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Toby26653729p81d
Participating Frequently
October 18, 2022
Question

Custom crop guide

  • October 18, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 1031 views

Hi all,

I've seen this asked in 2018 and I'm hoping it is now is PS somewhere...
How can I edit the crop grid in the crop tool?

I need to crop product images that the product is a certain size within the frame. If I wanted my product to fill 1/3 of the frame I would simply use the Rule-of-thirds option, but I need it different.

Is there a way to edit the GRID option in the crop tool? There must be something defining the spacing in this grid as it appears to be pixel based. If it were % based and I could edit the % between grid lines that would probably work.

If this isn't available it would be incredibly useful to any product photographer.

Thanks,

Toby

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 19, 2022

    As others have mentioned, there isn't anyway of doing this, currently. I did write a script to be able to crop head sizes, as Pierre mentioned. However, it's not as easy to use as a crop guide would be, and it would have to be adapted to your requirements.  The thread where I posted my script is here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/portraits-cropping-automation/m-p/12408675

      PECourtejoie
      Community Expert
      PECourtejoieCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 19, 2022

      Hi,

      I think I had, some time ago, placed a Feature Request for a US passport Overlay in the Crop tool...

      Do you want to change this thread to a Feature Request?

       

        T
        Toby26653729p81dAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        October 19, 2022

        Sure. Do you understand New Guide Layouts? It has an option called TARGET which says "Canvas" in my PS but it is greyed out, however the suggestion is that there is another option to choose and if one option is CANVAS then maybe the other is CROP which might do exactly what I want.

        c.pfaffenbichler
        Community Expert
        c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 18, 2022

        I know no option to do this. 

         

        What is the grid you do need? 

        T
        Toby26653729p81dAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        October 18, 2022

        Guide layout is potentially a neat tool, thank you, but it doesn't work for my application.

        What I need is for the guide layout to stay the same relative to the crop, so as I resize and reposition the crop I want the guides to stay the same within the overall crop – like they do when I use the RULE OF THIRDS etc.
        So if I could position a guide that always stays 20% from the bottom edge of the crop, and another two vertical guides that always stay at say 30% position and 70% poistion horizontally, I could then crop each image so that the product occupies 40% of the crop width while keeping the bottom edge of the product 20% up from the bottom of the crop.

        If the GRID option in the crop tool maintained itself at percentage positions I could use it, but it doesn't and the number of squares decrease as the crop is reduced – until it shows only 2x2 when it then stays at 2x2 with the grid size reducing.
        The only way I can currently do this is to import a layer with a template but I then have to scale the layer to match the new image size before I can use the canvas size of the template to crop the new image to.

        This seems like it would be such a common requirement that I'm hoping I being really daft and missing something obvious.

        c.pfaffenbichler
        Community Expert
        c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 18, 2022
        The only way I can currently do this is to import a layer with a template but I then have to scale the layer to match the new image size before I can use the canvas size of the template to crop the new image to.

        I suspect this could fairly easily be automated with a custom shape and an Action. 

          Trevor.Dennis
          Community Expert
          Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 18, 2022

          I am not sure if you can do it directly with the Crop tool, but what you could do is use Guides.  That is to say place a New Guide layout and make a selection which snaps to the guides, and then use Image > Crop which will crop to the Selection.  If you have a number of these, create and Save the relevant Guide layouts and trigger them with an action.  It would be super fast.

           

            T
            Toby26653729p81dAuthor
            Participating Frequently
            October 18, 2022

            Thanks. I've tried the New Guide Layout which looks super cool and I'm sure I'll use for something in future, but the guides stay fixed to the existing canvas.

            I want guides that stay fixed to the crop, like the rule of thirds does.

            So my client wants all necklace images to share the same invisible horizon when they appear on a category page of the website. So my crop needs to sit the same distence from the bottom of the necklace each time, but also I need the crop to make best use of the available screen space while also representing it reasonably accuratley in relation to other items. 

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