Crop an image to what you see on the screen

[weese237]

Hello,

Does anyone know of a way or a simple software where I can crop a photo that is being viewed on the screen. Windows 11's photo viewer is what I usually use to look at my photos. I sometimes zoom and reposition them to an area that looked great. But I don't always have luck to reproduce the exact position of the photo. I don't want to take a screenshot, I want to crop the actual image. I've tried to simply crop the image using all my different photo software or the photo viewer and I can't get it to be exact.

Something may not exist. LOL I'm dreaming of just being about to hit a keyboard key and it will put cropping marks on the image before I finalize it or just crop it and save with another file name.

Thanks!

[HansV]

In FastStone Image Viewer (free) from FastStone, pressing X after loading an image file activates the Crop board. You can drag a rectangle (either freehand or using a fixed height/width ratio), then either crop the image, or crop it to the clipboard, or crop directly to a file.

[weese237]

Hi Hans,

I’ve had FastStone for years. Love their products. I didn’t think to use their crop feature. Will give it a go tomorrow.

Thanks for the idea.

[stuck]

...I want to crop the actual image. I've tried to simply crop the image using all my different photo software or the photo viewer and I can't get it to be exact...

Simple cropping is a basic tool in all the photo editing software that I know of. Which photo software do you have?

Also, what do you mean by not being able to get it exact? Do you mean that when to select the area you want to crop the selection is 'unconstrained', i.e.it does not match the original aspect ratio of your photo?

Ken

[weese237]

Hi,
I have the windows photo app, photoshop elements, Luminar AI, Topaz labs and FastStone image which I forgot about.

I first look at my photos with windows. If I need to crop them, the moment I activate the crop tool, the image shrinks to the actual size on the screen. There is also other tools around the borders depending on the software. So I try to crop to the area I saw when it was enlarged.

It’s no big deal really. I can live with what I’ve done all these years. I was just thinking that there may be a new way to do it.

Want to try what Hans suggested.

Thanks!

[stuck]

...photoshop elements...

I don't have Photoshop Elements (PSE) but as Photoshop's baby brother it will all sorts of crop options. I can see that using Windows Photo Viewer is a quick way to browse images but surely, having identified the ones you want to work on, you'd then open them in PSE (or Luminar AI) and make whatever edits, cropping included, you require in there?

Presumably not It would be a very boring world if we all did exactly the same things

Ken