Is there any way to crop in Illustrator?

[Enlightened_grace98A4]

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.

[SJRiegel]

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

[mc_mark]

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]

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.

[mc_mark]

As soon as I used the divide pathfinder tool, the artwork was altered and no longer looked like it should. Is there not some sort of Illustrator equivalent to Photoshop's Ctrl+J command where you can highlight a part of the image/art and then make a copy of just it?

[John Mensinger]

Is there not some sort of Illustrator equivalent to Photoshop's Ctrl+J command where you can highlight a part of the image/art and then make a copy of just it?

Not really. Vector editing has very little in common with raster editing.

As soon as I used the divide pathfinder tool, the artwork was altered and no longer looked like it should.

Try just using Divide without first releasing the clipping mask. It really depends on the constructs employed in the clipped artwork. If there are live blends, meshes, effects, etc., they will not "Divide" in a straightforward way, if at all.

[mc_mark]

Thanks for the help but that didn't work either. Hopefully they can accept the artwork as an imported PSD as I can't give them the AI file with all the other parts easily accessible by simple releasing the clipping mask.

[George5C82]

how about a crop button?

[Jacob Bugge]

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.

[claudspet]

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

[mecdos]

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.

[CaseyScalf]

Where are you getting "shudder" from?

[Doug A Roberts]

Jacob shudders at the idea of applying destructive edits.

[Ton Frederiks]

I would like to see a movie of Jacob shuddering 🙂

[CaseyScalf]

Ahh yes it is a funny joke. I get it now.

Frankly this moethod was the most succesful. However, I eneded up using CorelDraw as that piece of software did not have the problems I was expeirenceing with AI.

Thank you for help none the less.

[Ton Frederiks]

Actually, this is an old thread and the answer is very simple in the latest Illustrator versions:

Object menu > Crop Image...

or

Control panel > Crop Image...

[CaseyScalf]

Unfortunately that does not work. I am using vector artwork and it either deletes the wrong things or doesn't work at all.

I ended up using alt-eraser to actually delete/crop out the unwanted portions of the PDF.

[Larry G. Schneider]

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.

[bilboleo]

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]

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.

[bilboleo]

sishamDDS,

For a few reasons (at least):

1. We (my company) purchased Illustrator (or the design suite) as a replacement for CorelDraw, which it was specifically marketed by Adobe as being most appropriate for. CorelDraw does allow for import and manipulation of image files within the program, so there is a direct representation between the two programs and what users may expect to be able to do with them.

2. Illustrator allows for the import (place) of images, so why not the manipulation of them once inside the program? I find it disingenuous to require me to go out to another program to crop (or resample, which I have not been able to figure out how to do either) an image file before I bring it into Illustrator. If I have to go through ALL of this crap to take care of simple steps, why shouldn't I just stay with the competitors program?

3. I tried Photoshop; it is even less user friendly than Illustrator. And to spare you the details, I just won't go there.

4. In addition to cropping an image, I would like the file size to decrease as well when I do crop (remove the unneeded parts). Illustrator seems to expand quite rapidly in file size as new images are placed, putting an otherwise unnecessary load on my computer.

I appreciate you attempt at a response, but as kymg asked, it's about cropping an image. Going through 3 steps to create a clipping mask works, but it seems like a lot of extra effort if you have to do so repeatedly. I would like to think that some of these discussions about what can't be done in Illustrator get back to the developers so they can improve their product, thus the explanation here. Cheers

[Doug A Roberts]

why not stick with corel, if it does all you want?

[bilboleo]

I would, not my choice. Corporate decided to upgrade my group (recently acquired) to products the rest of the company is using, and CorelDraw wasn't one of them. Adobe suite was a choice. 200 licenses later and we can't do what we were told would not be a problem (creating photo logs and report cover pages, etc.). maybe next time I'll choose not adobe.

[SJRiegel]

If you have the whole suite, then you can do the edits in Photoshop, accessed from within Illustrator. Option-double-click on the image in Illustrator to launch it in Photoshop, do the edit and the image will update automatically in Illustrator when you come back to it.

[bilboleo]

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.