need basic help - how to crop an image

[peter25310168471i]

I'm a beginner and am stuck.  I can make a rectangle of the map I want to crop, but I don't see how to select it, or crop the rest out.  Am mystified by the "select" options ("select next object above" etc) and the various tutorial instructions (e.g., "select "crop" from the control panel).

[Jacob Bugge]

Peter,

As I (mis)understand it, you have a map and a rectangle on top of it, and you wish to only have the part within the rectangle shown.

In that case, you can select both the map and the rectangle, then hold Ctrl/Cmd and press 7.

You can do the same with a path of any shape.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @peter25310168471i,

Thanks for reaching out. To quickly crop the image, you can use the Clipping Mask. Jacob has shared the shortcut key to make that happen. Checkout out this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/clipping-masks.html) on how to use it. However, if you want to crop an image, you may check out this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/crop.html).

Kindly update the discussion if you still need assistance with it. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini

[peter25310168471i]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[Scott Falkner · Accepted solution]

You cannot select part of an image like you can in Photoshop. Illustrator treats the image as an object. Think of the image acting like a layer in Photoshop and Illustarator’s ability to edit the image is limited to about what you can do in the Layers panel. Since you can’s select part of the image you have to find another way to interact with it.

As others have pointed out, a clipping mask is he best option. Essentially this is a path that acts as a window, showing only the parts where the path overlaps the image. That path can be any shape you draw, including circles, rectangles, stars, or text. 

As all you want appears to be a rectangular mask, just draw a rectangle, select both the image and the path, then go to Object > Clipping Path > Make.

[peter25310168471i]

Thank you, I'll try.