Preview app

[Backlighting]

When I open a picture with the preview app I don't see a way to crop the image.
Does the app not have that feature or am I just not seeing it.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Rod]

No the preview app does not really offer a cropping tool. By far the easiest way to do this is to drag the image to the Photos app icon. I macOS Monterey that will result in the image being put into the Photos Imports folder where you can edit it using any of the Photos editing tools.
After editing simply drag the image back onto the Desktop or wherever you want it to be.

 

[MacInWin]

Actually, there is a cropping tool, but it's not intuitive. Move the cursor in the image to the upper left corner of what you want to keep, then click/drag to the bottom right of what you want. A box will appear on the screen to show you the selected area. Now on the menu bar click "Edit" and then "Copy." That will copy what is inside the box. Now click on File and "New From Clipboard" and Preview will create a new file from what is inside the box, effectively cropping everything outside it. Now click File/Save and give it a name.

Another way to go about it if you want to eliminate just one edge is to set the box on one corner, then click/drag to enclose what you want to get rid of and then click Edit/Delete and it will be removed from the image.

Either way works, but I tend to use the first way as a default because that leaves the original image as it was, just in case I make a hash of it.

 

[Rod]

Aha! I did think there used to be a way. In answering Backlighting's question I tried several methods and got as far as selecting and copying but did not try New from Clipboard. Thank you Jake, really handy stuff as I use preview for screen shots a lot.

 

[Slydude]

No the preview app does not really offer a cropping tool. By far the easiest way to do this is to drag the image to the Photos app icon. I macOS Monterey that will result in the image being put into the Photos Imports folder where you can edit it using any of the Photos editing tools.
After editing simply drag the image back onto the Desktop or wherever you want it to be.

I'm using the version of Preview that is in Monterey. There is a cropping option in Preview. To get to that option all I have to do is the following:

1. Open a document.
2. Select the area to crop. Preview has several options for selection tools so choose whichever one meets your needs.
3. Go to Tools>Crop or press command k simultaneously.

I generally have Preview showing the Markup tools for convenience hence but I don't think that matters.

 

[MacInWin]

Yep, that works, too, Sly. But it makes the change to the original file, unless you pretty quickly rename the cropped image. Autosave kicks in, and while it can be undone, it's a more risky way, IMHO. The File From Clipboard avoids any risk to the original. But both work to do the crop.

 

[Slydude]

Yep, that works, too, Sly. But it makes the change to the original file, unless you pretty quickly rename the cropped image. Autosave kicks in, and while it can be undone, it's a more risky way, IMHO. The File From Clipboard avoids any risk to the original. But both work to do the crop.

You're right. I hadn't noticed that because I usually work with a copy of the file. I didn't do it for my test file this morning but I usually do. Sometimes I make the copy in Finder before opening Preview and sometimes I save the file with a different name within Preview first.