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New Cropping Tool thoughts?

Contributor ,
Apr 10, 2017 Apr 10, 2017

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Even though I love new features in Adobe apps, I'm struggling to think how the new Crop Tool, with embedding of the file as a result, is a good solution. The file will get far too big with high res images if you have quite a few. I've noticed Astute's Rasterino plug-in does the same thing so maybe there is a demand for embedded files but I can't see myself using it, it's too limiting as it breaks the link.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , May 01, 2017 May 01, 2017

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Michael+Riordan  schrieb

and therefore will have just niche use.

Have you ever seen fashion designers' files?

Those usually have dozens of images embedded, because people just drag them in from the web for inspriration. And then they need to crop them to get file size down. There is no local file to keep.

People have been asking for this feature. You might not need it. Other people do.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 10, 2017 Apr 10, 2017

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If you don't want embedded files, do your cropping in Photoshop.

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Contributor ,
Apr 10, 2017 Apr 10, 2017

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Exactly Monika. Although we have artworkers who place the original photographer's files into their v1 files and they sometimes don't have time re-import and size a newly cropped image. I tend to delete unused parts of the image to white to keep the file size down and that way they don't have to do anything.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 10, 2017 Apr 10, 2017

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i think adobe was just responding to something that has been asked about a lot over the years. read this huge thread for instance:

How do I crop a photo in Illustrator?

many respondents seemed unsatisfied with clipping images etc.

as for embedding, i don't really know how it'd work otherwise. if it didn't embed, it'd be just a clipping path.

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Advocate ,
Apr 30, 2017 Apr 30, 2017

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Garry I'm with you on this one. I was hoping for a "cropping" feature that masks as easily as InDesign does. I fully understand that Illustrator already has a masking option, but it isn't as easy to implement or readjust as InDesign's is.

Illustrator now has a crop feature which isn't useful for vector illustration, won't be very useful for layout work since it's destructive, and therefore will have just niche use. If you just want to hide some of your image you'll have to continue with/learn masking. If you really want to chop up your pixels it might be better to round trip any cropping needs through Photoshop where you can—by choice—work non destructively.

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Community Expert ,
May 01, 2017 May 01, 2017

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Michael+Riordan  schrieb

and therefore will have just niche use.

Have you ever seen fashion designers' files?

Those usually have dozens of images embedded, because people just drag them in from the web for inspriration. And then they need to crop them to get file size down. There is no local file to keep.

People have been asking for this feature. You might not need it. Other people do.

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Advocate ,
May 01, 2017 May 01, 2017

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And that's why I asked.

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Participant ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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"You might not need it. Other people do."

I feel that satisfying a niche use shouldn't prevent the Adobe Illustrator team from creating a cropping tool / feature that's useful for a broader range of users. It's not like they don't have a working example (*cough* InDesign) to inspire them. Framing a linked image in Illustrator using a clipping mask is much more finicky than it is in InDesign leading to accidentally moving or distorting the mask when simply trying to reposition or resize the masked image.

When I read about this new cropping feature I happily updated Illustrator only to discover how extremely limited it is (and, for me, useless).

I guess I should be grateful that they didn't find a way to shoehorn an ad for Adobe Stock into the feature!

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Community Expert ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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?

indesign doesn't have a crop tool.

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Participant ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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?

Work with frames and objects in InDesign

First bullet point: "Crop a graphic by making its frame smaller."

In my comment I wrote "cropping tool / feature" so I have to wonder why you'd bother to reply without reading even the first sentence.

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Community Expert ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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but that's exactly what a mask does. the crop tool literally crops off pixels.

so what you really want is better masks?

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Advocate ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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Yes. The masking feature is not as intuitive as the cropping feature in InDesign but if it could be, then a majority of users would benefit.

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May 01, 2017 May 01, 2017

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Hi all,

As Monika suggested, this may not be a feature for everyone, however there are lot of users who were demanding this as a new feature in Illustrator. I do agree that it is new and it certainly needs improvement. Thanks everyone for their feedback.

Regards,

Om

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Advocate ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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Hi Om

Thanks for your post.

Earlier I had done a search through the old forum posts and found that while yes, a lot of users were asking for cropping, it's a mixed bag as to whether they were asking for actual pixel deletion or just masking. Most users understand cropping to be "hide some portion of the image". When they get to Illustrator they are looking for that feature...they think they are looking for cropping. They may have never heard of "masking". I believe that more than half of all requests for cropping fall into this category. That's certainly the case for the sampling that I went through.

After that, many users were requesting "cropping" because they noticed that after exporting an illustrator file to .jpg or .png any masked images that they had used were still full size and creating large blank border areas in their exported files. The solution for them was to ensure that their artboards were the same size as their intended final output and export with "use artboards" checked. So the new crop feature may or may not be of help to them.

The last small fraction that I could find were people who yes had dropped pixel based art into Illustrator and were looking for a way to crop the pixels in order to make the file more manageable.

For 2 of the 3 groups (the majority it seems to me) it would be beneficial if the new crop feature behaved as a picture frame the way that InDesign does (making for easy and intuitive masking and editing of the mask), and upon export removes any masked pixels from the final files as InDesign will do when exporting to PDF.

Just my 2 cents.

Michael

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Community Expert ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Michael+Riordan  schrieb

They may have never heard of "masking". I believe that more than half of all requests for cropping fall into this category.

That is just not true.

I've been following these discussions for years and the majority of them when having been pointed to masking, expressed explicitely that they know masking and don't want it. Since I belong to those that have been answering this kind of post for years, I remember those answers pretty well.

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Advocate ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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I'm sorry Monika, It's not a contest. Some users, myself included are questioning the utility of the new feature. Our questions are valid. You have identified a user group that wants to actually crop pixels, thank you for that, but there is no reason to try to prove me or anyone else "wrong" about any of this. I think it is true that the feature could use some improvement even if it does exactly what the fashion designers want. It's certainly also true that many users come looking for crop help when they mean masking. Re-engineering the masking feature to match InDesign would not hurt anyone and would improve the utility of Illustrator for many and improve the Creative Cloud as whole by bringing the applications closer in usability.

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Community Expert ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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Michael, I'm not saying that your request is not valid.

It's just that you are trying to back your request with quotes that didn't happen.

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Advocate ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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Monika a quick search of the forums will show that the requests I'm talking about were indeed made. People have come to the Illustrator forum in the past asking how to crop an image and the answer very often was in fact to use a mask. You yourself answered some of those requests. Did I overstate? I don't think so. Nearly every request for crop help at least goes through a litany of question and answer to try to get to the heart of the matter for the user. Do they need masking, do they need cropping? No matter how you want to dissect it, there is confusion with this feature in Illustrator.

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Community Expert ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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I'm not denying those requests. I already said that I've answered them. And I have received a lot of anger when pointing to the mask feature. The majority of people told me they know about masking, they want cropping. They knew pretty well what they wanted, only Illustrator didn't offer it at that time.

And then there were those folks who wanted to apply some freeform shape to their artwork and didn't know what to do at all. But however clear a cropping or masking feature will be: you will never provide an easy to use solution for someone who has just opened Illustrator for the very first time.

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Community Expert ,
May 05, 2017 May 05, 2017

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The cropping feature was introduced because many users requested a destructive way to crop their images (for reason of filesize or when exporting to SVG).

You want a modification of the current masking feature.

I think it's best to make a feature request for an easier to use masking feature.

Illustrator Feature Request/Bug Report Form

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