crop rotation in the 14th century was considerably more widespread after....

December 15, 2007 10:30 AM

Photoshop question about the crop tool ? why cant i crop exactly what i see on the screen ?

now im using cs3, the screen mode is maximised screen mode the crop fields are blank - it doesnt snap to the edges of the document either.

but when i scroll into the image with the mousewheel and i see a crop of the image im happy with and then begin to crop from on of the corners - it moves the picture and i no longer know what i'm cropping - is there any way to stop this ?

is there a wee button somewhere that just crops what you see on the screen and discards the rest ?

posted by sgt.serenity to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

To your final question: no I don't believe there is.

All that's happening is when you get to the edge of the visible area, it will automatically scroll the image (so that you can see the context of your selection). Basically, you are using the program in a way it wasn't designed for.

Instead of zooming in to find the image you want to crop to, just use the crop tool as it was designed to be used: stay zoomed out, draw a box on the screen in the approximate area you want, and you'll see that it darkens the unselected areas. You can then drag the corners of the box to resize the area until you are happy with it, and then commit the crop.

If you really want, you can zoom in and out during the adjustment process to check what it looks like full screen.
posted by jon4009 at 10:38 AM on December 15, 2007

I use CS2 [PC] and don't know of a way to crop the way you want. I scan, crop, and correct many, many 35mm slides and use the following method:

With View Rulers enabled, I hit the "V" key (Move tool on PC) and drag new guides from the ruler areas to the parts of the image I want to be the new edges. Then I use the Rectangular Marquis tool (M) within the guides (having Snap enabled helps) to make the selection. Then I crop that selection with ALT+I, P.

See the ants march. March, ants, march!
posted by bonobo at 12:12 PM on December 15, 2007

I agree with jon4009, with the extra tip that once you've selected a region with the crop tool you can change the opacity of the "shield". If you set that to 100% you can't see anything but what you've cropped.
posted by aubilenon at 2:07 PM on December 15, 2007

If you really just want a crop of what you see on the screen, you could just do a print-screen, paste, and then crop out the image of the photoshop application itself. But that assumes that you don't have any toolbars obscuring your image.

What I would do in your situation would be to zoom out and try to figure out your crop from that perspective.
posted by delmoi at 2:49 PM on December 15, 2007

try cropping without using the crop tool. use the marquee tool instead and select the option 'crop' when you're done. you can do this at any kind of magnification and -natch- it's you're most precise tool.
posted by krautland at 7:29 PM on December 15, 2007

Hah, damn homophones--I said "Rectangular Marquis." Sheesh!

/Free band (or race horse or boat) name for anyone who wants it.
posted by bonobo at 9:09 PM on December 15, 2007

Response by poster: nope - the marquee moves the screen as well....
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:55 PM on December 16, 2007

Okay...with Rulers enabled, zoom into the image the way you've been doing to edit your crop. Using the Move tool, click and hold on the vertical or horizontal ruler and drag a line from it to make an edge (Guide). Making Guides will not scroll your image. Guides can be moved by dragging and removed by dragging back to the ruler. Guides can also be manipulated through the View menu. Do this twice for vertical and twice for horizontal. Use these Guides (with Snap enabled) to box in your selection with the Marquee tool and then Crop.

[See also CS3 Workspace info.]
posted by bonobo at 5:14 PM on December 16, 2007