Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

ou can transform and retouch images in 
many ways. For example, you can manip-
ulate areas of a layer as if the pixels in the 

area had been melted, and scale, rotate, or flip 
selections or images.

Cropping is the process of selecting and removing 
a portion of an image to create focus or strengthen 
its composition. You can crop an image using the 
crop tool or the Crop command. In addition, you 
can use the Straighten and Crop Image command 
to automatically correct a skewed image. (See 
“Straightening images” on page 126.)

Select the crop tool ( ).

If you want to specify the size or resolution of 

the crop, enter the values in the Width, Height, or 
Resolution text boxes in the options bar. You can 
also click Front Image to enter the values of the 
currently active image.

Drag over the part of the image you want to 

keep. When you release the mouse button, 
the crop marquee appears as a bounding box with 
handles at the corners and sides. 

If necessary, select the Shield cropped area 

option to show the cropping shield. To adjust the 
color and opacity of the cropping shield, use the 
color selection box and the opacity pop-up slider 
in the options bar. 

Adjust the crop marquee:

To move the marquee to another position, place 

the pointer inside the bounding box, and drag. 

To scale the marquee, drag a handle. To 

constrain the proportions, hold down Shift as you 
drag a corner handle.

To rotate the marquee, position the pointer 

outside the bounding box (the pointer turns into a 
curved arrow (

)), and drag.

Do one of the following to crop the image:

Click the OK button (

) in the options bar.

Double-click inside the crop marquee.

Select a different tool in the toolbox.

Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).

Click the Cancel button (

) in the options bar to 

cancel the cropping operation.

Select the part of the image you want to keep. 

Choose Image > Crop.