How to Crop Images in Photoshop to Specific Sizes [Quick Tip]

Have you ever done the crop dance in Photoshop? You know what I'm talking about. You need to crop and reposition a photo in Photoshop, so you click and drag a square to get to 536 pixels wide ... but your cursor keeps landing at 532 pixels or 546 pixels, not the 536 you need.

Blame chubby fingers, small screens, or just poor coordination, but trying to get the exact dimensions by dragging and dropping is just frustrating. 

Wouldn't it be nice to just crop the image to the dimensions you need on the first try? Well, you're in luck -- it's super easy to do.

We'll walk you through the six steps below and you'll be on your way to cropping all the images you need to in no time. Here's how you do it ... 

How to Crop Images in Photoshop

1) Open up the image you want to crop. We're going to use this picture of an a-DOR-able puppy running through a field because ... why not.

2) Select the crop tool in the left toolbar.

3) Click on the first dropdown option after the crop tool in the top toolbar. Select 'W x H x Resolution.'

4) Enter in the dimensions you'd like for width and height, being sure to add the unit of measurement you want to use after (px OR in). Also choose the resolution needed for the photo.

It doesn't really matter what you put in the resolution box if the image is for the web, but 72 ppi should do the trick. If this image will be used in print, a higher resolution will be needed (at least 300 ppi). 

5) After you fill in the values, you'll see a preview of the image when it's cropped. Move around the cropped boundaries to the desired position on the photo.

Note that if you resize the cropped preview, it will remain the same dimensions you set.

6) Hit enter and your image will be cropped! Now you have that glorious close-up of that adorable puppy.

Pretty easy, huh? What other things do you want to learn about Photoshop? Leave your ideas in the comments -- if we write about them, we'll give you a shoutout!