[Solved] easy proportional cropping workflow?

[steve02476]

My apologies, I'm a dummy at Graphic Converter and I'm trying to see if I can use Graphic Converter for a particular workflow I do in Photoshop (where I'm also a dummy but I know how to do this one workflow).

I have to crop a lot of pictures to be 600 x by 200 y dimensions. The originals are all sizes. In Photoshop I use the crop tool, set it to 600 x 200, and then I can move the resulting selection area all around the photo and I can also easily enlarge or shrink the selection but it always automatically keeps the correct proportions. When I decide the cropping area is the correct size and location I just hit "crop" and it's done...

What would be a similar workflow in GraphicConverter? I've experimented and looked at the manual but i just don't get it. Probably my poor grasp of the terminology...

[forum_adm]

Yes, this is supported.

Double click the selection tool:

Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 18.57.jpg (38.21 KiB) Viewed 2641 times

Define the target size and click onto ok:

Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 18.572.jpg (77.14 KiB) Viewed 2641 times

Now just create the selection and resize it with the corners.
You can move the selection rectangle without the content by holding option+command keys.

Press return to crop and scale to the size.

Thorsten

[steve02476]

Interesting! Thanks so much.

It's too bad the non-corner "handles" (is that the right name?) are still there, so I can accidentally grab on one and ruin the proportions, but I can try to be careful!

Also, it's too bad I need to use option+command to move the selection without causing a problem, but thank the heavens for command-Z.

But the part I'm really not sure about is that I must specify the resolution. In my workflow, I don't want to change the resolution, I only want to crop the image. So I guess I need to figure out the image's resolution first, and then type it in the resolution field, so I don't end up with any unwanted resolution change? Or is there a better way?

[forum_adm]

The resolution is only virtual value that is written to the file.

You change the pixels already with the scaling to the desired size.

Thorsten

[steve02476]

Thanks for the info, but I'm sorry I'm not clearly understanding something.

Say I open a massive square image, 12000 by 12000 pixels. I know I want to crop a 3 x 2 rectangle out of it, visually, to get the best part. So when I start the cropping tool, I put in 3 for x and 2 for y. (I certainly don't want 3 pixels by 2 pixels, but that gives me the right proportion!) I then draw my selection to approximately where I want it, and then use the corner "thumbs" to adjust its size while keeping the 3x2 proportions, and move it using option+command. When I'm happy with the size and placement of the selection rectangle, I hit <enter>.

But when I do that, the resulting image is in fact 3 x 2 pixels - useless!

The tool does in fact say "crop and scale" - but I don't want to do any scaling at all, only cropping. If my original image is 12000 pixels square, and I draw a 3x2 rectangle on it that takes the entire width for example then I expect the resulting image to be 12000 pixels in x and 8000 pixels in y (if my math is right, but you get the point). If I use the Crop tool as you explain I think I would have to type in 12000 and 8000 to get it to work right - but then if I decide to make a rectangle that was actually only halfway across, there would be scaling involved also.

I can absolutely see where crop & scale as a single operation would be useful for many - but it doesn't seem like it works for me, when I ONLY want proportional cropping with no scaling at all? But maybe I'm missing an obvious step, that is a specialty of mine...

[forum_adm]

The shown function is only to crop a special ratio and scale to a special size.

Just use the aspect ratio popup in the toolbox at the bottom if you simple want to define a custom aspect ratio. Now cropping with return will do no scaling - just crop as usual (if you uncheck the option in the selection option - which is off by default).

Thorsten

Screen Shot 2021-04-15 at 15.51.22.jpg (67.22 KiB) Viewed 2629 times

[steve02476]

Thanks so much for your help and patience. The very bottom part of the Tools Palette, I guess is the Aspect Ratio for Selection tool - I hadn't realized that was there.

At first it was creating a weirdly-proportioned shape but then I restored my selection preferences back to default, now it does exactly what I wanted, as long as I remember to only resize the selection using the corner handles and to move it using option-command plus dragging.

Thanks!!!!!!!

[steve02476]

PS: Just bought a license for v11 after many months of "testing" -- really appreciate your support here.

[forum_adm]

Many thanks for your support.