Expert: Amy - 4/4/2007

Question
QUESTION: HOW DO I CROP A PART OF AN OBJECT AFTER I HAVE MADE A CLIPPING MASK WITH IT? I HAVE ILLUSTRATOR CS2

THANKS!
ANSWER: Hi Doug,

You can't crop raster images that you've placed in Illustrator. You'd have to do that before placing the image.

If you are talking about editing the clipping mask path itself, that can be done using the standard path editing tools (delete/add anchor points, pencil, etc.).

Hope this helped. Let me know if I misunderstood your question.

-Amy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Pardon my ignorance, but here's what I've got... I've had to "place" a page from a catalogue that's on a disc into illustrator, but I don't need the whole page. So, I did a clipping mask to cut out everything I didn't need. I was told that if I edit the image and just cut and paste, that the image will not be as clear as if I use the "place" button. Is it OK that I have a bunch of "clipped" images on the page together- even if each one is the size of the whole page?

Answer
Hi again Doug.

Well, that's partially true. If you have a bunch of placed files in an Illustrator file, you are going to increase the size of the file unnecessarily.

I'm still a little unclear if the catalog pages are raster files or vector files of some kind.

f the placed file is purely a raster image (TIFF file containing only photograhic content), then cropping the image in PhotoShop first should be absolutely fine as long as you maintain sufficient resolution and color mode for your intended final product (300 dpi CMYK for something going to press for example).

If the placed file is a PDF file or another Illustrator file, getting rid of the parts of the image outside of the clipping mask area can be really messy and tricky. In that case, you can use the direct select tool (white arrow) to grab and delete any object that's obviously outside of the clipped area.  Another tool that comes in handy is the white lasso select tool - drag around large areas containing objects you want to delete.

Feel free to write back and let me know what file types/content you are trying to place/crop.  Pure TIFFs? PDF containing images of some kind together with vector data like text?

Amy (AmyLynPace@yahoo.com)