Frame an image with ratio presets, straighten a horizon, and choose whether cropping preserves or deletes pixels outside the canvas.
Where: Image Editor → Crop tool → options bar; canvas transforms are in the image menu.
Key ideas
- Crop is a document operation: The crop boundary changes the document canvas, not just the visual size of one selected layer. Distinguish this from transforming a layer when only one object should move or resize.
- Preserve pixels by default: Delete Cropped Pixels is off unless explicitly enabled. Preserving outside pixels supports later reframing. Enabling it permanently trims raster content to the crop boundary in the edited document; retain an original before destructive work.
- Straighten from a real edge: Straighten lets you draw along a horizon or edge to define the correction instead of guessing a rotation angle. It works with the crop workflow and its selected ratio.
Steps
- Open the layered image and choose Crop. Check the options bar before drawing the boundary.
- Choose Unconstrained, Original Ratio, Square 1:1, Portrait 4:5, Landscape 5:4, 3:2, 2:3, 16:9, or Custom Ratio.
- For a custom ratio, set positive width and height proportions; these are proportions, not a promise of the final pixel dimensions.
- Enable Straighten when needed and draw along the edge that should become level. Refine the crop to retain the intended subject.
- Choose whether Delete Cropped Pixels should stay off or deliberately trim raster content, apply the crop, and inspect the document edges and layer masks.
- Save the editable document, then export a flattened result separately when it is needed downstream.
Canvas transforms versus layer transforms
Canvas flip/rotation commands transform the document contents together. Layer transforms affect selected content. Use the document command for a whole-image orientation correction and layer controls for a single object; mixing the two can move masks or crop the wrong visual context.
Large documents
Recent fixes improve 4K brush and mask persistence and reduce GPU-pressure failures. They do not remove browser memory limits. For a large layered document, save before destructive cropping, allow the preview to settle, and verify an export rather than judging only a cached thumbnail.
Troubleshooting
Reframing cannot recover a previously cropped edge.
Check whether Delete Cropped Pixels was enabled. Return to the original or an earlier saved version; expanding the canvas cannot recreate removed pixels.
Only one layer needed rotation.
Use that layer’s transform controls instead of a whole-canvas transform.