Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

How can I freely crop PDF and JPG files imported into Affinity Publisher? Regards Hoeller


Recommended Posts

  • Staff

Hi Shoeller,

Welcome to the forums :) 

You should be able to do this by selecting the placed JPG or PDF and then using the crop tool found on the toolbar towards the left side of the app.

Thanks

C

Screenshot 2020-02-05 at 17.33.53.png

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

I have imported a pdf file with multiple pages into the macOS desktop version of Photo, Designer, and Publisher, and the crop tool is grayed out in all three apps.

If I open single pdf page in Photo, then crop and straighten tools are available. In Designer and Publisher, only the crop tool is available and no straighten.

What I wanted to do was straighten and then crop a few pdf pages and then save in the same pdf format.

Photo has a great straighten tool, but it's not available for any pdf with multiple pages. Is this possible?

In God's Harmony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, roddy said:

I have imported a pdf file with multiple pages into the macOS desktop version of Photo, Designer, and Publisher, and the crop tool is grayed out in all three apps.

What specifically do you mean by "import"? 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Straightening multipage PDFs is rare special operation so it is no wonder there is no direct workflow for it. I know there are scanners that deliver multipage PDFs but usually those are not used for graphic work.

Publisher can crop placed multipage PDFs as any placed graphic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, roddy said:

I have imported a pdf file with multiple pages into the macOS desktop version of Photo, Designer, and Publisher, and the crop tool is grayed out in all three apps.

If I open single pdf page in Photo, then crop and straighten tools are available. In Designer and Publisher, only the crop tool is available and no straighten.

If you open a multi-page PDF in Photo you should find that each page becomes an Artboard. On Windows, the Crop Tool is still available, but it applies to the entire document (all the Artboards), which won't do what you want as you would end up straightening the array of Artboards, or cropping the document to a single Artboard. This is because Photo is designed to work with a single canvas, and though it can work with an Artboard, having multiple Artboards causes odd behavior.

If you Open the PDF in Designer you will have multiple Artboards. You an crop each one individually using the Vector Crop Tool, but that tool does not have a Straighten function. For straightening, select all the objects on the Artboard. That will give you a bounding box with a rotation handle, or you can put the mouse diagonally just outside any corner of the box, and get a rotation cursor. For alignment purposes you can use a horizontal or vertical guide.

The same approach should work in Publisher.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I appreciate the replies from both of you. I only needed to straighten and crop a few of the pages from the multi-page pdf file, and I don't need to do multiple pages at once. It is not a batch process I'm speaking of, just being able to select pages in the pdf file one at a time.

What led me to think it would be possible is that when I saw the multiple dartboards that showed up, clicking on the down arrow of the dartboard would reveal the individual image for that specific pdf page. I thought crop would be available since I was only selecting the individual image in that layer.

As to straightening the image from any of the corners, I'm aware of that feature, it's just easier to have the straighten tool.

The ability to have the crop and straighten tool when selecting the individual image from the drop down of the art board it is in would be beneficial.

In God's Harmony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, roddy said:

As to straightening the image from any of the corners, I'm aware of that feature, it's just easier to have the straighten tool.

The straighten tool is part of the raster crop tool, which is used in Photo to crop the entire document, not an object.

The vector crop tool will crop individual objects in Designer or Publisher, but does not have a straighten function.

You could post a Feature Request to add straightening to the vector crop tool, or concur with an existing request. Then, someday, the function might be added to Designer and Publisher.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, roddy said:

I'm not needing to isolate any part/image/object within an individual pdf page, just the page as a whole.

The page (or artboard) is also an object, but it's an object you can't rotate in fine increments (as far as I can tell). But if you select everything on the page (using a marquee selection or the Layers panel) then you get an object group whose bounding box will allow rotation. That's why I suggested that approach, above. (If you don't need to crop, this might even work in Photo, but is (I think) safer in Designer or Publisher.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

walt.farrell,

Thank you so much. I opened the pdf in Designer, clicked on the image and experimented. All as you said. If I click on the artboard of the image instead, and go to Pixel Persona to select a rectangular marquee, I am able to select a portion, but see no object group with a bounding box with ability to rotate.

In God's Harmony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, roddy said:

If I click on the artboard of the image instead, and go to Pixel Persona to select a rectangular marquee, I am able to select a portion, but see no object group with a bounding box with ability to rotate.

When I open a PDF in Designer, I get artboards, each of which has has a page of the original PDF. That page is a layer within the artboard. I can stay in the Designer Persona, click on the page's layer in the Layers panel, and that gives a bounding box for that page, which I can rotate.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I know how to do that. But, when I read your statement, "if you select everything on the page (using a marquee selection...)" I was under the impression to actually use the marquee tool to select the entire page or portions of it, and then be able to rotate, which does not happen. I must select the pdf image (not the artboard) in the layers panel to be able to rotate. Perhaps I misunderstood your explanation.

In God's Harmony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry.

You can perform a "marquee selection" of objects on the page by using the Move Tool. Click, and draw a box around the items you want to select. That's different from a marquee pixel selection.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A "marquee selection" of objects on the page by using the Move Tool doesn't work for my scanned pdf. I scanned pages from a music book and created one pdf file of all the pages. These are not separate objects within a pdf page since they were scanned. When I select the Move tool and get the arrow, clicking anywhere on the image just selects the entire page.

It's fine, I can rotate by hand showing a grid to help me align the page to straighten it, then click on the artboard and crop to omit the blank areas.

Thanks for your help.

In God's Harmony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're welcome.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.