This screenshot was taken with only a single placed image selected. The Properties Panel has also evolved with subsequent iterations of the Creative Cloud; therefore, depending on the version of the Illustrator CC you are running, you may see differences. With the single placed or embedded image still selected, click on the Mask button in the Control or Properties panel.
Drag any of the mid-edge or corner handles that are placed around the image to change the size of the vector mask. Continue to edit the handles until you're happy with the result. As soon as you start to do another operation in Illustrator, all automatic vector mask editing is fixed. To target select the clipping path, click on the "meatball" icon as highlighted here below. With the single placed or embedded image still selected, click on the Crop Image button in the Control or Properties Panel.
Note: if the image was linked rather than embedded, the warning dialogue will be presented stating "Cropping a linked file embeds a copy of the original. The original file at the linked location is not affected. This is a welcome feature to automatically perform this logical operation. Unlike with the Mask button, a much clearer change of annotation surrounding the image is presented.
The Control and Properties Panels both also temporarily change whilst the crop is taking place. Click-and-drag any of the mid-edge or corner image handles. Holding down Alt will also ensure that any changes are mirrored on the opposite side or corner. Numerical controls are also presented in the Control and Properties Panels to precisely state the image dimensions. It's also possible to simultaneously re-sample the image to a different resolution from current using the PPI value presented in the Properties Panel.
When happy with the crop, click on the Apply button in the Control and Properties Panels. The resultant image now has the excess image data removed. Note that unless you Undo the operation now, without resorting to re-placing the image in the document, there's no way to revert back to the original un-cropped image. Several years before Adobe got around to adding true image cropping to Adobe Illustrator, Astute Graphics introduced the Rasterino plugin. This product, now part of our subscription , features the Crop Image Tool.
Next, click-and-hold the Eraser Tool icon in the toolbox highlighted red below and release the mouse when hovering over the Crop Image Tool. It is important an embedded image is selected. If the image is linked, first embed it using the appropriate button found in the Control or Properties Panels. A frame annotation will appear around the embedded image with control handles as well as a floating information annotation with a "tick" and "cross" icon to either apply the desired crop or cancel.
The floating annotation also provides before and after pixel dimensions. Alternatively, use the Enter Return key to quickly apply a crop. Whereas the native and Rasterino image cropping methods detailed to this point are adequate for quick visual tasks, it's sometimes necessary to make a more precise change or control multiple images simultaneously.
The example image used throughout the article was edited in Photoshop so that a radial gradient transparency was introduced.
When the image was embedded in Illustrator, the extremities of the image were redundant due to a lack of opacity. The common situation of having a transparent image embedded in Illustrator with excessive transparency masking is an ideal situation for using the Trim Image function via the Rasterino Panel. With the semi-transparent image selected in Illustrator, the Trim Image icon in the Rasterino Panel was selected highlighted in red to open the Trim Image dialog.
The defaults of Transparent Pixels and Preview remained selected highlighted in green. Automatically, the image boundary annotation shows the suggested image crop that will take place illustrated with the yellow arrows. Click on OK to trim the image and crop away the excess transparency pixels, or Copy to maintain the underlying image and place a trimmed copy exactly in position on top. All visual guesswork to achieve this has been eliminated. This Rasterino function also allows for the trimming of excess flat color areas based on the top left or bottom right pixels.
If you need to be very precise about the final image size, it's highly recommended you use the Crop Image dialogue accessed via the Rasterino Panel. With one or more embedded images selected, even if different sizes, click on the Crop Image icon to open the dialogue.
From here, you can numerically adjust the image size with annotated previews on the artboard of the result. Critically, you can crop by stating how much you want to reduce the image by, instead of absolute. Plus, easy access to the units of measurement used to determine the crop are presented. As with the Trim Image function, OK will fix the crop whilst Copy will maintain the underlying image s and place the resultant cropped image instances on top in position.
It's important to consider the differences between linked images and embedded images when looking at cropping. It's only possible to apply a clipping mask crop to linked images as true cropping removing pixels will require edits to the external image file in Photoshop or similar.
Specify the resolution in pixels per inch ppi. If the resolution of the image is lower than the options available in the drop-down list, the options are disabled. The maximum value that you can enter equals the resolution of the original image or PPI for linked artwork. Reference Point. All transformations are performed around a fixed point called the reference point.
By default, this point is at the center of the crop widget you are transforming. However, you can change the reference point to a different location using the reference point locator in the Control panel. X and Y dimensions. Height and Width. Specify the size of the crop widget.
If the width and height fields are linked, they maintain proportions when changed. Click the link icon icon to delink and modify the width and height values independently.
You can define your own keyboard shortcut for the Crop Image command. For more information, see Customize keyboard shortcuts. Legal Notices Online Privacy Policy. Adobe Illustrator Features What's New.
Buy now. Crop images Search. Use the Image Crop feature in Illustrator to crop a linked or embedded image. Crop an image. The cropped portion of the image is discarded.
It is not recoverable. You cannot transform an image while cropping it. If you try to transform an image after selecting the Crop Image option, Illustrator exits the cropping interface. Do one of the following to crop the selected image: Click Crop Image on the Control panel.
Choose Crop Image from the context menu. Do one of the following: Click Apply on the Control panel. Only on Windows bit and macOS When you select the Crop Image option to crop an image on the artboard, Illustrator identifies the visually significant portions of the selected image. At any point, to exit the cropping interface without applying changes, do one of the following: Click Cancel in the Control panel.
Press the Escape key. Select any tool from the Tools panel, except the Zoom tool and the Hand tool. Adjust the crop widget. Do one of the following to resize the crop widget: Specify the Height and the Width in the Control panel. Drag the corner or edge handles. Press Shift to scale the widget proportionally. Press Alt to scale the widget about the center. Use the pinch-to-zoom gesture on touch screen devices.
Note: The Illustrator Touch workspace for Windows tablets does not support cropping. Do one of the following to reposition the crop widget: Click-drag from anywhere within the bounds of the crop widget.
