I see this function or know how to use it.