Cropping is the process of removing portions of a photo to create focus or strengthen the composition. Use the Crop tool to crop and straighten photos in Photoshop. The Crop tool is non-destructive, and you can choose to retain the cropped pixels to optimize the crop boundaries later. The Crop tool also provides intuitive methods to straighten a photo while cropping.
For all operations, visual guides provide an interactive preview. When you crop or straighten photos, real-time feedback helps you visualize the final result.
-
Creative Cloud Crop tool options bar
A. Aspect Ratio menu B. Swap Width and Height values C. Overlay OptionsSize and proportions
Choose a ratio or size for the crop box. You can also choose a preset, enter your own, or even define your own preset values for later use.
Overlay Options
Choose a view to display overlay guides while cropping. Guides such as Rule of Thirds, Grid, and Golden Ratio are available. To cycle through all the options, press O.
Delete cropped pixels
Disable this option to apply a non-destructive crop and retain pixels outside the crop boundaries. Non-destructive cropping does not remove any pixels. You can later click the image to see areas outside current crop borders.
Enable this option to delete any pixels that are outside the crop area. These pixels are lost and are not available for future adjustments.
Note:
Right-click the Crop box to access common crop options from the context menu.
For more information on cropping, see the video Crop a photo.
The following updates were introduced in the Creative Cloud release for Photoshop CS6:
- Front Image and new presets in the Aspect Ratio menu.
- Clicking the double-arrow icon changes the crop orientation by swapping the Width and Height values. This icon replaces the Rotate Crop Box button.
- Choosing W x H x Resolution from the Aspect Ratio menu displays a Resolution field in the options bar and auto-fills the Width and Height values.
- Clicking the Clear button clears the values in the Width and Height fields in the options bar. If displayed, the value in the Resolution field is also cleared.
- The keyboard shortcut for Front Image has changed from F to I for both the Crop tool and the Perspective Crop tool.
Photoshop CC now uses content-aware technology to intelligently fill in the gaps when you use the Crop tool for straightening or rotating an image, or expanding your canvas beyond the image's original size.
Follow these steps:
- From the toolbar, select the Crop Tool (
). Crop borders display on the edges of the photo. - In the Options bar, select Content-Aware. The default Crop rectangle expands to include the whole image.
- Using the handles around the image, straighten or rotate it. Alternatively, expand the canvas beyond the original size of the image.
- When you are satisfied with the results, click
in the Options bar to commit the crop operation. Photoshop intelligently fills in the white/gap areas in the image.
Note:
Content-Aware Fill On Crop is not supported in the Classic mode of the Crop tool. To disable the Classic mode, do the following:
- With the Crop tool selected, click the Set Additional Crop Options icon in the toolbar.
- In the settings menu that appears, deselect Use Classic Mode.
Note:
If you're using a recent release of Photoshop CC, you may prefer using Content-Aware Fill on Crop while straightening images.
You can straighten a photo while cropping. The photo is rotated and aligned to straighten it. The canvas is automatically resized to accommodate the rotated pixels.
See Straightening a crooked image to watch a video explaining straightening an image using the Crop tool.
The Perspective Crop tool lets you transform the perspective in an image while cropping. Use the Perspective Crop tool when working with images that contain keystone distortion. Keystone distortion occurs when an object is photographed from an angle rather than from a straight‑on view. For example, if you take a picture of a tall building from ground level, the edges of the building appear closer to each other at the top than they do at the bottom.
A. Original image B. Adjust cropping marquee to match the object’s edges C. Final image
.See the video Adjust perspective in a photo for more information.
To resize the canvas, you can also choose Image > Canvas Size. See Change the Canvas size or the tutorial video Understanding canvas size for more information.
Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.