Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Cropping Images Just Got a Lot Easier in Illustrator

 
 

Cropping images has always been easier in layout applications, such as InDesign, than it is in Illustrator. But one simple addition to the Control panel has simplified cropping in AICS3 a great deal. To see what I mean, Place an image in Illustrator (File>Place). Then draw a rectangle with the Rectangle tool (R) over the top of the photo. Marquee across the image and the rectangle to select both. Go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make to "crop" the picture. Two new buttons appear to the far left of the Control panel. The left of these two button, Edit Clipping Path, lets you move the Mask or change its size by dragging on bounding box points to crop the picture. Press the button immediately to its right and just the image is selected allowing to edit or move just the image within the Mask that "contains" it. This little feature (that is barely mentioned in Adobe's materials) is a huge leap in dealing with images in Illustrator.