Adobe Illustrator is one of the most powerful design tools out there. It’s great for creating vector graphics, typography, logos, and other visual elements. But, did you know that Illustrator comes with some great image editing tools too? One of the key image editing functions you can perform in Illustrator is cropping. Here’s how you can crop an image in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1: Open Image in Adobe Illustrator

To crop an image in Illustrator, you must first open the image in the program. To do this, go to ‘File’ and then select ‘Open’. Browse through your folders and select the image you want to crop. After selecting the image, click the ‘Open’ button located at the bottom of the window. The image will now be opened in a separate window.

Step 2: Select the Image

Next, select the image and click the ‘Crop Image’ icon from the toolbar. This will bring up a rectangular frame tool that you can use to select the portion of the image you want to keep. If you notice that your image already has a bounding box, you do not need to click the ‘Crop Image’ button.

Step 3: Creating the Crop Area

To create the crop area, click and drag diagonally to make a rectangular frame around the area you want to keep. You can also resize this rectangular frame to include more or less of the image. Be sure to keep the image aspect ratio locked if you want to prevent distortion of the image during resizing.

You can also rotate the rectangular frame to match the angle of the image if it is not straight. To do this, click on the image, then click and drag near the corners of the rectangular frame. You should see a small curved arrow appear when you move your mouse over a corner. Click and drag this arrow to rotate the frame.

Step 4: Finalizing the Crop

Once you have selected the part of the image you want to keep, hit the ‘Enter’ key to confirm your selection. The image will now be cropped to the size and shape of the rectangular frame you created.

Step 5: Save the Image

Finally, save your edited image by going to ‘File’ and clicking ‘Save As’ to save the file. You give it a new name or just overwrite the original file.

In conclusion, Adobe Illustrator is a powerful image editing tool that can be used to crop images. To do this, you would need to open the image in Illustrator, select the area you want to keep, finalize the crop, and then save your edited image. This is a great tool to use if you do not have access to professional photo editing software.