cropping?

Angelo

I am trying my best to learn more and become comfortable with PS. (I have always used Corel Photo Paint).

Would someone please tell me how to do an arbitrary crop?

When I choose the crop tool in PS I'm limited to a set measurement and I hate it.

In CPP you can not only arbitrarily set the crop area with your cursor but after doing so you can adjust it by selecting and dragging any of the dimension nodes. Seems there are no such adjustment capabilities in PS.

HELP!!!!!

wxwax

Select your photo.

Hit the letter "C" on your keyboard.

Drag your crop around any which way you please.

Am I missing something, Angelo?

You can put rulers on your screen, if you want to crop to specific measurements.

cletus

Angelo,

It sounds like the crop tool may be in Fixed Size mode. With the crop tool selected, look for the Option Bar (should be near the top of the Photoshop window). There should be a drop down for Mode. Check to see what you have the mode set to and if needed, change it.

Angelo

wxwax wrote:

Select your photo.

Hit the letter "C" on your keyboard.

Drag your crop around any which way you please.

Am I missing something, Angelo?

You can put rulers on your screen, if you want to crop to specific measurements.

doing that only gives me fixed aspect ratio cropping possibilities such as 3x5, 5x7, 8x10 etc and I must make my choice first... well I don't always know what I want ahead of time and I may want an odd size or shape including square. I'm used to a completely flexible crop tool.

Angelo

cletus wrote:

Angelo,

It sounds like the crop tool may be in Fixed Size mode. With the crop tool selected, look for the Option Bar (should be near the top of the Photoshop window). There should be a drop down for Mode. Check to see what you have the mode set to and if needed, change it.

the only place I can find "mode" is in the drop down for "image" and it only refers to the color profile, nothing to do with cropping.... but I do believe you're on to something with a "fixed size mode" I just want to cancel that.

cletus

Angelo wrote:

the only place I can find "mode" is in the drop down for "image" and it only refers to the color profile, nothing to do with cropping.... but I do believe you're on to something with a "fixed size mode" I just want to cancel that.

Angelo,

I don't have access to PS right now so I can't see what you're looking at. There should be something in the option bar (go to the Window menu and see if the option bar is turned on) to let you free the crop tool from fixed size mode.

Another thing you might try is double clicking on the crop tool in the tool's palette... that might open a dialog with tool options.

nikos

I'm not sure which version of photoshop you're using but in my CS & CS2 versions, when I choose a tool, it's options show up on the top bar. When I choose the crop tool, there are 3 input fields in the tool options bar for the Width, Height & Resolution. If you want to freely make any crop ratio, all you have to do is simply delete whatever values are in the fields.

HTH,
Nikos

Richard

Angelo wrote:

the only place I can find "mode" is in the drop down for "image" and it only refers to the color profile, nothing to do with cropping.... but I do believe you're on to something with a "fixed size mode" I just want to cancel that.

Angelo,

1. Make sure that the height, width and resolution input boxes in the crop toolbar are all blank.

2. Hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse to create your initial selection. You should be able to select an arbitrary rectangle.

3. Once your selection is made, you can drag any side to change the height or width and drag from within the selected area to move it around on the canvas.

4. There are also advanced options that let you rotate, alter the perspective (very powerful, this one) or change the selection with proportions constrained to your initial selection.

If you can't get this to work, please try to post some screen shots so we can help figure out what's wrong. You must be missing something simple.

Cheers,

Angelo

cletus wrote:

Angelo,

I don't have access to PS right now so I can't see what you're looking at. There should be something in the option bar (go to the Window menu and see if the option bar is turned on) to let you free the crop tool from fixed size mode.

Another thing you might try is double clicking on the crop tool in the tool's palette... that might open a dialog with tool options.

"options" is enabled under the "window" tab but I still can't find anything having to do with fixed mode and double clicking on the tool in the palette does nothing

Angelo

nikos wrote:

I'm not sure which version of photoshop you're using but in my CS & CS2 versions, when I choose a tool, it's options show up on the top bar. When I choose the crop tool, there are 3 input fields in the tool options bar for the Width, Height & Resolution. If you want to freely make any crop ratio, all you have to do is simply delete whatever values are in the fields.

HTH,
Nikos

BINGO!!! That did it. (I'm using PS/CS v.8)

It never occured to me to blank out the measurements
NOW I can do exactly what I was hoping for AND I have 8 adjustment nodes to resize with instead of only 4.

thank you, thank you, thank you

Angelo

rsinmadrid wrote:

Angelo,

1. Make sure that the height, width and resolution input boxes in the crop toolbar are all blank.

2. Hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse to create your initial selection. You should be able to select an arbitrary rectangle.

3. Once your selection is made, you can drag any side to change the height or width and drag from within the selected area to move it around on the canvas.

4. There are also advanced options that let you rotate, alter the perspective (very powerful, this one) or change the selection with proportions constrained to your initial selection.

If you can't get this to work, please try to post some screen shots so we can help figure out what's wrong. You must be missing something simple.

Cheers,

Ditto!
AND I just played with perspective! Another feature I was familiar with from PP that I missed.
Thank you Richard.

Angelo

OK, sorry.... new subject, new question:

How do I create the "copyright" symbol. I've tried every keystroke imaginable while in the text tool but can't do it.

patch29

Angelo wrote:

OK, sorry.... new subject, new question:

How do I create the "copyright" symbol. I've tried every keystroke imaginable while in the text tool but can't do it.

On a Mac it is option+G. ©

maybe it can be cut and pasted in XP.

Richard

Angelo wrote:

OK, sorry.... new subject, new question:

How do I create the "copyright" symbol. I've tried every keystroke imaginable while in the text tool but can't do it.

If you are using Windows, you can copy it from the Character Map utility and paste it into the text you are typing.

1. Go to Start->Programs->Accessories->Systems Tools->Character Map
2. Scroll through the list till you see the © symbol
3. Select it then hit the copy button
4. It is now on the clipboard and you can paste it into whatever you are writing.

This same method works for all the characters (including foreign languages) that you don't have on your keyboard.

There is probably some magic key combination that is quicker, but I don't know what it is. Since I use "funny" characters often, I am used to the utility.

Regards,

StevenV

rsinmadrid wrote:

If you are using Windows, you can copy it from the Character Map utility and paste it into the text you are typing.

while in Character Map, pointing at the symbol you want, look in the bottom right-hand corner of the window - it tells what the key combination is to get that character. It's Alt+nnnn, where nnnn is some number.

For copyright, it looks like (see the first screenshot here) Alt+0169 - you type the four digit number while holding down the Alt key.

note that the characters may be different in different fonts, so choose the same font in CharViewer that you're using in PS or wherever.

Angelo

thanks Richard and Steven - I was so busy trying all the keystroke combos I know that I forgot to call up the character map.

saurora

Thanks to you, Angelo, for asking these 2 questions! They have been bugging me for a while as well. I keep thinking I will "look it up" but, geewhiz....I am trying to absorb so much new info all the time my brain aches! I do search alot on Dgrin, which is great and then I start reading a thread and go off into yet another unexplored area of photoshop and forget what I was looking for to begin with! Sure wish my brain cells were younger and sharper to recall all of this stuff!!!