Cutting, slicing and erasing PHOTOS and imported images in Illustrator cs4!

[GaNa85]

Hey everyone,

Could someone help me out?

I was wondering how would i do this, either of the following, cutting with scissor tool, slicing with knife or erasing photos with the erase tool which have just been brought into Illustrator? I know where the tools are located, but what are the steps, do i need to convert the image into a certain type of element/graphic, rasterize, use clipping mask ini some way etc?

Thanks heaps guys!

[Jacob Bugge]

GaNa,

Illy sees raster images as something basically inaccessible within a Bounding Box, and all the tools for handling vector artwork are of no use to her for that.

One of the things she can do is to create a Clipping Mask and mask out parts (make them invisible, but still selectable); it is possible to get rid of those parts in a rather destructive way.

The Slice Tool works on the Bounding Box, and she may be able feel her way to certain pixels with the Live Trace Tool.

[downbeatjess]

It's been a long time since this was posted but I wanted to throw an answer out there for anyone still looking to do this.

A couple easy ways that may work for your project is:

1. A Clipping Mask. Create a shape over the photo, any shape. Then select both the shape and the photo. Once the shape and the photo are selected go to Object> Clipping Mask> Make. This will crop your photo to what ever shape you created on top. It's an easy way to trim any unwanted parts of your photo.

2. With your photo selected, click the direct selection tool (the white arrow), and directly alter and resize your photo (without effecting the proportions) using the anchor points shown around your photo. Sometimes you have to click your object then click anywhere outside your object to see the anchor points.

Hope this helps!

[KizzleBizzle]

this didnt work I think I need to make the object embedded or something

[Monika Gause]

kizzlebizzle  schrieb

this didnt work I think I need to make the object embedded or something

Please be more precise as to what you want to do and what exactly doesn't work.

What you can't expect is erasing parts of a pixel image in Illustrator. That simply won't work.

[kennethh29358294]

And that is one of the many reasons illustrator is complete bullshit.  And the fanpersons defend it blindly.  A simple thing that every damned paint program since the 90s has had no problem with, and adobe thinks it's not important.  Oh, try filling a space with a texture or a color, see if you can do that without a thousand clicks and a headache.  I'm sick and tired of software design that "credentializes" creative work mindlessly.  I want part of the image gone, I own the image, I took it with my camera.  Adobe finds that too difficult to deliver, and then relies on its existing users to find all complaints baffling, marginalizing people implicitly.  And really, they're just like effing Walmart:  they bought or closed competitors, until it's either Apple's garbage or Adobe's garbage, they don't do ANY creative design in-house, all of that is contracted out (witness all the recent disputes with people they've hired to make tools). Then when they have things cornered, they collect rent and care as little as possible about users or the, you know, ACTUAL EFFING PURPOSE of their product. 

[SJRiegel]

kennethh29358294  wrote

A simple thing that every **** paint program since the 90s has had no problem with 

That's the thing. Illustrator is not, and has never claimed to be a paint program. Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program.

Photoshop is Adobe's paint program.

[KizzleBizzle]

Monika read the thread. I was importing a GIF to use in a project I was trying to crop it and it wouldnt let me. to accomplish the task I had to change the object settings to embedded and then was able to crop it..