Crop at a specific aspect ratio?

[jonnythan]

I often crop photos, most often for printing, and have trouble cropping to the exact aspect ratio that I want. I usually end up cropping and recropping to get just the right number of pixels in the crop. I currently use Photoshop 6.

Does anyone know a good way to crop the pictures to a specific aspect ratio (whether 4:3 or 3:2) without trial and error?

I bet there's something obvious I'm just missing.

 

[fdog]

Johnnythan:

1)Open your image in PS.

2)Click on the Crop tool on the toolbar on the left. This should open the Crop dialoge bar at the top of the screen.

3)Enter your proportions in the Width and Height boxes. For example, enter a 4 and a 3. Make sure you leave the Resolution box empty. Ignore that the program adds "inches" after your entries.

4)Now do the click-and-drag on your image with the crop tool. You will notice that it draws a crop box to your entered proportions.

5)You can resize this crop box by grabbing a corner, or, move the crop box by grabbing it inside the box.

6)When you're happy with the image, double click as usual.

All the best, James

 

[jonnythan]

Oh good lord. I'm not at home so I can't start up PS and see, but there are actually Width and Height boxes?

I think I'm going to cry. I've been hunting and pecking for years.

 

[flyinghuntster]

Well put FDog. I get to a simular menu on my PC with hot keys (Alt+I and then hit "I" by itself) and your there. No grabbing the mouse and then moving it up to the tool bar and then clicking on the icon.

With FDogs inst. you can actually set both of your constraints in two separate settings so when you want to click in one type select it and then on another image you might want to change to the other just select the other setting you saved.

Keys are so much faster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can't beat PS for workin' your images.

 

[jonnythan]

Just think how many more posts I could have if I hadn't spent so much time cropping my images

 

[justleesa]

Good Question! Thanks for asking!!!

 

[fdog]

The hardest part with these programs is knowing it can do something, not actually getting it to perform the task.

Can't tell you how many times I've had the "RCA Victor dog" look as I'm thinking "whaaat? It can do that?!?"

All the best, James

 

[SeaYoda]

Oh good lord. I'm not at home so I can't start up PS and see, but there are actually Width and Height boxes?

I think I'm going to cry. I've been hunting and pecking for years.

Attached is proof.