Introducing the New Crop Tool in Photoshop CS6

Introducing the New Crop Tool in Photoshop CS6

on Mar 27th 2012 with 40 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Adobe Photoshop CS6
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 4 Minutes

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 3 of 29 in the Introduction to Photoshop CS6 Session
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A good crop can make a big difference in how well a photograph looks. In Photoshop CS6, Adobe has made some significant changes to how the Crop Tool works. In this episode of our Introduction to Photoshop CS6 series we will discuss the changes that were made to the Crop Tool and show you how to use it effectively. Let’s take a look!

 
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Grant Friedman is a veteran blogger, social media addict, and design enthusiast. Grant has been blogging about the design industry since 2008 and is currently the editor of Psdtuts. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about Psdtuts, feel free to direct them to Grant's Twitter account.  

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  • yunus

    Welcome CS6 :) I love you Adobe :)

  • http://www.presupuestotiendaonline.net/ tiendaonline

    Interestining for those who work with photoshop every day.

  • http://www.imlush.com Ayyan Roy

    Great work, it’s very helpful. Thanks ^_^

  • Adam

    I wish the crop tool in Adobe Camera Raw 7 worked the same way. That’s where I do most of my cropping.

  • George

    CS6 looks great!

  • neil bloodtitan

    Could you please tell us the release date for CS6? Thanks.

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
      Author

      It’s scheduled for release some time in the first half of 2012. We don’t know any more than that, unfortunately.

      • http://www.facebook.com/pancho.carlo.3 Pancho Carlo

        I don’t use this tool much, but I love it. Those other people who say that they “hate it” are just full of CROP.

  • http://www.glennlosackmd.com glenn losack

    please tell me how to eliminate this overly complicated CROP tool
    i want the CS5 crop tool
    i want to get rid of these corner bars too
    thanks

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
      Author

      You can easily change it back to classic mode. Select the Crop Tool and then click the settings icon.

      • Kwissy

        Sorry Grant but your comment is just the half truth, you only get the old corners back not the old functionallity. With this new Tool i need 3 steps more to crop, to be honest this is typical adobe crap.

      • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
        Author

        Sorry that you don’t like the new crop tool. I really like it. It saves me a ton of time every day. In my opinion the new crop tool is a huge improvement. Give it some more time, I think you’ll grow to like it.

      • Aaron

        I hate the new crop tool and cannot even do my work anymore. How can I make it act like CS4? You say click the settings icon. Where is the settings icon?

        I used to be able to control the crop then set exact dimensions for the thumbnail all very quickly. Now I have no control and Adobe decides the shape of my thumbnail. I hate it.

      • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
        Author

        The settings option is in the options bar at the top.

  • Angel

    This new crop tool is complete garbage, don’t defend it.

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
      Author

      I personally think it’s one of the most useful new features in CS6. Give it a chance.

  • http://www.graphicsbydavin.com Davin

    The new crop tool is great for photos, but I use Photoshop primary for webdesign and development, and more often then not I need a specific size / portion of a image cropped to exact size not relative. I used to be able to set the width and height and drag and crop in a single motion, but this option is not easily available. What I have discovered is I can make a Saved Preset from the “Size and Resolution” drop down. Then I have options to quickly change my width and height as I used to.

    • http://www.wusf.org Willow

      The presets are all well-and-good……if they actually worked! With CS4, you just set the present size and after you’ve dragged and positioned your crop, you double click and voila, the image is the size and crop you want! I’ve attempted to set presets multiple times, and it gives me the proportion, but doesn’t change the size! What good is a preset that isn’t a preset?

      I don’t get it. I MUST be a bug! Tell me it’s a bug!

  • Jan Velschow

    Where is the CS5 “perspective” function? How do you correct an incorrect perspective (no – Lens Correction does not chage the perspective in a linear manner).

  • Don

    I’m with Glenn and Kwissy, HATE the new crop tool!! Why make it so many steps and why leave the crop
    corners on till you switch tools? Give us back CS5 crop or at least an option to use the CS5 crop

  • ruth

    So far not having a ton of luck with the new crop tool — whenever I try to do it like any previous PS rendition — its spins the image around which is sooo totally not what I had in mind at the time. Put me under the class of people who are really sick of changing things for “change’s sake” — if you cannot make something better, don’t “change” it. Common sense, eh?

  • Will

    You could have easily left the tool alone as far as the normal function, then perhaps added some of the options, and the tool would have been fine. If Adobe keeps their normal MO they will turn it back to the CS5 version in CS 8 and call it “all new and improved”. Not intuitive, not as easy to use and much more touchy. I agree this was one of those “for change sake” type of revisions. Leaving it active is also very silly and annoying. Please read the reviews Adobe!

  • Rick

    I’ve been using CS5 since it came out, recently bought CS6. I absolutely hate the new crop tool, it is bad in so many ways. I wish there was an option to go back to the CS5 type. In fact, it’s making it a deal-killer for me, I may end up going back to CS5, I hate the new crop tool that much and it’s something I use all the time.

