Crop v Cut

[Pete Moss]

The Crop function (Ctrl-Y) and the Cut function (Ctrl-X) seem to both remove the material outside the selection area. The difference is that Crop also shrinks the size of the image that is displayed to the remaining area whereas Cut changes that area to black. The size of the saved image is about the same.

Is this correct?

Why would I use Cut v Crop?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Cut removes the image inside the selection.

[Mij]

Pete, the Cut area does not have to be Black. You can set any colour you want in the Viewing tab of the Options.
"Cut - selection" (Ctrl-X) replaces the area inside the selection with that colour. I suspect you are confusing it with the feature on the Edit menu "Cut - area outside the selection" which replaces the area outside the selection with the colour. That looks a bit like "Crop" (Ctrl-Y) but, as you saw, the image remains the same size whereas "Crop", which removes the area outside the selection, reduces the size of the image by whatever you have cropped off.
Another difference is that "Cut -selection" (Ctrl-X) puts a copy of the area of image it has replaced onto the Clipboard allowing you to Paste it back somewhere else later if you wish. Neither "Crop" nor "Cut - area outside...." put anything onto the Clipboard.

[Pete Moss]

Yes, right. I meant to say "Cut - area outside of selection", not "Cut - selection".

My question then is why would I use "Cut - area outside of selection" vs "Crop" (Ctrl-Y), especially when, as in my case, the area outseid the selection is all white (border)?

[Mij]

My question then is why would I use "Cut - area outside of selection" vs "Crop" (Ctrl-Y), especially when, as in my case, the area outseid the selection is all white (border)?

I cannot answer that Pete. I use "Crop" all the time but have never myself found a use for "Cut - outside...". Only very infrequently have I used "Cut - inside...". Copy is almost always better.
Perhaps someone else can suggest a use.

[Pete Moss]

OK, thanks.

[cwb3106]

As the OP indicated, crop resizes the image to the cropped area and "Cut - area outside of selection" does not. So "Cut - area outside of selection" could be used to create an area for pasting in another image. One use case would be to replace a caption that appears below the image.

FWIW, "Cut - area outside of selection" should put the cut pixels into the clipboard, but doesn't.

[bob thrun]

Crop v Cut

I use Cut with a white background for magazine and book scans. "Cut -aarea outside selection" is good for cleaning the margins; removing the gutter, punched holes, etc. "Cut -aarea inside selection" is useful for cleaning dirt from the inside of line drawings. I want my paage scans to be all the same size.