Technology

How to Crop a Picture on Mac

Is there a photo that you need to crop before you send or share it online? Do you want to crop your photo into a circle so it better fits a style you’re going for?

Cropping and editing photos is a must for many due to visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. The photo-centric social media site Instagram remains as the third top-most popular among US social media users, after all.

Fortunately, there are several ways to do this on your Mac.

Your photo may be almost perfect, if only it got straightened this way or that. Some images you have may contain unneeded backgrounds and need a little cropping. This guide will teach you how to crop a picture on Mac using various Mac apps. Keep reading to learn more about them and how to crop photos on Mac.

  1. Why Do You Need to Learn How to Crop Photos?

Over 300 million photos go on the internet every day. Most of these uploaded images go to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. As you know, these are public domains where too much information can come back and hit you hard.

You also know that a photo can hold far too much information. A photo you upload on Facebook may reveal your home number or address to the public, for example. You may want to crop out something that can humiliate you to the viewer, whether it’s a boss or a friend.

If you aren’t careful, it can pose danger or risk to you and your family. It’s not always the case, but you can fix this by cropping out parts of the photo. Sometimes, the simple cropping out of unneeded information can make a big difference.

In other cases, your photo may need better composition. Let’s say you have a dull-looking image of a house in the middle of a field. You can make this photo interesting if you cropped it, and the house ends up at the upper-right corner of the image.

  1. How to Crop a Picture on Mac With the Photos App

A lot of people think that they need to use fancy image-editing software to crop photos. If you want to learn the basics of how to crop a picture on Mac, you only need the built-in Photos app. Step one is to open the Photos app and then double-clicking the desired photo.

Next, click on Edit on the toolbar and then select Crop from the top toolbar. You can use a ratio or crop it freeform by dragging the selection rectangle on the photo. If you want to set a ratio, you can do this by looking under Aspect.

Adjust the photo, straighten it, and do other edits. If you’re ready to crop, click on “Done” and save the changes you made.

Use keyboard shortcuts for an easier time cropping. Press “C” to launch the crop tool and “A” to launch “Adjust mode.” You can hold down the “M” key to see the original photo before you made changes.

  1. Cropping a Photo Using Preview

The Photo app isn’t the only program you can use to crop photos on your Mac. Did you know that you can also use Preview to crop your images? To start, open the image you need to crop on the Preview app.

Next, look for the Editor Toolbar, which is on the right side of the toolbar. Pick one from the various selection types and shapes. Draw the shape that you want to crop the photo in on the photo.

Adjust the scale and fit of the photo in the selection. Once you have it ready for cropping, press Cmd + K. You can also click on Tool > Crop. Don’t forget to save the photo before you exit Preview.

What if you want to crop out the rest of the desktop from the image on your screenshot? Use the snipping tool to cut away the unnecessary parts on the screenshot. You can read more here about using the snipping tool on Mac.

  1. How to Crop a Photo on Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the top photo-editing software for many people. It often gets used for casual and professional photo-editing. Its features are complete for basic and complex tasks. That means it can do everything from simple cropping to intricate photomanipulation.

For now, let’s focus on how to crop a photo on Photoshop. First, open the Photoshop app on your Mac computer. Next, open the image file by clicking on File > Open at the upper-left corner.

Press “C” on your keyboard, which is the shortcut for the cropping tool. You can also select the cropping tool by yourself on the vertical toolbar on the left side of the screen. It’s the square icon with a diagonal line in the middle.

Point the mouse at a corner where you want the photo to start and drag it to the opposite corner. Adjust the cropped area as you like and then press Enter. You can resize its dimensions by adjusting the numbers at the top of the window. You can also rotate the photo and straighten it.

Note that Photoshop is a paid photo-editing tool. It’s better to use simpler and free editing tools if you only need to do simple cropping. However, if your Mac already has Photoshop on it or if you plan to do more complex edits, invest in Photoshop.

  1. Install Other Third-Party Photo-Editing Apps for Mac

Is Adobe Photoshop too expensive a solution for the simple task that you need to do? Do you want to look into alternatives to the built-in Apple apps and Photoshop? Look for free editors that are compatible with your Mac computer instead.

Some of the best photo-editing apps for Mac include:

  • Luminar
  • GIMP
  • Picktorial
  • Pixelmator
  • Pixlr X
  • Fotor
  • Google Photos

Most of these can do the simple job of cropping. Yet, some may have more features than you need. Make sure you check them out before you download them.

Create Picture-Perfect Photos With the Right Cropping Tool

Today, everyone online expects perfection from the photos they see online. Thus, getting everything on your photo right is crucial before you share it online.

That ends our guide on how to crop a picture on Mac. Do you want to read more about basic tasks you can do on a Mac? We’ve got lots of other content like this one for you. Check out the rest of the posts here for other informative guides.