With Photo Gadget Pro you can do cropping in three different ways depending on how you select the crop area. We will show you where is the difference by performing almost the same crop three times.

Free style rectangular selection

This is the standard general purpose way of cropping when you do not mind a lot about the crop area size and its aspect ratio.

1. Open a folder with images in Windows Explorer.
2. Right click on an image you want to crop, choose Photo Gadget Pro – Crop option and select radio button labeled Free.
3. Now select the crop area. In our example (see the screenshot below) we wanted to focus on the head of the sculpture so we clicked approximately where the top-left corner of the crop area should be and dragged the mouse pointer diagonally towards the bottom-right corner. When you release the mouse button to complete the selection note a couple of things. Crop area size is displayed in W-H textboxes. Eight small squares around the crop area allow you to resize it in any way you need until you get the perfect size. You can also click within the crop area and move it around the image.
4. Click Crop to complete the process.

Fixed size crop

This option is good when you know the target size in advance and you have to follow it with absolute precision. Of course, you could get there using the free style rectangular selection as well, but with a bit more work. Instead, simply type in the size you need and position the crop area directly.

1. Open a folder with images in Windows Explorer.
2. Right click on an image you want to crop, choose Photo Gadget Pro – Crop option and select radio button labeled Fixed size.
3. Type in the needed crop area dimensions in W-H textboxes. In our example we went for 320x320.
4. Now click on the place where the top-left corner of the crop area should be and you are almost finished. If necessary move the crop area to get the best selection. Note here that there are no squares around the crop area because its size is fixed.
5. Click Crop to complete the process.

Keep aspect ratio when selecting crop area

This option is good when aspect ratio of the crop area is critical. For example if you will print the cropped image on 4"x 6" paper then you need to keep to the 3:2 aspect ratio.

1. Open a folder with images in Windows Explorer.
2. Right click on an image you want to crop, choose Photo Gadget Pro – Crop option and select radio button labeled Keep aspect.
3. Select one of predefined aspect ratios (3:2, 4:3, 16:9) or select Custom Aspect and type in aspect parameters you need in textboxes just right of the drop list. In our example we went for custom aspect 1:1 to get the square crop.
4. Now click on the place where the top-left corner of the crop area should be and drag the mouse pointer diagonally towards the bottom-right corner. Note that small squares around the crop area are available again, only this time there are four of them, not eight, because to keep aspect only diagonal resizing makes sense.
5. Click Crop to complete the process.