How to Crop an Object in Illustrator

You can crop in Adobe Illustrator by creating a clipping mask.

Cropping an object in Adobe Illustrator CS5 requires a few extra steps compared to using the crop tool available in earlier versions of Illustrator. To crop in Illustrator CS5, you must create a clipping path object and precisely align that object with the area of another object that you'd like to crop. Once you've placed this object you can instruct Illustrator to perform the crop function.

Instructions

1. Run the Adobe Illustrator CS5 application and open the document that contains the object that you would like to crop.

2. Create a new vector object that is the shape of the area that you wish to crop to. For instance, in order to crop a circular portion out of a square object you would create a circle object the size of the desired crop area. In Adobe terminology this object is referred to as a "clipping path."

3. Click and drag the clipping path object on top of the object that you wish to crop. Place the clipping path object such that it is perfectly aligned with the area of the original object that you wish to crop to.

4. Select both the clipping path object and the original object.

5. Click "Object" in the menu bar, then click "Clipping Mask" and "Make" in the submenus. The original object is cropped to the shape of the clipping path object.

References

• Adobe Help: Illustrator Clipping Masks