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### 4.2. Crop Tool

The Crop Tool is used to crop or clip an image or layer. This tool is often used to remove borders, or to eliminate unwanted areas to provide you with a more focused working area. It is also useful if you need a specific image size that does not match the original dimensions of your image.

To use the tool, click inside the image and drag out a rectangular region before releasing the mouse button. When you click, a dialog pops up showing you the dimensions of the crop region, and allowing you to perform various actions. If you want to alter the crop region, you can do so either by clicking and dragging on the corners, or by changing the values in the dialog. When you are ready, you can complete the operation either by clicking inside the crop region, or by pressing the Crop or Resize buttons on the dialog. (See below for what these mean.)

| Tip
If you find that the dialog gets in your way more than it helps you, you can prevent it from appearing by holding down the Shift key when you first click on the image. Working this way means altering the crop region by dragging the corners, and executing the operation by clicking inside the image.

#### Activate Tool

- The Crop Tool can be called way the following way, from the image-menu: Tools->Transform Tools->Crop and Resize.

- The Tool can also be called by clicking the tool icon:

| Note
A different and quicker way to crop selections is using the Image / Crop Image function in the Image menu.

#### Key modifiers (Defaults)

Shortcut

  The Shift-C shortcut will change the active tool to the Crop Tool.

Ctrl

  Holding Ctrl will switch the Crop Tool mode between Crop and Resize.

Shift

  Holding Shift will toggle the of Fixed Aspect ratio.

Alt

  Holding Alt will toggle the use of Allow Enlarging.

#### Options

Overview

  The available tool options for Crop can be accessed by double clicking the Crop tool icon.

Tool Toggle

  The Tool Toggle for the Crop Tool alternates between Crop mode and Resize mode.

  Crop Mode is the standard mode of operation for the Crop Tool. Cropping an image or layer will change a layer by eliminating everything outside the cropping area. The cropping area can be set by either dragging the tool to form a rectangle area or manually setting the origin, width, and height. Cropping areas can also be set based on an existing selection or by using the Auto Shrink button. These options are available within the Crop And Resize Information dialog which is shown when the Crop Tool is clicked on an image or layer.

  If you are cropping an image (not just a layer), then Resize Mode changes the shape of the image without altering the size or shape of the layers it contains. This may leave parts of some layers extending beyond the edges of the image, where you cannot see them, but if you move the layers, you will see that the contents still exist. If you are cropping a layer, Resize Mode does the same thing as crop mode.

  | Note
  You can also switch to Resize mode in two other ways: first, by using the Resize button on the dialog instead of the Crop button; second, by holding down the Ctrl key while you click inside the crop region to complete the operation.

Current Layer Only

  This option will make the crop or resize affect only the active layer.

Allow Enlarging

  This option allows the crop or resize to take place outside the image or layer boundary.

Fixed Aspect Ratio

  With this option, cropping will respect a fixed ratio between Width and Height.

Crop And Resize Information

Origin

  The Origin selectors allow the manual setting of the top left corner of the cropping region. The units may also be chosen.

Width/Height

  The Width and Height selectors allow the manual setting of both the width and the height of the cropping area. The units may also be chosen.

From Selection

  This button will resize the cropping area to encompass all active selections contained within the image.

Auto Shrink

  The Auto Shrink button will attempt to locate a border from which to draw dimensions from.

Crop and Resize buttons

  These two buttons act according to their function, ignoring the mode setting in tool options.

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