#PHOTOSHOP CROP PHOTO PC#

When a crop aspect ratio is in force the crop proportions will remain locked. You can click on the Swap aspect ratio button to swap between a landscape or portrait mode crop (or use the X key).

As you drag on a corner or side handle the crop can be scaled up or down, preserving the crop aspect ratio and you can use the keyboard arrows to nudge the crop bounding box. You can also select one of the crop aspect ratio settings from the menu, or enter a new custom aspect ratio by just typing some values into the two field boxes.

So, in these instances you would go to the Crop Aspect Ratio menu shown in Figure 4 and select the Unconstrained option – this allows you to apply a freeform crop. Most the time you will simply want to crop an image without resizing. This is only useful if you want to crop and resize an image in one go. This allows you to select a crop setting that applies a crop with the required aspect ratio to crop an image and resizes it to specific image dimensions and a specific pixel resolution setting. Here you can see the crop tool presets menu, which contains the same preset options that appear in the Tool presets panel. If the Delete Cropped Pixels option is unchecked, a Background layer will become a Layer 0 layer.įigure 3 shows the crop tool Options bar in normal mode before applying a crop. If the crop options are set to delete cropped pixels, an image that starts out with a Background layer will retain the Background layer after being cropped. This makes the Photoshop crop tool behavior more like Lightroom and (in my view) now makes it easier to work with the crop tool.įigure 2 The Layers panel view on the left shows an image in mid-crop, displaying a crop preview layer. Also, as you drag a crop handle you’ll notice how the underlying image moves as you adjust the crop. For example, in Figure 2 I show how a Background layer became a Layer 0 layer. If the Delete Cropped Pixels option is unchecked it merely ‘trims’ the image, preserving the original image contents including all the layers information and a previous Background layer will now be promoted to a normal layer. If the Delete Cropped Pixels option is checked in the crop tool Options bar, the image will be cropped permanently and the Background layer preserved. Also, while the crop tool is modal you can hold down Shift key to define a new crop area. It doesn’t mean any layers have been deleted – this is just a temporary preview (see Figure 2). As you apply a crop and switch to a modal crop mode the Layers panel temporarily shows a crop preview layer. As you crop an image the outer crop appears shielded (see Figure 1 again). Or, you can click anywhere in the image area and drag to define the area to be cropped.

You can then drag any of the corner or side handles to adjust the crop. This reveals a crop bounding box that overlays the entire image (Figure 1). To crop a photo, select the crop tool from the Tools panel. Most images will require some kind of crop, in order to focus more attention on the subject. On the right you can see the image being cropped, before confirming the crop.

#PHOTOSHOP CROP PHOTO PC#

Or alternatively you can use the Enter key to OK the crop and the Esc key to cancel (on Macintosh and PC keyboards, these keys should be diagonally positioned, with Esc key at the top left and Enter key at bottom right).įigure 1 On the left you can see an image with the crop tool active, but no crop applied yet. You can then use the large Commit or Cancel buttons in the crop Options bar to OK or cancel a crop. This provides a useful visual clue when making a crop. When you apply a crop with the crop tool, it uses color shading to mask the outer crop area. The crop tool can be used to crop an image to ‘delete’ or ‘hide’ the image data that falls outside the selected crop area.

Photoshop crop photo