There is no such thing as a ’round crop.’
You may, however, make a round clipping path that will ‘clip’ your image in a circle. Look in your user manual for instructions on using the pen tool, making a path and drawing a circle on that path then saving as EPS format, which, when imported into a page layout or illustration program, will in effect crop as a circle.
Search the knowledge base for ‘crop circles’ as this question has been brought up on a regular basis.
Wendy and Ken, you guys got me thinking about clipping paths, which I never use… thanks!
Wendy, I get to the last part of your instructions:
Go to the Path Tab (Windows/Path). Click on the arrow and choose clipping path. I usually enter .5 for the pixels.
Clipping path is grayed out.
It’s an rgb 8 image, I tried it with a single layer w/transparency, empty background layer and cropped layer above, and as a flattened layer. no matter what I seem to do I seem to be missing something because I can’t get clipping path in the paths palette context menu to come on.
What do you think?
thanks, dave
Thanks T!
From the help:
In the Paths palette, save the work path as a path.
I honestly never thought of that! :^)
OK. this flatness value. the help indicates it’s only for printing (which is good to know in it’s own right), do I need to worry about it if I don’t have a postscript printer or a RIP?
Also does it do anything for an on-screen only path or can I safely ignore it if I’m using it just for images meant for on screen display?
For that matter should I even bother with clipping paths at all if the image is only for on screen display?
thanks, dave
Well, I’m not sure Dave. I only use a clipping path when I need a transparency for MS Publisher. I have found that if I use anything greater than 0.5, I can still see white jaggies in MS Pub.
So MS Pub is a rogue of a program anyway, but my guess is that if you need a clipping path, and type in an arbitrary value, see if it turns out transparent. If it does, you’re fine.
I don’t know a lot about it, but it seems similar to me as converting a selection to a path – the smaller the number, the "tighter" the representation around the object. But that’s an unofficial observation.
Peace,
Tony
If your using a clipping path you actually don’t have to delete the background outside of the oval. This is nice because you have the entire image available if needed. Instead of making your path from your selection (mentioned before), just draw your oval with the shape tool. Make sure your path tool is set to draw a path, not a filled shape. After you’ve drawn your oval go to the path palette, save the path and assign it as the clipping path. Your page layout program with just ignore anything outside the clipping path (hence the name).
Dave mentioned postscript printers. I’m not sure how MS Publisher handles eps, but I believe that PageMaker prints from the screen preview (the high-rez one, whether its displayed or not). Whatever is displayed is printed on non-postscript printers. This mostly only causes problems with vector images that don’t print at the best resolution.
I know alot of print service bureaus gripe about MS Publisher files. I don’t think it even fully supports postscript (or separations). My guess is it just uses the screen preview. InDesign has it’s own postscript engine and prints eps just fine on non-postscript devices. I’m not sure how quark handles printing.
interesting. thanks tony and eric. the point about not deleting the selection makes more sense. thank you.
Eric,
You’re right about MS Pub, it doesn’t support post script or separations. I only use it as a layout program for generating PDF’s, so for me, form follows function kind of thing. I would never use it for pre-press work. I spent about two days on PageMaker and went "Man, this is too high a learning curve for what I need to do", and left it at that. The problem is, of course, the transparency issue which Clipping paths help eliminate.
Dave,
Yeah I forgot to mention that you don’t need to actually delete the area outside the clipping path.
Peace,
Tony
"OK. this flatness value. the help indicates it’s only for printing (which is good to know in it’s own right), do I need to worry about it if I don’t have a postscript printer or a RIP?
Also does it do anything for an on-screen only path or can I safely ignore it if I’m using it just for images meant for on screen display?
For that matter should I even bother with clipping paths at all if the image is only for on screen display?"
Dave,
The pen tool and paths are one of the top three features of Photoshop, right up there with Layers and selections. I urge you to consider it as brand new software and spend some weeks learning it – you will be amazed amazed amazed.
flatness value is a small aside to consider at this point in your gaining a grasp of all of what the paths feature will do for you. Consider yourself safe at this point just using default values. By the time you will be entering into using output devices and work so complex that you need to be aware of flatness values, well, you will be a leading consultant on the subject.
Congratulations for taking up the subject of paths. Consult your user manual first and give yourself several weeks just for break-in period. Also, get a Wacom tablet first, the 4 x 5 works great for me.
🙂
It all takes a diversion of study time (allow two weeks of 1 hr.set study time every day) to add it into your arsenal. Once you get it you will be on a new cloud. Very valuable for graphics work.
I’m chuckling Dave. I’m sure you know why.
