Total newbie to this!

[Duo Maxwell1]

Hi, I'm trying to crop up an image for a forum and the crop option doesn't do it as I want it to so I tried cutting, pasting and moving the parts I wanted to keep into place, that worked just fine for one side of the image but on the other side the app keeps telling me that it can't cut since I don't have any pixels selected when I do, I did the exact sam thing I did on the other side but it thinks theres nothing selected when there is.

[Beth Haney]

Well, I am feeling a little dense this morning, so maybe somebody else will read this post and understand more clearly what you're trying to do! Crop I understand, but I don't understand "on the other side." But, I'm going to assume that you have one image and you want to crop two separate areas of it and make it into two images.

Personally, I don't use the crop tool. Try this and see if you get the results you're after.

Open your original image on the desktop and immediately go to Image>Duplicate Image - twice - and make two copies. Close the original. (I'm a fanatic about never working on the original!)

Select the Rectagular Marquee tool, draw an outline around the portion of the first duplicate image that you want to keep. Then Image>Crop. There's your first cropped picture. Now do the same thing on the second copy. There's your second cropped picture. Is that what you needed?

I don't like using the Crop tool, because it requires verifying each time that you've got any settings turned off that would give you a resampling. That's why I prefer cropping with the Rectangular Marquee. (I know you didn't ask, but I decided to volunteer!)

If you haven't gotten the instructions you need to complete your project, please repost, either with a little more detail or - with luck - somebody whose brain is firing on all cyclinders will see your message next time! :)

[Pete D]

Duo Maxwell,

Here is how I would handle this task of taking "pieces" of a picture and
assembling a new picture from those pieces;

First open the picture and then pull the layers palette out of the well by
clicking and holding on the layers file tab.
Using rectangular or oval OR any selection tool... select first area you
want on the picture.
Then click "Layer/New/Layer Via copy". (this will create a new layer with
only the selection)
Click on the background (original) image in the layers palette.... (Don't
forget this step or you will get a message that no pixels are selected or
you may create a blank layer)
Go to the next area you wish to use and so on until you have them all.

Now open a new canvas (file/new and make it the same size as the image you
are working with as well as the same resolution.
Position this canvas on the left side of your screen and the layers palette
on the right.
Now one at a time click on the layers thumbnails, hold, and drag them on to
your blank canvas.
Get them roughly where you want them then close the original picture.
You can adjust the location of your selections by clicking on that layer in
the layers palette, then using the arrow keys to move around or click hold
and drag.

Pete

[Peter Duniho]

"Beth Haney" <member@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:2ccd284f.0@webx.la2eafNXanI...

> I don't like using the Crop tool, because it requires verifying
> each time that you've got any settings turned off that would
> give you a resampling.

Can you elaborate on this? In what situations would the crop tool cause
resampling?

The reason I ask is that I had no idea that the crop tool would cause
resampling, and agree with you that this would be undesirable. I don't want
cropping to make any other changes other than to just trim the image. If
you can elaborate, that will help me avoid those situations.

Thanks!
Pete

[Chuck Snyder]

Pete Duniho: The Crop tool will any time you set a resolution in the
toolbar and also if you set a width, height and resolution. As a matter of
fact, if you set just width and height, you also can wind up with
resampling. If you want to avoid resampling but crop an image to a
particular aspect ratio, use the Marquee tool.

Chuck

[Chuck Snyder]

Pete: That should have said "The Crop tool will "resample" any time...not
all here today, I'm afraid...

Chuck

[Marty Landolt]

Hi Chuck,
Haven't talked to you in a while...either means I'm getting smarter or I don't know I'm getting dumber.
Anyhoo, I use the crop tool quite a bit and can't remember getting mixed up with any "Resampling". Whenever I see that word I side track around it and do something else 'cause I'm not all knowing about what it does.
Marty

[Chuck Snyder]

Hi, Marty! I know you're still here; I see your wonderful submissions to
the Challenge and your encouraging comments about the entries of others....

The resampling is very subtle; it never takes you to a screen where it asks
you if you want it. But when you specify a certain size and/or resolution,
then draw a box around part of your image, the program has no choice but to
add (or subtract) pixels to meet your specifications. Unless you do some
really wild stuff - like specifying a resolution of 600 pixels per inch, a
10 inch by 14 inch image and then crop a small corner of your picture as
your new image, you won't see the impact - at least not on the screen. It
might affect your prints if it's extreme; but if you're only doing some
modest cropping, even the prints won't be that negatively affected. But I
stick with the rectangular marquee, because I can control exactly what it
does and I like that.

Have a great weekend; get in some good horseback riding for those of us who
just ride pickup trucks!

:-)

Chuck

[Schraven Robert]

Marty, same here.

I use the crop tool regular and haven't noticed anything change before and after the cropping.
What should I look out for?

Robert

[Chuck Snyder]

Robert, you probably won't see any real effects on the screen, but if you
specify a resolution when cropping, you may see some effects in the print
(some loss of sharpness, perhaps) if you've cropped down to a small portion
of the original image. But for modest cropping (chopping off say 10 percent
of an image to achieve a certain width-to-height ratio), it shouldn't be
noticeable. You just need to be aware that the potential for resampling is
there when using the Crop tool, and check the before and after image size to
make sure it hasn't been severe.

Chuck

[Schraven Robert]

Thank you chuck.
So far I have not been doing much with defining resolutions or image sizes. I am still at the stage where I work from the screen; what I see is what I get kind of thing.
I crop straight from the screen so to speak, there for I didn't notice any changes in the quality of the images: I will bear your comments in mind.

Robert

[Chuck Snyder]

Robert, I happened to be looking up cropping in the Photoshop 7.0 Help to
answer another question, and here's what it says about the Crop tool:

"(Photoshop) To crop the image without resampling (default), make sure that
all the text boxes in the options bar are empty. You can click the Clear
button to quickly clear all text boxes.
(Photoshop) To resample the image during cropping, enter a height, width,
and/or resolution in the options bar."

As it's the same Crop tool in PE2, the above applies.

Chuck

[Barbara Brundage]

While we're talking about the crop tool, I notice that I can never undo a crop once I click "enter." Is it supposed to be irreversible even before saving?

[Marty Landolt]

CHUCK,
Thank you and others for giving me food for thought. I think, to be safe, I'll avoid cropping with the crop tool. I have noticed a differenc but it was never great so I didn't question it. Goodness, I sure don't need to lose any 'quality'.
Thanks too for looking at my stuff. You wouldn't believe the hours I put into it and yet the results look so simple. Someday I hope to do an image in less than ???? hours.
Marty

[Pete D]

Barbara,

Crop can be UnDone like any other function on my PSE 1 &2.

PeteD

[Barbara Brundage]

Crop can be UnDone like any other function on my PSE 1 &2.




Hmm, I was afraid of that. This is one of those mysterious things that has always dogged me with PE2. Trashing prefs seems to put it back for one use only,then it's back to being irrevocable again. Anyone have any idea of what else I should be checking for, possible conflicts or anything?

[Nancy S]

Maybe I'm not following the conversation closely enough, but going back in the history palette prior to the crop negates the crop, or using Escape (in Windows anyway).

[Barbara Brundage]

I know it's supposed to, Nancy, but when I use the crop tool, a lot of the time the history palette is empty afterwards. That's the problem.

[Nancy S]

Sorry Barbara, I didn't understand the full extent of the problem.