Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 12/19/2008

Question
Hi there,
I need to crop part of an image off in Illustrator but the part I need to crop is not a square shape, so I can't get it to work using the normal method of creating a box and a clipping mask. How else can I crop the image?

Answer
Hi Alison,
You can use any shape as a clipping mask so it doesn't have to be a square. Simply use the pen or pencil tool to create the shape that you like, put it on top of your picture, select both the picture and shape and select "Object>Clipping Mask>Make" from the top menu.
I found you 2 useful links where you can read more about clipping masks in Illustrator. The first one talk in more details about the subject while the 2nd shows you how to make a clipping mask using text. I hope that you'll find them helpful.

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/illustrator/articles/illcs2at_behindmask.html
http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/detail/154/en/

Please let me know if you need any further assistance. I'll be happy to help.

Best regards,

Laith