Cropping and resizing images is not the most artistically interesting use of Photoshop, but it’s an essential skill for processing images for publication. (For example, here are standard social media crop sizes.) There are multiple ways to accomplish almost anything in Photoshop, and this is no exception. Here’s how to crop and resize at the same time, as well as how to resize or crop separately.
Videos demonstrating these processes are posted at the bottom of this page.
Cropping in Photoshop
It would be wonderful to always get the composition exactly right when taking photos, but that’s not how it usually happens. Cropping allows you to cut off edges of images to improve the composition or change the dimensions.
Cropping an image to change the composition or dimensions.
Market peppers, by katsrevenge42, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Cropping an image to make it vertical rather than horizontal.
Market flowers, Heather Cowper, CC BY-NC 2.0
There are two main ways to crop in Photoshop:
Option 1: Use the Crop tool
Click the icon on the left toolbar, then either adjust the edges that appear or hold-and-drag to draw the crop shape on the image. Hit enter to apply the crop.
Using the Crop tool in Photoshop
Option 2: Use the Rectangular Marquee selection tool
Click the icon on the left toolbar, then hold-and-drag to outline the part of the image you want to keep. Once selected, go to Image > Crop in the top menu.
Using the Rectangular Marquee selection tool to crop in Photoshop
Cropping and Resizing
The Crop tool gives you options to specify the dimensions and size before you crop, which is helpful if you need to do both.
1. Click on the Crop tool from the left toolbar. Notice that the options bar at the top of the interface (between the image area and the top menu) changes depending on what tool you’re using.
2. In the crop options, there’s a dropdown for choosing a ratio or other presets. Choose W x H x Resolution, and then type in the values for width, height and resolution. Always include “px” for pixels, like 1000px, or it may default to inches and make your image enormous! It will also work without specifying all three, like if you want a specific height but want the width unrestricted.
3. Use the Crop tool to crop your image. Specifying both width and height means you’ll have a rigid rectangle that can be resized and moved around, but the shape will stay the same.
4. After cropping, choose “Save As” to avoid destroying the original.
Using the Crop tool options to specify image size
Resizing in Photoshop
If you don’t need to crop or have already done so, you can also resize an image without the crop tool. There are many times that it’s beneficial to resize an image for a specific use, especially online. Most cameras take photos that are upwards of 4000px across, which is much larger than most websites display. Uploading an image that’s too large can make a webpage load slowly, and sites that resize automatically (such as Facebook) may decrease quality.
1. Open the image in Photoshop and go to Image > Image Size in the top menu.
2. Here, you can specify the width or height and the other dimension will update automatically to keep the image proportional. You can also change the resolution — 300 is ideal for print; 72 is standard for the web, though this will likely change as Retina displays become more common.
3. After you click OK, always “Save As” to save a copy of the image rather than permanently changing the original.
Keeping Images Proportional
Images should never be distorted when you crop or resize. If you need to change the proportions of the original photo (such as cropping a horizontal photo into a square), you are always going to lose a portion of the photo. This is unavoidable. Consider image composition principles when you choose how to crop.
Always change the dimensions of a photo by cropping, not distorting. (“Tomatoes, Corvallis Farmers Market,” Wendell, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
It can be challenging to crop a photo in a way that doesn’t lose too much of the original meaning, but distortion is never the answer. (“Santa Barbara Farmers Market,” Bruce Caron, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This video demonstrates simple resizing (without cropping) and how to crop and resize to specific dimensions: