How to Crop an Image in Illustrator

This is an article on how to crop images with Adobe Illustrator. In Adobe Illustrator 2017 or later, you can crop images with the new crop tool. Raster and vector graphics will be cropped with a crop mask in Illustrator

Table of Contents

Using Cropping Top (Crop Tool)

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Open or create a file in Adobe Illustrator. To do this, you’ll click on the yellow and brown app that says Ai .

Click the New or Open button. To create a new Illustrator file, you need to click New in the main screen. To open an existing Illustrator file, you would click Open on the home screen, navigate to the Illustrator (.ai) file, and double-click it.

You can also find New and Open options under the “File” menu in the upper-right corner of the open Illustrator file.

Place the image in Illustrator. Here are the steps to place an image in Illustrator.

Click File in the menu bar at the top.
Click Place in the drop-down list under “File”.
Select the photo and click Place .
Click and drag the mouse where you want to place the image.

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Click Selection Top (Selection Tool). It’s the black pointer near the top of the toolbar on the left side of the screen.

Click the photo that you want to crop. This is image selection. The crop tool will not be displayed unless the image is already selected.

Click Crop Image . This option is available in the Contrp Panel at the top of the screen just below the menu bar.

You can also find the “Crop Image” button in the Properties window displayed in the menu bar on the right. If you don’t see the Properties window, click Window in the menu bar at the top, and then click Properties . ^{[1] X Research Source}
If the screen shows linked images, just click OK .
The “Crop Image” tool is only visible in Illustrator 2017 or later.

Click and drag the crop icon in the corner of the image. Crop icons are displayed at the corners and edges of the image. Dragging the crop icon inward creates a rectangle with dotted lines inside the image. The bright part of the image outside the rectangle is the area that will be removed when you choose to crop the image. Place the rectangle on the part of the image that you want to keep. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Click OK . This option is available in the Contrp Panel at the top of the screen or in Properties. This is the image cropping operation.

Using Clipping Mask

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Open or create a file in Adobe Illustrator. To do this, you’ll click on the yellow and brown app that says Ai . In Vector graphics, a crop mask uses an object or shape above it to crop the entire image and the object below it.

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Click the New or Open button. To create a new Illustrator file, you need to click New in the main screen. To open an existing Illustrator file, you would click Open on the home screen, navigate to the Illustrator (.ai) file, and double-click it.

New and Open options are also found under the “File” menu in the upper-right corner of the open Illustrator file.

Create graphics or place photos. You can use a crop mask for raster images, or vector graphics created in Illustrator. Use the art tools to create a graphic, or follow these steps to place an image:

Click File in the menu bar at the top.
Click Place in the drop-down list below “File”.
Select the photo and click Place .
Click and drag the mouse where you want to place the image.

Draw a crop mask on the image. You can create clipping masks of any shape. Use the rectangle or oval tool to create a rectangular or oval clipping mask, or you can use the Pen tool to create a crop mask of your choice. Place the shape over the area of the picture or graphic that you want to keep.

To make it easier to see, you’ll turn off the fill effect for the crop mask, and choose an easy-to-see color for the strokes.
You can set a clipping mask for multiple objects, but the shape of the crop mask must be placed on top. To bring up the clipping mask’s shape, simply click it with the selection tool, and then click Object in the menu bar. Next, click Arrange and choose Bring to Front .

Steps

Using Cropping Top (Crop Tool)

Using Clipping Mask

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