Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Crop Perfectly to the Edge of All Objects

 
 

Sometimes to teach an Illustrator trick in a class, I play a trick on the students. The following is a quick example. I tell the students to draw a whole bunch of objects on their page of varying sizes, shapes, Strokes, and Fills. Then I ask that they use the Crop Area tool (Shift+O) to create a Crop Area that will crop perfectly to the outside edges of the objects that are closest to the edge of the page. In other words, all objects are included within the Crops and nothing more (or less). Many student just click-drag the Crop Area tool, trying to visually crop the page to include all the objects the best they can. Not a very good solution, especially when you Zoom in at high magnification to take a better look. Other students, in trying to be more precise, turn on Rulers (Command [Control]+R), Select All objects (Command [Control]+A) and drag Ruler Guides to the anchor points of selected objects that come closest to the edge of the page. Good thought, but they end up cropping parts of Strokes that extend beyond the selected anchor points. Then there's the one student who inadvertently finds the easy answer while playing with the tool. Don't trust your eyes. Don't select anything. Don't create Guides. Just choose the Crop tool and click anywhere on the page that does not contain an object. The Crops are placed instantly to the outer reaches of the objects including Strokes and Effects which extend beyond the vector paths.