Tutorial: non destructive cropping

[sovereign]

Background

I don't like cropping through document mode: switching back to layer mode ends up in loosing the crop.
I know for many of us it is not an issue, but I figured out a way that works better for me.

Procedure

1. select the grid tool: set a 3x3 grid with black fill and white borders
2. select the top layer and draw a grid, so it will be placed as the first layer
3. change the blending mode to Lighter color
4. in the menu choose Layer --> Clipping Layer --> Clip Previous: you will be able to see just the portion of the image inside the grid, and the rest will be painted as transparent
5. use the layer handles to adjust the crop. If you want a fixed ratio, set up the horizontal and vertical sizes in the layer properties. To retain the ratio remember to scale the layer while holding shift
6. once the crop is done, set the borders of the grid as transparent (important to not affect the colors in the image)
7. if you want to hide the crop shift click on the visibility icon of the layer and use ctrl+6 to hide the layer handles

Commit the crop

1. with the crop clipping layer visible select Layout --> Document --> Trim Document: it gets rid of the transparency and resizes the document around the visible frame
2. export the image

Advantages

1. not very difficult to remember once you tried a couple of times
2. the crop is identified by a vector graphic, modifiable in the future simply adjusting the grid

Disadvantages

So far only one: remember that the trim is destructive, so don't save it along with the pld file: just before exporting

It seems is working for me, but I came up with this idea just yesterday .. any comment is welcome.

[Hoogo]

Nice.

[bkh]

Just a remark: if you crop in document mode and want to retain the document size when switching back to picture mode (not sure why one would want to do that), you can:

1) Create a new layer, choose "Document" under Position/Size, same colour mode as your current background layer (this will be selected automatically when the background layer is the active layer)
2) Move it to the back (make it the new background layer)
3) Switch back to Picture Mode.

No need to trim the image before exporting it, no risk forgetting to undo the trim. I guess that one could easily wrap this all up in a "Crop in Document Mode" action.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[sovereign]

Nice trick !
But still the crop is lost

[bkh]

Nice trick !
But still the crop is lost

Works here. You'll have to crop in document mode first, then create the new background layer (which should then have the same size as the cropped image).

Cheers

Burkhard.

[sovereign]

Nice trick !
But still the crop is lost

Works here. You'll have to crop in document mode first, then create the new background layer (which should then have the same size as the cropped image).

Cheers

Burkhard.

Not here. I just refer to the crop setting, not the document size: when I switch back to document mode the crop is lost.

[bkh]

Not here. I just refer to the crop setting, not the document size: when I switch back to document mode the crop is lost.

Not sure what you mean. If you just want the previous crop rectangle, do Edit -> Select All (Cmd-A).

Cheers

Burkhard.

[sovereign]

Not here. I just refer to the crop setting, not the document size: when I switch back to document mode the crop is lost.

Not sure what you mean. If you just want the previous crop rectangle, do Edit -> Select All (Cmd-A).

Cheers

Burkhard.

Nope, for me it doesn't work: I did what you described. Then if I go to picture mode and, after that, in document mode again the original crop is lost.

Also, using the straighten tool blocks (in my case) the possibility to switch back to picture mode. Maybe a bug ?

[bkh]

Nope, for me it doesn't work: I did what you described. Then if I go to picture mode and, after that, in document mode again the original crop is lost.

Try my sample document (attached). Switch to document mode, select the crop tool and do Edit -> Select All.

Also, using the straighten tool blocks (in my case) the possibility to switch back to picture mode.

No problem here. Looks like something's wrong with your new background layer – if the distorted layer is still the bg layer, you can't switch to picture mode.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[sovereign]

Hi Burkhard, thanks for the example.

I still have both the issues
Perhaps something on my system ?

[bkh]

Hi Burkhard, thanks for the example.

I still have both the issues
Perhaps something on my system ?

Very strange. I'm on OS X here, maybe somebody else with Windows can try this?

1) download "crop sample.pld"
2) try if you can switch to document mode (in the document attributes panel)
3) if 2) works, choose the Crop tool and Edit -> Select All. Only a rectangular area in the middle should be selected. If "Hide Border Content" is off in the View menu, the screen should show something like this if zoomed at ≈60%

crop.png

Thanks,

Burkhard.

[Martin Huber]

Very strange. I'm on OS X here, maybe somebody else with Windows can try this?

No answer yet, so I tried it on my old XP installation. It works fine and I see no reason, why Windows and Mac OS should behave differently.

Martin

[Herbert123]

Also works for me.