Cropping is a fundamental photo editing skill, and thankfully, macOS makes it incredibly easy to crop your photos using built-in tools. Whether you want to improve the composition of your images, remove unwanted elements, or adjust the aspect ratio for social media, your Mac has you covered. This guide will walk you through the simple steps to crop photos on your Mac using the Preview app and the Photos app, both of which come standard with macOS.
Cropping Photos Using Preview: A Quick and Easy Method
Preview is the default image viewer on macOS, and it’s surprisingly powerful for quick edits like cropping. Here’s how to crop a photo using Preview:
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Open your photo in Preview: Locate the photo you want to crop in Finder. Right-click on the image, select “Open With,” and choose “Preview.”
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Duplicate the file (Optional but Recommended): To keep your original photo intact, go to the “File” menu in the top menu bar and select “Duplicate.” This will create a copy of your image for you to edit.
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Select the Crop Area: Click and drag your cursor over the area of the photo you want to keep. A rectangular selection box will appear.
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Adjust the Selection: You can refine your selection by dragging the small blue “corner dots” of the selection box. Drag inwards to reduce the cropping area or outwards to expand it. You can also reposition the entire selection by clicking and dragging inside the selected rectangle.
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Crop the Photo: Once you are satisfied with your selection, go to the “Tools” menu in the top menu bar and click “Crop.” This will remove everything outside of your selected area, cropping your photo.
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Save Your Cropped Photo: To save your changes, go to the “File” menu and select “Save.” If you duplicated the file earlier, you can save it with a new name to distinguish it from the original.
Cropping tools in Preview
Cropping Photos in the Photos App: For Photos Library Management
If your photos are organized within the Apple Photos app, you can easily crop them directly within the application. The Photos app offers non-destructive editing, meaning your original photo is always preserved. Here’s how to crop in the Photos app:
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Open your photo in Photos: Launch the Photos app and find the photo you wish to crop in your library. Double-click the photo to open it in single view.
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Enter Edit Mode: Click the “Edit” button located in the top right corner of the Photos window.
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Select the Crop Tool: In the Edit pane, click on the “Crop” tab.
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Crop and Adjust: A grid overlay will appear on your photo, and you can drag the corners of the crop box to define your desired crop area, similar to Preview. The Photos app also offers preset aspect ratios under the “Aspect” dropdown menu, which is useful for cropping photos for specific purposes like social media posts. You can also straighten your photo using the dial above the photo.
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Apply the Crop: Once you are happy with your crop, click the “Done” button to apply the changes. The cropped version will now be visible in your Photos library. To revert to the original at any time, you can go back to “Edit” and click “Revert to Original.”
Quick Cropping with Screenshots: A Fast Method for Screen Images
Another quick way to crop on a Mac is by using screenshots. This method is especially useful when you need to crop something you see on your screen, including photos displayed on websites or in other applications. However, be aware that screenshots might result in slightly lower resolution compared to cropping the original image file.
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Capture a Selected Portion of your Screen: Press and hold the Shift + Command + 4 keys simultaneously. Your cursor will change to a crosshair.
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Drag to Select the Area: Click and drag to select the area you want to capture and crop. A rectangular selection box will appear.
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Release to Capture: Once you release the mouse button, a screenshot of the selected area will be saved as a file on your desktop. This screenshot is effectively a cropped image of the selected portion of your screen.
Beyond Basic Cropping: Exploring Advanced Options
While Preview and Photos offer excellent basic cropping capabilities, for more advanced image manipulation, including more precise control over cropping, consider exploring other software options. Applications like GIMP (a free, open-source option) and Adobe Photoshop provide a wider range of editing tools, including more sophisticated cropping features, perspective correction, and content-aware cropping. However, for most everyday cropping tasks, the built-in tools on your Mac will be more than sufficient.
Cropping photos on a Mac is a straightforward process thanks to the intuitive tools available in Preview and Photos. Whether you are quickly trimming a photo or refining the composition, macOS provides user-friendly options to achieve your desired results efficiently.
