Participant

Question

Is there any way to crop in Illustrator?

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
April 6, 2015
7 replies
52568 views

I feel like this ought to be a simple process but I can't figure out how to crop an image in Illustrator. Do I need to crop the image in a different program and then bring it into Illustrator, or is there a way to crop in Illustrator? Sorry if this is a dumb question with a really obvious answer I am missing.

This topic has been closed for replies.

G

George5C82

Participating Frequently

adobe loves to make very simple thing absolutely impossible ... thanks adobe....

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Is Object > Crop Image impossible?

G

George5C82

Participating Frequently

No unfortunately not, and clipping.masks doesn't want to work either

Adobe always seems to make really simple operations difficult to do and it
doesn't matter which program you're using.

Thanks Adobe

George Lorimer
General Manager
PAPR SOLUTIONS
personal details removd by moderator

K

kercheval

Known Participant

Open pathfinder (View-pathfinder).

Place a frame over top of a vector image, select all. Click the crop tool in pathfinder. It will be the 4th button from the left.

What I recently found out, if the crop doesn't work, then the frame is too complicated. I revised my frame and it worked fine.

Very simple, most of the answers here are too complicated for me...

Lindas Lovely Loot

A

Anonymous

This is not answer, rather building on your question, kymg.

I also need something like "crop" in AI CS6, but having tried the masking and other hints I realize that asking for crop was not the right question. Gives too much freedom to give a perfectly accurate, but perfectly unusable answer.

I really need an answer to:

"How do I force the "export" function to save only the area left visible by the clipping mask?"

or

"Regardless what the functions are called, how can I generate non-vector graphics showing only a subset of the vector graphics (object collection) in the AI file?"

So far I see that advice (Larry G. Schneider) of making new artboard will lead to the desired effect and the one (Jacob Bugge) with flattening transparencies does the job, although seems to be changing the AI file irreversibly. Is there no way to just do it based on the (simply rectangular in my case) clipping mask without the irreversible change?

bilboleo

Participating Frequently

Kymg, apparently your answer is "NO" you cannot directly crop an image in illustrator. The only info Adobe help gives is to use Photoshop to crop, which is just stupid. The workaround is the clipping mask activity that SRiegel provided (or anything similar using the clipping mask). Jacob's answer sounds like you will need to learn to be an expert with Illustrator before you can get it to work. Cheers.

sishamIAGD

Community Expert

Illy is a program to create vector graphics not and image manipulation program (like Photoshop) so why should you need to crop images? But if needed using the clipping mask is just fine.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Ok I have tried several different methods as suggested here. In a nutshell, I am creating a photolog, 4 photos per page, around 5 pages/artboards in my file (this is a small project). I am placing jpg image files of the project area, with each photo surrounded by a border (black rectangle, already defined on my artboards as the place where each photo will go, with the layer locked so I don't accidentally move or mess up the photo borders).

SRiegel: that works (your first comment back on April 6), since I already have the rectangles created as to the proper dimensions, but when I create clipping mask, my black border (the rectangle) disappears. I did have to remove the lock on that layer to select the rectangle, so it is probably just the way AI treats the object being used to create a mask. I suppose I could make 2 layers of the same rectangles, leave one locked and use the other one as my clipping borders, unlocked, and the rectangles will just go away. Doable, but a bummer for duplication of efforts.

Jacob: I tried that and my images and artboards sort of kind of disappeared on my. Can't figure out what I did wrong (twice before I gave up), but i lost my template. No problem, close without saving, and reopen the original file.

Larry G: I found this procedure way too complicated, having to create artboards again and again, defining the right size (as based on the rectangle photo borders I already had), and zooming in and out and around the screen to find out where I was and where I wanted to be. Easier for me to print everything out and cut and paste with scissors and tape.

Ton: your suggestion is the easiest and most appropriate step I have found.

SRiegel: I can't get illustrator to do this process. What do you mean by "Option-double-click"? I get either 'Isolation Mode' (shift-double-click or ctrl-double-click) or opened up in Paint (Alt-double-click). I do have photoshop installed. When I opened it up separately with the jpg file I can't get it to do anything I want it to (very not user-friendly). I have difficulty getting the exact size (compared to the photo border rectangle I have already), and I did not want to modify the original jpg file as other people will be using them for additional reports. having multiple copies of many 10 mb image files will clog up the servers pretty quickly.

So, it looks like I will just throw my computer out the window and say the hell with it go with Ton's suggestion and deal with use the 'Mask' option for a clipping mask, unable to modify the resolution (within illustrator), and use multiple illustrator files for sheets 6-10, 11-15, etc to keep overall file sizes manageable. Ugh.

I'd mark this question as 'Answered' if I could.

Bilboleo,

I think that InDesign is the proper application for your photolog.

You can set up master pages with picture frames with your desired fitting and border options.

The images can be linked so they don't add a lot to the file size.

Reducing the resolution of the end result can be done during printing or saving as pdf.

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

Or make a new artboard the size of the area to be cropped and use Export with Use Artboards checked and the number of the artboard in the Range box and replace the image with the new one.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

kymg,

In addition to what SRiegel said, if you wish to really, literally crop, there is the dirty destructive deed, with the Clipping Mask selected:

1) In the Transparency palette/panel dropdown list select anything but Normal (Multiply is fine; this step may be unneeded in your version, you may try;

2) Object>Flatten Transparency, just keep the defaults including 100% Vector;

3) Shudder.

This will crop everything to the Bounding Box of the Clipping Path.

C

claudspet

Participant

Hi. I am brand new to Illustrator. Trying to learn my way around it. Why do you call the way you described destructive? Is this a bad thing?

Thanks

M

mecdos

Inspiring

destructive means that you modified the artwork in such a way that you can't go back to the original without Undoing. example: if you apply a contrast effect on an image, at any time you can remove the effect and have the original image look the same again. but if you adjust the actual contrast on that image not as an effect, you may not be able to go back to it's original contrast.

S

SJRiegel

Legend

Draw a rectangle the size of your crop area, select the rectangle and the image. Then Object > Clipping Mask > Make

M

mc_mark

Known Participant

I have CS6 on Windows. I have a vector based file containing artwork created for an older project. I need to take part of this artwork and repurpose it for a new project. The original file has dozens if not hundreds of layers. I've drawn a rectangle around the area I want to crop then did Object > Clipping Mask > Make and now just the part of the artwork I need is shown. But now I need to send this cropped artwork off to a 3rd party in .ai format but before I do that, how can i permanently delete all the artwork that is hidden by the clipping mask? I don't want the 3rd party to be able to release the mask and see/have access to everything I hid.

sishamIAGD

Community Expert

You could release the mask then select all, use the divide pathfinder tool, then select everything outside the rectangle with the direct selection tool and delete.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded