Use crop area rulers – Adobe Illustrator CS3 User Manual
Page 45
ILLUSTRATOR CS3
User Guide
39
•
To rotate between crop areas, press Alt and click an arrow key.
Delete a crop area
❖
Select the Crop Area tool, and do one of the following:
•
To delete the active crop area, click Delete in the Control panel.
•
To delete one of multiple crop areas, hold down Alt to view all existing crop areas, and click the Delete icon
in
the upper-right corner of the crop area you want to delete.
•
To delete all crop areas, click Delete All in the Control panel or press Alt+Delete.
Edit or move a crop area
❖
Select the Crop Area tool, and do one of the following:
•
To edit the crop area, position the pointer on an edge or corner of the crop area, and, when the cursor changes to
a double-sided arrow, drag to adjust. Or, specify new Width and Height values in the Control panel.
•
To move the crop area, position the pointer in the middle of the crop area and when the cursor changes to a four-
sided arrow drag it. Or you can select it and press an arrow key (press Shift+arrow key to move in 10 point incre-
ments), or specify new X and Y values in the Control panel.
Use crop area rulers
You can display rulers by selecting Show Crop Area Rulers in the Crop Area Options dialog box, which you open by
double-clicking the Crop Area tool. Rulers are useful when you’re working with art intended for export to video. The
numbers on the rulers reflect device-specific pixels, regardless of the measurement unit specified in preferences. The
default Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) for Illustrator is 1.0 (for square pixels)—this value changes according to the crop
area preset you choose either in the Crop Area Options dialog box or the New Document dialog box.
If you’re using nonsquare pixels, the ruler provides for easier device-specific pixel calculations. For example, if you
specify a crop area of 100 x100 Illustrator points, and you want to know the exact size in device-dependent pixels
before exporting the file for use in a NTSC DV Widescreen, you can set the crop area ruler in Illustrator to use a pixel
aspect ratio of 1.2 (for wide pixels) and the ruler will reflect the change and display the crop area as 83 x100 device
pixels (100/1.2 = 83.333).
Crop area with rulers
1
Double-click the Crop Area tool in the Tools panel.
2
Select Show Crop Area Rulers and set a value for Ruler Pixel Aspect Ratio.