"Cropping" and "masking" are both terms that describe hiding part of an object. In general, the difference is that cropping uses a rectangle to trim the edges of an image, and masking uses an arbitrary shape to make an object’s background transparent. A common example of a mask is a clipping path, which is a mask made for a specific image.

Use graphics frames to crop or mask objects. Because an imported graphic is automatically contained within a frame, you can crop or mask it immediately without having to create a frame for it. If you haven’t created a frame for an imported graphic manually, the frame is automatically created at the same size as the graphic, so it may not be obvious that the frame is there.

Note

In GN4, the "cropping" term is sometimes used also to describe the procedure of placing image on a page placeholder or in an article. That's because the crop dialog box appears allowing you to choose the part of the picture. However, the more appropriate term for such operation is "placing" and not "cropping".

 

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