Crop images with Preview on Mac

Preview is the default image viewer and editor on Mac. You can use it to view images and PDF files, play videos and even edit some types of files. It is one of my favorite apps. I use it daily for image cropping, photo blurring, etc. In a related post, we discussed how to blur photos in Preview on Mac so as to protect our sensitive information when we share the photos. In this article, I will show you how to quickly crop images, photos using Preview app on Mac with additional troubleshooting tips for those who can’t crop images with Preview on Mac.

Crop images in Preview

There are mainly three steps to crop an image with Preview app on Mac. Firstly you need to select the part of the image that you want to keep, then crop out the unselected part, finally go to save the changes to existing file or save as a new image file to your computer.

Double click the picture in Finder to open it with the Preview app which is the default image viewer and editor for Mac.

The selection tool is invisible by default. Click the Show Markup Toolbar button at the toolbar or click to open the View menu from the Apple top menu bar, then choose Show Markup Toolbar from the drop down menu. The Markup Toolbar displays below the default Toolbar in Preview app. Click to choose a selection tool from the top left corner above the working area of Preview app. The Rectangular Selection tool is selected by default. If need, you can choose Elliptical Selection or Lasso Selection. Draw on the image to select the region of the photo you like to keep. After that, the Crop button shows up in the Markup Toolbar. Click Crop button or go to top menu and choose Tools > Crop to complete.

crop images with preview app on mac

Finally click File menu, choose Save to save the cropped version of the image and overwrite the original picture. Or choose File > Export… to save it as a new image file. Optionally you can choose a different name, format or location in the Export As dialogue.

Make circular, round images in Preview

If you wish to crop a square or rectangle photo into circle, click the Markup button from the top. Then click the Selection Tool on the left of the toolbar to choose Elliptical Selection. Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard while you drag the cursor on the image to make the crop selection. In this way, you will get a perfect circle above the picture. Click the Crop to Selection button that appears in the Preview toolbar to crop the image to circle. 

Make circular, round images in Preview

Finally go to export the round image as a new file from Preview to your Mac.

Can’t crop images with Preview on Mac?

Some Mac users can’t find the Crop option or when they go to the Tools menu, the Crop option is greyed out. You have to select the area on the image to crop, otherwise you can’t select Crop under the Tools menu.

If you can’t see the selection tools, you need to click the Show Markup Toolbar button at the toolbar or click to open the View menu from the Apple top menu bar, then choose Show Markup Toolbar from the drop down menu.

If you can’t see the Toolbar in Preview, click the View menu, choose Show Toolbar option.

No “Save As” option in Preview?

There is no “Save As” option in the File menu and the Save option just saves the changes to the original image. If you do’t want to lose the original version, choose File > Export, then choose a new name, location or format to save it as a new image file on your Mac.