How to crop an image in Photoshop 2026, step by step

How to crop an image in Photoshop 2026

Photoshop 2026 crops with the Crop tool. Press C and drag the handles around the part to keep. Then press Enter on Windows or Return on a Mac. These are the steps on Adobe’s Crop photos help page, last updated on 23 February 2026. They match version 27, which Adobe’s release notes list from 27.0 in October 2025 to 27.11 in September 2026.

1. 1

   Open the image and select the Crop tool

   Press C, or click the Crop tool in the toolbar. A crop border with handles appears around the whole image.

2. 2

   Pick a ratio or a size on the options bar

   The menu at the left of the options bar holds the ratios and W × H × Resolution. Ratio, the first entry, crops freely.

3. 3

   Drag the handles, or draw a new box

   Drag a corner or an edge handle inward. Or drag across the image to draw a fresh crop box.

4. 4

   Move or rotate the crop

   Drag inside the box to move the image under it. Hover just outside a corner and drag the curved arrow to rotate.

5. 5

   Press Enter or Return to crop

   Or select Done on the Contextual Task Bar. Photoshop crops every layer of the document to the box.

Crop an image on Photoshop to a ratio

A ratio locks the shape of the crop box, and you choose how much of the photo it covers. Adobe’s Crop tool options page lists the presets in the menu. We cut each one from the centre of our 9.8 MB camera photo, 4964 × 2782 pixels, as large as it fits:

Adobe writes 4 : 5, 5 : 7 and 2 : 3 portrait, tall and narrow. On a landscape photo, each of those keeps under half of the picture: 44.8% for 4 : 5. Type the 2 numbers the other way round and the same shape turns landscape. Then 5 : 4 keeps 70.1%.

Cropping alone makes the file smaller. Our square kept 56.0% of the pixels and 61% of the bytes: 366.8 KB against 605.5 KB for the whole photo. In a browser, the crop image to square and 4:5 aspect ratio tools set those 2 shapes for you.

How to crop an image in Photoshop to an exact size

Choose W × H × Resolution in the ratio menu, then type the width, the height and the resolution. Adobe’s options page says this preset “crops to a defined width, height, and resolution”. So the crop does 2 jobs at once: it cuts the shape, then it resamples the pixels to the size you typed.

That second job changes the file far more than the cut. We resized each crop to the size a reader would type, with Blinkimg’s engine standing in for Photoshop’s resample:

The square at 1080 × 1080 weighs 87.3 KB, against 366.8 KB at 2782 × 2782. Instagram’s portrait size, 1080 × 1350, came to 98.3 KB.

Never type a size bigger than your crop

A crop that holds fewer pixels than you typed gets enlarged, and enlarging cannot add detail. Adobe’s Image size and resampling page says upsampling “can’t add detail that wasn’t in the original image”. We took the same patch of the boat twice. From the full photo it holds 1080 × 1080 real pixels. From a half-size copy it holds 540 × 540, which we enlarged 2× to 1080 × 1080 with sharp 0.35.4’s bicubic kernel.

With the width and height in pixels, the resolution only tells a printer how many pixels to put in an inch. Adobe’s Image size page says resolution “doesn’t change the image data”.

Is it better to crop or resize an image?

Crop when the shape must change, and resize when only the size must. Resizing keeps the whole picture; cropping cuts the edges to reach a new shape. We made our photo 1080 pixels wide both ways:

• Resized only: 1080 × 605, the whole photo, 56.7 KB.
• Cropped to 1 : 1, then resized: 1080 × 1080, the centre square, 87.3 KB.

The square holds more pixels, so it weighs more, but only it fits a square slot. A form or a profile that names exact pixels needs both: crop to the shape, then resize. For a size alone, the image resizer keeps the whole picture.

Crop without losing the edges: Delete Cropped Pixels

Delete Cropped Pixels decides whether the cut edges are gone or only hidden. Adobe says the setting “permanently removes areas outside the crop, but allows editing when turned off”. A 1 : 1 crop of our photo hides 44.0% of its pixels, and with the box unticked they stay in the document.

• Unticked: select the Crop tool again later and drag the handles out. The hidden pixels come back.
• Ticked: the edges are deleted when you press Enter. Only Undo, or the original file, brings them back.
• A JPG or PNG copy holds only the crop. Adobe’s Save files page describes File, Save a Copy as the way to make “a flattened JPEG or PNG” without changing the original. File, Export, Export As also saves a PNG, JPG, GIF or SVG, with a quality setting for JPG.

The Crop tool can also make the canvas bigger. Drag the handles outward past the image and press Enter, as Adobe’s Resize the canvas page shows. The Fill menu on the options bar then decides what fills the new space.

Straighten a photo or fix its perspective while cropping

The Crop tool straightens a tilted photo in the same pass. Adobe’s Straighten tilted photos page gives the steps:

1. 1

   Select the Straighten tool on the options bar

   It appears while the Crop tool is active.

2. 2

   Drag a line along an edge that should be level

   A horizon or a roofline works. Photoshop turns the crop to level that line.

3. 3

   Adjust the box, then press Enter or Return

   Or select Done on the Contextual Task Bar.

Rotating leaves empty corners. Choose Content-Aware Fill in the Fill menu on the options bar, and Photoshop fills them for you as it crops. Adobe notes one condition: Use Classic Mode must be off.

For a building or a document shot at an angle, use the Perspective Crop tool. Hold down the Crop tool in the toolbar and pick it from the group. Draw a box around the object, drag its 4 corners onto the object’s edges and press Enter. Photoshop squares the object up as it crops.

How to crop part of an image or a single layer

The Crop tool always cuts the whole document. For a part of the picture, or for one layer, Photoshop has 3 other routes.

Crop to a selection with Image, Crop

Draw a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool around the part to keep. Then choose Image, then Crop. Adobe’s Adjust crop, rotation, and canvas size page gives those 2 steps. Photoshop cuts the document to the selection’s bounds.

Trim empty edges with Image, Trim

Image, then Trim, crops away a plain border for you. Adobe lists 3 choices: Transparent Pixels, Top Left Pixel Color or Bottom Right Pixel Color. You can trim the top, bottom, left or right edge, or all 4.

Crop one layer with a layer mask

You can’t crop a single layer with the Crop tool, Adobe’s page on cropping layers says. Use a layer mask instead:

1. 1

   Select the part of the layer to keep

   Use the Rectangular Marquee, the Elliptical Marquee for a circle, or the Lasso for a free shape.

2. 2

   Add a layer mask

   Click Add Layer Mask in the Layers panel. The mask hides everything outside the selection.

3. 3

   Paint the mask to adjust it

   Black on the mask hides, white shows. Nothing is deleted, so you can change the crop later.

Crop an image without Photoshop

Photoshop costs US$22.99 a month for the single app on an annual plan. That is the price Adobe’s page showed on 6 October 2026. For a ratio or an exact size, a browser does the same cut. The cropper below locks a ratio or takes a width × height, then saves one compressed copy.

Your computer can crop too. On a Mac, read how to crop an image on a Mac with Preview. On Windows, how to resize an image in Paint also crops with Select and Crop.