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Crop Tool and Trimming - Images: Japanese
Hey there, everyone!
We're almost at the finish line — next up is the summary, so this article covers the last new topic in the Photoshop beginner's course.
Let's look at the 'Crop Tool' and 'Trim'.
The Crop Tool does exactly what the name suggests — it cuts out a portion of the image. It's similar to the selection-based cut covered in an earlier article, but with the Crop Tool, the canvas itself is trimmed along with the content.
Open any image in Photoshop. Then look at the toolbar on the left and find this icon near the upper-middle area:
That's the Crop Tool. With it selected, click on the canvas. A crop frame should appear:
The Crop Tool trims the image to whatever area is inside this frame. Drag the edges of the frame to resize it, then set it to the area you want:
The frame that appears when using the Crop Tool is called the 'Crop Box'.
It's rarely used in everyday conversation at work, but it does occasionally appear in Photoshop reference books and documentation — worth knowing vaguely.
Once you've positioned the crop frame, look at the upper right. The checkmark and X will appear — click the checkmark to confirm the crop. You can also press 'Enter' (or 'Return') to confirm.
Confirm the crop and the result should look like this:
In the most recent versions of Photoshop CC, you move the image layer to adjust the crop position. In older versions, it was the crop box itself that moved.
To switch back to the older behavior, click the gear icon in the Options Bar and check 'Use Classic Mode':
If the default behavior feels awkward, Classic Mode might suit you better — worth a try.
Dragging just outside a corner of the crop box rotates it:
To crop to a specific size, use the Options Bar:
To crop with a locked ratio, set the left dropdown to 'Ratio' and enter the values on the right. No units needed:
To crop to an exact pixel size, set the left dropdown to 'W x H x Resolution' and enter the dimensions. For web assets, you can ignore the resolution field — just set it to '72' and move on:
Note that when you crop to a specified size, Photoshop first crops the selected area, then resizes it to match the specified dimensions. So if you crop a 100x100px image with a target size of 1000x1000px, the output will be 1000x1000px — larger than the original. This might seem surprising at first, but it makes sense once you see it in action.
By default, the Crop Tool crops all layers to the frame size, and the canvas is resized to match.
Think of it as trimming the entire working area to fit inside the crop box.
If you want to crop only the canvas — keeping the layer content outside the crop frame intact — uncheck 'Delete Cropped Pixels' in the Options Bar. With this unchecked, only the canvas boundary is changed; the layer content beyond it is preserved.
After cropping, you can verify by using the Bounding Box — you'll see that the layer extends beyond the canvas edge.
When a size is specified along with this option, all layers are scaled proportionally, and then only the canvas is cropped to the target size.
'Delete Cropped Pixels' is a relatively recent addition to Photoshop CC, but it's a powerful option — definitely worth knowing.
To crop only a specific layer, use the selection-based approach instead. Use each method based on what the situation calls for.
See this article for reference.
That covers the basics of the Crop Tool. Now let's look at 'Trim'.
Trim automatically calculates and removes surrounding whitespace or transparent areas, making it a very convenient tool.
The word 'trimming' generally means cutting out a part of an image. In that sense, the Crop Tool is also a form of trimming — but in Photoshop, Trim is a separate feature with its own name and purpose.
Let's try it out. Open an image, then expand the Canvas Size to add some extra space around it. Here's an example:
For Canvas Size, see this article.
Now go to 'Image' in the menu bar and click 'Trim':
This dialog will appear:
Let's go through the options. 'Based On' determines the reference color for the auto-trim. 'Transparent Pixels' targets transparent areas. 'Top Left Pixel Color' samples the color of the pixel in the top-left corner and uses that as the trim color — so if the top-left pixel is red, all surrounding red areas will be trimmed. 'Bottom Right Pixel Color' works the same way from the bottom-right corner.
'Trim Away' below lets you specify which sides to trim. To trim only the top and bottom, check 'Top' and 'Bottom' and uncheck the rest.
When the settings are ready, click 'OK'. Trimming the previous image using 'Transparent Pixels' with all four sides checked looks like this:
And trimming only 'Top' and 'Bottom':
Trim removes extra space quickly with just a few clicks. Use it alongside the Crop Tool depending on the situation.
That covers the basics of the Crop Tool and Trim.
And with that, the Photoshop beginner's course is complete. Thank you so much for sticking with it all the way through. You've come a long way — Photoshop's interface has some quirks, but once you're comfortable with it, it's an incredibly powerful tool for creating and editing images.
The next article is a summary of everything covered in this course — a great place to review anything you've forgotten.
See you there!
This article was written by Sakurama.
Author's beloved small mammal |
桜舞 春人 Sakurama HarutoA Tokyo-based programmer who has been creating various content since the ISDN era, with a bit of concern about his hair. A true long sleeper who generally feels unwell without at least 10 hours of sleep. His dream is to live a life where he can sleep as much as he wants. Loves games, sports, and music. Please share some hair with him. |
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