    At least give us the option of going back to the way it was.

  • Glenn

    Dislike the new tool. When I use Crop, I am typically cropping a large image to a specific size, sometimes the whole image. I like that it is nondestructive but in making it nondestructive, the tool has become very clumsy to use as I had been using it. Now it crops to an aspect ratio, instead of to a specific size. grrr

  • http://www.fluffingaround.blogspot.com tiff

    Hi There Grant. How do I use the crop tool to rotate the crop box in 45 degree incriminates. I tend to use this trick a lot in CS5 and am frustrated in CS6. Also the symbols when I’m holding down the shift key and have the mouse positioned in the corners of the crop box. What are they.

    Thanking you.

  • BoekMarc

    Using the croptool every day, Pro. Hate the new CS6 version.
    As mentioned before, the corners stay. But that is not the worst.
    That is the perspective crop is now a seprate tool. You have to chose upfront, instead of while cropping.
    And then it still sucks. You cannot remove the “shield” function in the perspective cropping tool.
    Costing me a lot of time. And money.
    Now I have 5.5 opened besides CS6, just for cropping.
    Well Grant, still thinking this is great?!

  • http://www.marknixon.com Mark Nixon

    I hate the new crop tool too. I’ve been trying it for about 8 weeks and it’s really annoying. If you’re in the crop tool and click anywhere within the workspace it locks the image in a crop and you have to tell it to cancel, but you have to right click (sorry PC user) within the image to do this, even though it will lock a crop anywhere within the workspace. The old crop is better in this respect.

  • http://www.photoworkstemecula.com clara

    I hate cs6 crop tool. I have the older version on another computer and use it. Are the programmers at Adobe idiots.

  • Jay

    I hope that Adobe will remove the corner icons on the Crop tool. They are distracting. Also, after the crop is completed, the crop rectangle and corner icons should disappear as they did in CS5. I have to switch to another tool immediately after cropping in order to make the rectangle and corner icons go away and to see the corners and edges more clearly.

  • VJ

    Ugh! This new CS6 crop tool is the pits!! I loathe it with a passion!!

    • http://cmisak.com Craig Misak

      @VJ – Agree why did they mess with a tool that worked… The defined size dialog request a “confirmation” click as before it didn’t that’s just a waste of an action. Shortcut “C” takes me to creating a new crop box when there’s one already made, that i’m trying to adjust now. But instead of adjusting I accidently create a new tiny one. The movement is backwards like its suppose to be setup for a touchscreen. Adobe FYI most of us design with standard monitors and mice – if you feel its the future fine! But let those stuck with traditional computers choose.

      I could write a dissertation on the UI/UX optimization failures of this new tool. Long story short Adobe you really took a step backwards. This is coming from someone who has give’n the new tool months of attempted appreciation. Good news is I still have CS4 installed and will just use that for my cropping needs.

      • Dima

        It does what it did before, only a bit different, and, I think, much better. Plus, you can always click “Use Classic Mode” in the drop-down menue that appear when you click on the gear icon.

  • Guy Gurney

    I downloaded the 30-day trial version of PS CS6 when it was first offered, but soon discarded it and will not be upgrading from CS4 to 6. The sole reason is this crop tool which makes CS6 unusable for me. Hope Adobe sees sense and offers the possibility of reverting to the earlier crop tool which is easy and convenient to use.

  • Victor

    On average, I crop 60 or 70 photos a day. The New Crop Tool STINKS!!! Adobe has Completely Destroyed the Functionality of a Perfectly Useful Tool! I agree with Every Complaint Previously Posted and Add that I’m Glad That I Still Have CS5 Loaded! This Thing is HORRIBLE!!! HIDEOUS!!! HAIRBRAINED!!! And it’s preventing me from even trying to care about learning of any other changes made in Photoshop or CS6 in General!

  • Deb

    I can open in Camera Raw, Rt. click on the image and choose custom, set it at 4×6, hit return and it crops to 4×6.
    If I open the image as a jpg, set the crop size and either hit return or rt click and choose crop the picture doesn’t crop. It is still the same size.

    What am I doing wrong?

  • Demberel

    Guys! I found the way to solve this problem encountering with us. Crop tool has an option to change to Classic Mode. This mode is located on the Option bar. Good luck!

  • animiah888

    I’m fairly new to CS6 and I REEEEAAAALLLLLYYY HATE the new crop tool, example I need to crop of a bit that I’m obviously not using and it ends up setting the proportions to cut out parts of my work and then give me MORE negative unused space that I don’t need or want, hence the reason for trying to crop in the 1st place GRRRRRR;-( I HATE IT PLEASE FIX IT ADOBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • cilla

    Great! Thanks so much!

  • H A Graphic Designs

    Helpful tutorial

  • 123

    How to turn off this “new” crop tool?