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When starting using any graphics package such as Photoshop, one of the first things that users will want to do is resize or crop their image. There are many benefits to being able to confidently use these tools, and they are among the most simple to learn. Cropping and resizing will give much more flexibility in how you use your images, and will make them easier to use on other websites, internet forums or on social networking sites such as FaceBook.

Cropping

Cropping is the term given to the feature which allows you to work with a small portion of the image only. In basic terms, this can be used to get rid of a large border around an image, or can be used to cut large areas of sky, sea or other unwanted features from family holiday snaps, meaning that the attention can be focused on the main point in the picture. Cropping can also be used to pick out a small area of a picture which may or may not be the main focal point or to centre an image more on the screen. Using the cropping tool on graphics programs such as Photoshop is intuitive and easy, and is one of the Photoshop basics that should be among the first that a new user learns. To crop an image you simply click on the crop button and pull the cursor to form a box over the area you wish to keep then the software deletes the rest of the image. If you are not happy with the results, it can be easily undone and readjusted to ensure you are working with exactly the area you want.

Resizing

When opening an image taken on a camera or a mobile phone in a graphics package such as Photoshop, it may be too large to work with comfortably. The image may also appear blurred and you may not be able to see all of it at the same time. To make things easier to see and to manipulate the image more efficiently the resize tool is used. This tool simply shrinks the image to make it smaller and clearer on the page. You can choose the percentage to reduce it by and this can easily be reversed and adjusted until you get the perfect size for your image. Reducing the size of the image will also make it smaller in terms of saving it to disk or uploading it onto a website, many of which have requirements that images be under a certain size. Resizing an image is quick and easy to do, and should be one of the first tools which is mastered when beginning to use something like Photoshop.