Cropping & Sizing Graphics

Use this study guide to learn how to crop and size graphics in several different applications. First, let's get some terminology straight:

• When you size a graphic, you change its actual size without deleting any of its content. You either make it smaller or larger.
• When you crop a graphic, you extract or delete some portion of it. For example, you might want only the upper right quarter of an image.

Cropping is not particularly problematic, but sizing is. Notice that when you try to size a .gif, .jpg, .bmp, or .tif file, things start blurring and distorting pretty badly. You have to use special graphics software to convert bitmapped image to vector images.

Note: The following tutorial is applicable to Adobe Photoshop version 5.5.6; to Paint Shop Pro version 8; to Microsoft Paint as part of Office 2000; and to versions of Microsoft Word up to but excluding Word 2007. If you have problems using your versions of these software applications for this tutorial, contact your instructor.

Cropping Images

Let's start with the easy stuff—cropping.

Cropping in Paint Shop Pro. Click on the cropping icon, which is selected in the illustration, to crop an image in PSP.

Cropping images in Paint Shop Pro. To crop an image in PSP:

1. Open PSP, and then press File > Open to find a graphic file to open.
2. Click the crop icon—it's the icon with two opposing right-angles highlighted in the PSP illustration:
3. When you have positioned the cropping border over the area you want to crop, press Image > Crop.

That's it! Just save the cropped image using whichever name and graphic file format you want.

Cropping images in Photoshop. To crop an image in Photoshop:

1. Start Photoshop, and then open a graphic. (Press File > Open and browse around until you find a graphic file to open.)
2. Click the Selection tool—the dotted rectangle in the upper left corner of the Photoshop toolbox. (If you click on the Selection tool and drag rightwards, you'll find an actual cropping tool that works much like the one in Paint Shop Pro and Word.)
3. Draw an outline with the "marching ants" around the area of the image you want to crop: press the left mouse button and drag to create the bounding box around the area to crop.
4. Press Image > Crop to select that portion of the graphic that you outlined.

Cropping in Microsoft Paint. Click the dotted rectangle in the tool box, and then draw a box around the area you want to crop.

Cropping images in Microsoft Paint. If you've cropped images in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop, you'll find that Paint does it backwards! You outline the area to crop, cut it, close the image from which you cut it, open a new image, and paste what you cut:

• Press File > Open in Paint and find an image to open.
• Click the dotted rectangle in the tool area, and then drag the mouse to create a box an area that you want to crop.
• Press Edit > Copy, and then close the current image by pressing File > New.
• Paste the portion of the image that you just cropped into the new file, and save it.

Cropping in Microsoft Word. Click the cropping icon in the picture toolbar, and then, starting on one of the sizing handles, draw a box around the area you want to save. (You can't see it here, but the mouse pointer turns into the shape of the cropping icon when you position it over one of the sizing handles.)

Cropping images in Microsoft Word. You can paste an image directly from the Clipboard into Word. Word offers a picture toolbar that includes a cropping icon:

1. Open Word, make a screen capture of a screen, and paste it into a regular Word document.
2. Make sure the pasted image is selected (the sizing handles should be visible around it), and right click the mouse.
3. Select the cropping icon.
4. Position the mouse pointer over one of the sizing handles and then drag until the bounding box surrounds ther area you want to save.
5. Release the mouse button and the image will be cropped. (In Word, this procedure is tricky; it usually takes several attempts. Just press Edit > Undo to undo the crop and try again.)

Note: As with everything in computers, Word offers an alternate method for sizing: click Format > Picture and look at the Size and Picture tabs. (The names of these options and tabs change from version to version of Word; in older versions of Word, you click on Format > Objects

Cropping images in Adobe FrameMaker. We'll cover graphics procedures in FrameMaker in the FrameMaker user guide course.

Sizing Images

As pointed out earlier, sizing is tricky—you cannot size a bitmapped graphic image such as a BMP, GIF, or JPG without distorting it. Instead, you have to use an application that converts bitmapped graphics to vector graphics. Vector graphics can be easily sized and without distortion. (Search Google for "convert bitmapped to vector"). Still, you can do limited sizing—in particular, making graphics smaller—without much noticeable distortion.

Sizing in Paint Shop Pro. When you press Selections > Select All and then press Image > Resize, you see this dialog box. Clicking on "actual size" may make it easier to get the image resized the way you want it.

Sizing images in Paint Shop Pro. To size an image in PSP:

1. Make a simple screen capture of something, open PSP, and paste the image into PSP.
2. Press Selections > Select All.
3. Press Image > Resize, and then select which type of resizing you want. Notice that you can choose Actual / Print Size, which may help you fit the image on the page you are using.

Sizing in Paint Shop Pro. When you press Selections > Select All and then press Image > Resize, you see this dialog box. Clicking on "actual size" may make it easier to get the image resized the way you want it.

Sizing images in Photoshop. To size an image in Photoshop:

1. Start Photoshop, make a simple screen capture, and paste it into Photoshop.
2. Press Select > All.
3. Press Image > Image Size.
4. In the dialog box, change the size either by pixels or by inches. (The chain link indicates that when you change one value, the other will change correspondingly.)

Sizing images in Microsoft Word. To size an image in Word:

1. Start by making a screen capture and pasting it into a Word document.
2. Make sure that the image is selected (sizing handles visible) and that the mouse pointer is positioned over a sizing handle at one of the corners.
3. Press and hold Shift and drag horizontally until the image is the size you want it. (Holding the Shift key down causes the image to resize proportionately.)

Sizing images in Adobe FrameMaker. We'll cover graphics procedures in FrameMaker in the FrameMaker user guide course.

Test Your Knowledge

Okay! It's time to make sure you can crop and size a graphic. While there is no test or project for cropping and sizing, you must know how to do this task for projects and tests later in this course.

When you've successfully cropped and sized a graphic, send e-mail to your instructor confirming that. If you have problems, also contact your instructor by e-mail and explain the problem you are having.

Note: Use the unit evaluation form to give your opinions on the effectiveness of the study materials and organization of this unit. (This evaluation is strictly optional, strictly voluntary.)

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