Crop & Rotate Tool

Directly out of a camera, your digital photos will likely not be sized to the exact dimensions you need.  Between different shaped screens, web pages, social networks, and prints its often common to change the shape and size of an image.

1. Open an image that needs cropping or straightening.
2. Switch to the Crop Tool by clicking the Canvas Tools group in the Edit Sidebar or pressing the C key.

3. A grid and controls now appear over your image. A new set of controls is also available in the Canvas Tools area.
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4. Choose a Ratio from the Aspect drop-down menu. The image is displayed with a grid that represents the ratio chosen in the Aspect drop-down menu.

   • Free. Create a custom shape by dragging to taste.

   • Original. Preserves the original shape of the photo but allows you to crop more tightly to remove details from the edges

   • Transposed. The original dimensions are reversed for the crop.

   • 1 : 1(Square). A square-shaped image is created.

   • 4 : 5. A near-square image that’s common for many photo sizes

   • 8.5 : 11. A common size for documents.

   • 5 : 7. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

   • 2 : 3. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

   • 4 : 3. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

   • 21 : 9. A ratio that presents an ultra-wide view.

   • 16 : 9. A ratio used by televisions, many electronic devices and presentations

   • 16 : 10. A ratio that matches many computer displays.

   • Facebook Cover. A useful size for a page banner on Facebook.

   • Facebook Feed. A common size for an image posted to Facebook.

   • Enter Custom. Offers the ability to choose a specific aspect ratio.

*Use the Rule of Thirds.
This is a standard overlAy used to help with cropping. The four intersecting points are considered the best place to put a subject. Many feel that following these guides makes an image appear better.


5. The Crop & Rotate tool contains additional controls as well

   • The Reset button reverts the image to no crop

   • The Rotate Crop button transposes the crop (the original dimensions are reversed for the crop, a 5 : 7 becomes a 7 : 5). You can also press the X key to transpose the crop when the Crop and Rotate tool is active.

6. Drag any of the corners or resize handles to modify the cropping rectangle.

7. To Move the image inside the crop, just click inside the image crop area and drag to reposition the image behind the cropping rectangle.


8. To Rotate an image you can click and drag just outside a corner to rotate.  A grid overlay appears to help you with accurate cropping.

9. You can also transform the layer while cropping. These tools are located at the bottom of the Crop and Rotate tool.

   • Flip Horizontal. Reverse the left and right-sides of the image creating a mirror image.

   • Flip Vertical. Reverse the top and bottom sides of the photo.

   • Rotate Left (CCW). Rotates the image 90˚ counter-clockwise.

10. When happy with the cropping, click the Done button. You can also just switch to another tool to apply the crop.

11. To cancel this Crop click the Reset button and then Done. If you do not like the result, you can easily undo the cropping by pressing the Reset button. Hence cropping is a safe operation that can be easily undone.