Illustrator, Really? Fast Image Crop

[SebastiaoV]

Hi guys,

I decided to start this post with "Really?" like a SNL sketch...hehe. I have been using Illustrator for quite a while but i am not expert with it. One feature that really bothers me is that i can't really fast crop an image unless i draw a rectangle on top and then apply a crop mask. Why so many steps? Some might say illustrator is for vector and if you want image and text editing go to Photoshop or InDesign. I don't agree with that. I use it for a fast presentation and friends that just started to use it last week tell me "Why i cannot crop an image fast?"

So is there any way to fast cropping an image in the CS5 Illustrator that i might not be aware? I might consider an external plugin or script...but again paying for bottle water is always a rip off. That should be a internal feature long time ago, even Corel Draw has it.

Thanks and cheers,

S.-

[Steve Fairbairn]

You don’t get it do you? The feature IS there and has been there for ages, just like (well almost) in InDesign (I can’t vouch for Corel or Freehand but I’ll take youyr word for it). You just need to get used to using it.

[SebastiaoV]

is NOT the same feature that InDesign, can't you at least grant me that or not?  I know how to make a mask in Illustrator but In InDesign is quicker and easier to handle any raster image. Why can't have that in Illustrator? I am sorry but I don't want to get used to i want something better. Why is that a problem? Software do evolve too and Illustrator is far from being flawless software like the great Perspective Tool or the Artboard handling which are very annoying indeed.

Never mind, this is going nowhere. Thanks.

[CarlosCanto]

we're all regular users here and we're trying to help...maybe if your choice of words would have been "is there a way to make a clipping mask in Illustrator faster than the way Indesing does it?" then the answer would have been "no", end of story...

I don't understand your quest for speed, usually working with illustrator is not associated with churning out the most artwork per minute as humanly possible, but who knows, you might have a legitimate reason for shaving off micro seconds of an operation, otherwise you wouldn't be asking.

but now that we know what you need, being, a quick way to apply a clipping mask and a quick way to modify such clipping mask, I think this is the best Illustrator can offer, based on what others have said above

- right after placing your image, hit Ctrl+7, no need to draw a rectangle, or if it is already placed, select it and hit Ctrl+7 or as Monika said push the "Mask" button on the Control Panel.

- to modify the mask A La Indesign, with your masked image unselected, grab the Direct Selection Tool (A), click on the Mask (not on the image), and grab the Selection Tool (V) (or hit V on your keyboard) to get the bounding box. At this point you can  modify the mask exactly the way you do it in indesign.

man, if that's not fast enough for you, then, are you racing with your coworkers? maybe try bugging Adobe with a feature request pronto.

[JETalmage]

I am just a regular user who would like to see these useful feature in Illustrator, like InDesign, Corel Draw, Freehand...

FreeHand and Draw, like Illustrator, do not automatically place imported raster images inside clipping paths. Nor would I want them to.

That behavior is common to conventional-wisdom "page layout" programs like InDesign, ExPress, PageMaker, and it's more appropriate there.

The difference you're raving about is that Draw and FreeHand (and Canvas) provide actual bitmap cropping tools, which actually do crop away (delete) the pixels outside the crop area (without re-rasterizing), not merely clip (mask) them with a clipping path. Illustrator doesn't provide that, but most certainly should.

JET

[MW Design]

I just assigned ctrl+shift+7 to the edit mask command for my keyboard shortcuts. If I need to "move" the image inside the mask, that is the keyboard shortcut I press.

Does that help you?

Really, I usually crop original images in my image editing application. On the slightly rare occassion that I want to place an image and mask it (because I feel a client is going to want the display subject moved a bit), then I simply place the whole image, hit ctrl+7. Then if and when the client wants the subject of the image moved, hitting ctrl+shift+7 makes it fast and painless.

Well, painless enough for me anyway.

Still, it is a slightly weird way of working with what is inside the mask.

Take care, Mike

[emil_emil]

Oh, I actually forgot about the "Edit Mask" command. But it still can be improved. The Edit Mask is available from Object > Clipping Mask > Edit Mask only if the image is selected with the white pointer. Otherwise, if the group is selected it says "Edit Content" and will function as such. I think this is unnecessarily complicated and both items should have been in the menu so that the user should be able to select the clipping mask or the content in any kind of selection.

[autopark_at]

@Carlos, thanks for the script, did what I was searching for, and I haven't found anything better on the web.

However, usually I use a clipping mask first and want to apply the crop at a later stage, so I modified the script (my first for Illustrator) to crop the image to its clipping-mask:

var idoc = app.activeDocument;

var image = idoc.selection[0];

idoc.rasterize (image, image.pathItems[0].visibleBounds);

Next enhancement:

Copy the current clipping mask, crop the image and apply the copied clipping mask back to the image, so that it works not only for rectangle masks..

var idoc = app.activeDocument;

var image = idoc.selection[0];

var newgroup = idoc.groupItems.add();

image.pathItems[0].duplicate(newgroup);

imgnew = idoc.rasterize (image, image.pathItems[0].visibleBounds);

imgnew.move (newgroup, ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND);

newgroup.pathItems[0].clipping = true;

Maybe this is useful for someone finding this topic like I did 😉

[dario.]

Read here:

How To Crop A Photo in Adobe Illustrator - Astute Graphics

...from "apply any blending mode other than Normal" to "We cropped an image"

It's not all about the plugin!