How do I crop?

[LarryB]

I'm missing something basic. I have a photo I want to crop (remove
the right edge from). I drew a rectangle that encloses the entire
photo except for the quarter-inch or so at the right edge (so you see
a vertical line lying on the right edge of the photo.)

Then I selected the rectangle, then selected the photo, and performed
Format -> Images -> Crop . A pink screen covered the part of the
image I wanted; but the whole image stayed visible and I found no way
to get rid of the supposedly cropped strip.

[eazydave]

Well - the "Crop" has the pink background and border, it looks like
other forms of groups but each form of a group has a different color
light shading, a crop's is pink.

You have it right, how the crop works. try cutting off more of the
photo just to make it more pronounced.

[LarryB]

> You have it right, how the crop works. try cutting off more of the
> photo just to make it more pronounced.

I found the problem. Somewhere along the way I had placed a
transparent rectangle exactly covering the photo. Then I placed my
cropping rectangle, and cropped . . . One quarter-inch of transparent
rectangle. The photo wasn't even along for the ride.

[Dilly]

I'm lost :>) I dragged an image into my dock icon for ED, it opened.
I covered the whole image with a rectangle(transparent ???). All I got
was a selection. There was no crop high lighted in the menu. I know I
did a lot wrong hear and most of my cropping is done in another
program. I was interested and wanted to try what you two where up to.
What did I miss? and do I go. Thanks

[eazydave]

There must be at least two things selected - the top "thing" your
rectangle does the cropping, it crops everything else. Best bet would
be to work through the two cropping tutorials and the one on Frame
maybe, in the Additions Pack.

On Feb 28, 6:18 pm, LarryB <livem...@earthlink.net> wrote:

[LarryB]

Del, this worked for me. I start with an image in full view. I
create a rectangle and position it over the image. It's probably
transparent, but it works just the same if it's opaque. (On my first
try, I tried to draw the rectangle perfectly aligned. I may have
tried twice, but at any rate I had a transparent rectangle exactly
matching the image's border, so I couldn't tell it was there, and that
caused real mystery in the next step.)

So, the rectangle is selected. Now hold down Shift and select the
image as well. Both must be selected; it doesn't matter which you
select first -- the "top thing" Dave mentioned is top in drawing
order. Usually that means most recently drawn, unless you've changed
the drawing order with the "Back", "Backward" etc. actions.

Now you should be able to do Format -> Images -> Crop and get a red
group border and semitransparent red fill over the cropped image. If
your mistake was to not select both items, the "Crop" action would be
grayed.

You will discover that it's not just a cropped image you have -- the
whole history, the original image, the cropping rectangle, and the red
group apparatus are all there, so you can Undo or change your crop by
simply Ungrouping it.

Larry
Larry

[Dilly]

Larry. It was the "SHIFT" that made the whole thing work. I missed it
in my readings. I will go back to the manuel and look for it. Thanks .
My next issue is multiple line's , I am working on a chart that I can
enter a monthly maintenance date designating when the work was done. I
will eventually have 30 horizontal lines and 7 columns.

[LarryB]

I just learned something more about Crop -- it won't accept text boxes
or line drawings. It seems to accept only graphic objects that have
area.

I found this out when I tried to crop a drawing made up of numerous
graphics including arrows and text boxes placed on an image. The
right approach would be to crop the image, then add the other
graphics.

The manual and the help page that describe Crop need to mention this.

[eazydave]

That does not make sense. Crop works on any imported image, any
graphic and Text. They must all be selected and the "cropping
graphic" must be the top graphic.

Something is incorrect or some bug specific to your drawing. I just
tested with several configurations and all seems to crop correctly.

If you mean you want the Text to do the cropping - that works too, but
the easy way is to use Punch on Text main menu. If that is what you
need try using Punch it is automatic then just place the Punch-Text
over your other pattern or image.

[LarryB]

I'm sending you a drawing that shows what I found:
Briefly: a cropping ellipse overlaps a square, and crops it. A text
box visually inside the square inhibits cropping, but though it's
"inside" the square it's outside the cropping ellipse, and that's why
it inhibits cropping.

There's also a line going through the cropping ellipse. When I select
the line (along with the other objects), I can't crop.

So, I think I'm right about lines being uncroppable, but I
misunderstood why the text inhibited cropping -- not because it was
text, but because it was outside the cropping ellipse.

A suggestion here: The conditions that can inhibit croppability can
be difficult to recognize, especially by a novice. The total
diagnostic information reported back to the novice is only one bit:
whether the menu item Crop is in black or in gray. Since EZD has the
ability to change menu text behind the scenes, how about replacing the
gray "Crop" by a hint, such as

. crop window not on top
. a graphic doesn't overlap crop window
. to crop with text use Punch

[LarryB]