One of the most frequently asked questions from Inkscape users is “how do i crop an image or object?” The Clipping feature is by far the easiest and most versatile way to crop vector or bitmap/raster objects in Inkscape. This FAQ provides you with a step by step tutorial covering the basics of clipping.
Let’s start with our little monster friend that i downloaded from the Open Clip Art Library:
Our monster is actually a group of 21 objects (a mixture of Ellipses and Paths). When clipping, it is always easier to group the objects being clipped. Grouping objects is as simple as selecting 2 or more objects and choosing Object > Group.
Choose the Rectangle Tool from the Toolbar, and draw a Rectangle over our poor little monster’s face.
Select both the the monster (the group) and the Grey Rectangle (a rectangle object). After selecting both, Choose Object > Clip > Set from the menu.
…and our monster is now cropped in a nice neat rectangle.
But what has happened to the rest of the monster? Well, one of the awesome things about the Clipping feature in Inkscape is that it is non-destructive. We can remove the clip at any time by selecting the clipped object, and then choosing Object > Clip > Release from the menu.
…and now our monster is back to normal! Well, the rectangle that was clipping him before is still there, but trust me, so is the monster.
But can you crop your image with something other than a rectangle? Yes! Clipping in inkscape can be done with a wide range of clipping objects, including Text Objects…
Circle and Ellipse objects…
and Stars and Polygons.
Even a path can be used as a clipping object.
In fact, if you use a path as the clipping object, you can actually edit the clip path without having to Release it. First select the clipped object, then choose the Node Editing Tool. Your clip path will be outlined Green, with the normal path editing nodes visible.
Now, you can edit this path, and change the area that is clipped / cropped.
Clipping is one feature in inkscape that you will use time and time again. When working with imported bitmap / raster images, clipping is a easy way to crop without having to open up the GIMP. Additonally, when combined with blur, you can achieve some awesome effects like simple bubbles.
Actually, you can group one single object and this is very useful if you want to add more than one clipping (or mask, or both) on a single object!
Thanks for this clean,simple, and easy to follow tutorial.
This is a great feature, but it becomes a huge pain for projects like this:
http://daghead.blogspot.com/2011/05/trojan-fader-style-diced.html
because the selection region remains as large as the original object and I have to alt-select through everything.
That was a known bug in inkscape!
I am running a more recent version of inkscape, and that bug is now fixed! happy Days!
Hey
I had a quick question. how can i invert the selection i.e. how can i remove the selected region and keep everything else.
Thanks
Thanks. Is it possible to pan the object within the new “frame?”
The instructions didn’t work for me. After selecting all and choosing clip& set, nothing ended up being cropped. Not only that, but the text within the selected area was weirdly moved around.
Ah… now I see. The crop function is only “sort of” a crop. I crops the image “on the page”, but doesn’t crop the page. Is there a way to crop *everything*, or does one have to move to GIMP to do this?
Also, the text re-ordering appears to be a bug of some sort.
If you want you can change the page settings to have a different size. If you want to crop a bunch of objects all together, then group them and crop the group.
Thanks Lazza. I use Inkscape to work with text. GIMP is virtually useless when it comes to text and vector graphics. Once I’ve created the text I want, I transfer it to GIMP. I usually don’t need to transfer an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper (with a little image or text on it), just the image, so it would be nice to be able to crop *everything* when I save it. But it’s a small matter. Once I open the image in GIMP, I can crop it there. It’s just an extra step.
So why don’t you just use the option to export the selection as a raster image instead of the whole page?
Thanks Lazza. Great tip. That worked.
One might be interested in cropping canvas too — FILE>DOCUMENT PROPERTIES> FIT PAGE TO SELECTION. Info from Joshua Elek (coffeebreath) — thank you!
veru helpful, i spent some minutes trying to search for the crop tool
amazing help served simply in this great article.. don’t have a wordpress account, so simple likes
It looks so easy. But clipping does not seem to work on my configuration. I’m with Inkscape 0.48 on Windows XP. I think I’ve missed something. But what ? Any idea ? Thanks
Sometimes it happens to work, but i cannot reproduce it. Weird…
OK, I had just misunderstood the tutorial. I grouped the background and the clipping objects… and it just worked when I forgot this step :-/ Sorry for the disturbance.
Thanks!