Cropping an Image in Photoshop 7
January 28th, 2005
Prerequisites: This tutorial assumes that you are able to open an image in Photoshop, are a fluent user of your chosen operating system, and are using Photoshop 7. All screenshots are from Photoshop 7 on Windows XP.
Shortcuts: When there is a Photoshop Shortcut available, I will include it after the action in parentheses.
What does it mean to “crop” an image? When a photograph is not composed properly or you wish to change the composition of a photograph by eliminating portions of the image, the easiest tool for the job is Photoshop’s Crop Tool.
Note: By default, the Toolbar has tool tips (pop-up messages describing the tool) enabled. If you mouse over the symbols on the toolbar, a small tool tip will appear informing you of the name of the tool. This can be helpful if you are looking for a tool and cannot remember what the symbol looked like from a previous Photoshop session.
The Task Step by Step
- Open an Image in Photoshop.
- Save it as a new image [Image 1]. (This will protect the original composition, since cropping is a destructive form of image editing.)
- Select the Crop Tool [Image 2].
- Create your new composition with the marquee.
- Adjust the shape of the selection using the handles provided.
- Rotate the selection if desired.
- When pleased with your selection, press Enter or Return to complete the task.
Open an Image
Though for the purposes of this tutorial I assume you know how to open a file, I will go over the steps briefly.
- Select File > Open, (Ctrl O) Then browse to a location on your drive that contains an image file you want to edit.
- Once selected, the photo will open in a new Photoshop window.
Save as a New Image
In order to protect your original image, it is best to save the open image as a new file. This means that your destructive edits will be performed on the new image and the old will be untouched.
- Select File > Save As, (Shift Ctrl S) and browse to the location on your drive where you want to save the new image.
- In the “Save As” Dialog Box [Image 1], select the File Name field and type a new name.
- Below the File Name field, select the Format field and select Photoshop (PSD) from the list. The reason for this file format rather than JPEG is that when repeatedly saving a JPEG image, even in an advanced editor like Photoshop, compression artifacts are introduced into the image degrading the quality noticeably.
- When you have completed steps 2 and 3, click the Save button to finish.
Select the Crop Tool
Choose the Crop Tool [Image 2] by clicking on it.
Create Your New Composition with the Marquee
- Click and drag to place the Crop Marquee on your image [Image 3]. The area outside the marquee will be darkened; this area will be removed from your image when you complete the crop.
- Adjust the marquee by moving the handles [Image 3].
Rotate the Marquee
Rotate the marquee if desired. This is the most exacting part. You must pull your mouse pointer away from the handles a short distance. When you see the rotate symbol 
, click and drag to rotate the marquee.
Though you might find this frustrating at first, play with the mouse and try different distances from the marquee until you see the mouse pointer change to the rotate symbol
Sometimes rotating the marquee can alter a photograph’s composition more than you might expect. Perhaps this aspect of cropping a photograph could be referred to as taking a photo within a photo!
Commit the Crop
Having selected a new composition you like, press Enter to commit the Crop.
Recommended Resources
- Visual Quickstart Guide: Photoshop 7 for Windows and Macintosh by Elaine Weinman and Peter Laurekas
- Adobe Photoshop Tutorials www.adobe.com/products/tips/photoshop.html
- Photoshop 7 Classroom in a Book By Adobe Creative Team
Discussion and Help
If you have questions while working on this tutorial, want to add some insightful comments that might help other readers, or want to ask Harvey a question, post a comment below.
Entry Filed under: Tutorials
Bookmark This:
3 Comments
1. Barb Olsher | January 28th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Another way to commit the crop is to go to Image > Crop. You might also want to mention using Ctrl-Z to undo! Nothing is ever written in stone!
2. Harvey Ramer | January 28th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Thanks Barb!
As Barb mentions, holding down the Control Key [Ctrl] and pressing the “z” key will take you back one step. Unfortunately, in Photoshop 7 on Windows XP this only takes you back one step. For more flexibility, the History Palette is available and will be covered in detail in a future post.
3. Barb Olsher | January 28th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Since I do mostly print designing, I use Photoshop quite often. Cropping allows me to reduce the file size by reducing the image content, centering the subject matter better, getting rid of extraneous background, etc. I think your suggestion to save the document as something else immediately upon opening the original is a very good practice to get into. If I haven’t done that, I save the cropped document as something else, using the manner you outlined, but DO NOT save changes to the original. Your method is safer, by far!