Crop image with Illustrator

When you work with photographs, you know that the ones you take from the Internet may not be perfect. Nor the one you do with your mobile or even with a camera (unless you take the photos in a studio controlling the light, the lights and shadows ...). In fact, even doing them there, professionals tend to touch them up later. For this reason, when it comes to displaying these images, they often go through a "sheet metal and paint" session. And one of the actions that is repeated the most is cropping an image in Illustrator. But do you know how to do it?

If you've always wondered how others crop images in Illustrator but never learned, today we're going to solve that problem for you. We'll give you two different options so you can choose the one you prefer or feel most comfortable with. Both are very easy to use, so take note.

Crop an image with Illustrator and its clipping mask

Let's start with the first option we want to show you. It's perhaps the most difficult, but it's actually very easy to apply if you follow the steps we're going to give you. For this, one of the essential tools you'll need is the clipping mask. This is built into Illustrator, so you don't have to download anything. It takes a point in the photo as the main focus and crops everything around it, leaving a space that's practically the same size all around.

Now, the steps are:

• Open the program and the image you want to crop.
• Give Shapes (that little button that allows you to create different shapes, such as a rectangle, a rounded one, the ellipse tool, polygon, star ...) You can choose the one that suits you best. You will have to place this figure right in the part of the photo that you want to keep since, everything that is outside of that image you will lose. For example, if you have a photo of a face, the normal thing is that you include the head, and perhaps part of the neck and shoulders, but nothing else.
• Locate the figure well. And it is that you do not have to place it perfectly the first time, the tool allows you to later make adjustments such as raising it more, lowering it or even making it smaller. Of course, to get it, you have to press the select button, otherwise it will not look good.
• Make sure the shape is always above the photo. And you ask yourself, what is it? Well, in the layers menu, the safest thing is that you have the layer of your photo, and then a layer with the figure you have created. Well, that layer of the figure has to be on top of the photo, not underneath. This is easily changed by moving that layer with the mouse. Another option is to select that shape and hit Object / arrange / bring to front.
• Let's cut back! The time has come to start cropping the image. To do this, you have to select the layer with the complete photo. Now, hit Object / Clipping Mask / Create. And it will automatically create the image crop for you. Nothing more!

Crop an image with Illustrator easily

The next image cropping method is even simpler than the previous one, although it doesn't allow you to play with shapes. In other words, it will only let you create a rectangle or square, and nothing more. Therefore, you can always combine it with the previous method.

Now, what are the steps?

• Open Illustrator and the image you want to crop.
• Point to the "Selection" tool on the toolbar that appears in Illustrator. It is the first button that appears on the left.
• Click on the image (this is to make sure it is selected but, if you only have that image you can save yourself this step.
• In the upper panel you will have the "Crop Image" tool. Click on it.
• Now you may get a warning that says: «When a linked file is trimmed, a copy of the original is embedded. The urinal file in the linked location will not be affected. ' You don't have to worry, hit Ok and that's it. If you do not get the warning, nothing happens, but you do have to make sure that you have a copy of the original photo or image for what may happen.
• Now you will see the image surrounded by discontinuous edges that you can drag, make smaller, etc. In this case you have to adjust the image you want in that rectangle or square, because it will be what will remain of the image. Everything that is outside of it will be erased.
• When you have the cut done, you just have to click on the Apply button at the top, or Enter.
• And that's it, you'll have the image cropped and ready to publish or use it wherever you want. Now, you can also soften the edges or even use a figure to cut it something else.

What if what I want is to cut out a figure from a photo?

Imagine you have a perfect photo. But it turns out that you only want one object from that photo, everything else you don't want or need. When it comes to cropping, it's almost impossible to get rid of the entire background without losing part of the object you want. But there is a way to do it.

Here are the steps:

• Open Illustrator and the image you want.
• With the image selected, click on the «Pen» tool on the left toolbar. Now, your courses will have become a kind of pen.
• Click on a point in the image that you want to crop. Of course, in a point of its contour (we recommend that you leave a little space to avoid not cutting something that you should not.
• Now, you will have to contour around the object you want to cut until you reach the starting point again.
• Lastly, hit Object / Clipping Mask / Create. And you should get the image you wanted to crop. And yes, you may see some of the background, but it's going to be minimal, and you can always soften the outline so it's not so noticeable.