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Tech Tip

Cropping Photos With Mac Preview

Q. How do you crop an image in the Mac Preview program? I don’t see a cropping icon in the tool bar. Or do I need another program?

A. You can crop photos, graphics and PDF files right in Preview, the Mac’s built-in image-editing and viewer program. To crop a photo or graphic open on your screen, you must first select the area of the image you want to keep.

Drag the mouse cursor over the part of the photo you want, which creates a dotted line around the area. Click and drag the blue dots on the corners and center of the outlined box on the screen to adjust the selected portion of the image and then press the Command and K keys to delete everything outside dotted lines. (As an alternative, you can also click on Tools in the Preview menu bar and choose Crop.)

If you want to trim away parts of a PDF file in Preview, go to the Tools menu and choose Rectangular Selection (instead of Text Selection) and then drag the cursor around the area of the file you want to use. You can then press the Command and K keys (or choose Crop from the Tools menu) to trim away the unwanted parts.

Preview usually pops up an alert box to warn that cropping the file hides — but does not delete — the content outside the selection area, and that it may still be visible in other programs. (You can undo the cropping later by opening the document, going to the File menu, choosing Revert To and then Browse All Versions to get back to the original version.)

Image
If you don’t want to use the Photos program, the Mac’s Preview app has a Crop button in the Markup toolbar for quick photo trims.Credit...The New York Times

When you have the Markup tool bar showing in the Preview window, you can also click the Crop button to remove the unselected parts of the file from view. To see the Markup tool bar and its other shortcuts for annotating PDF files, click the encircled pen icon on the right side of the Preview window. You can arrange this tool bar to suit your needs by going to the View menu and selecting Customize Toolbar.

If your main concern is enhancing your digital pictures, the Photos app that comes with the Mac operating system has many more tools for editing and organizing your photographs. In addition to cropping and straightening your images, the Photos app has controls for adjusting color and making other improvements.

Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

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