Oh, how I love you crop tool. 

In previous versions of Illustrator, you dealt with the limitations of exporting artwork which usually was based on your document size (PDF) or all of the artwork on your pasteboard (Web). You would have wanted to either copy it into Photoshop first if you wanted to export for web, or you had to make sure your art board was the correct size of your final document. Well, no more - the new crop tool is a blessing.

If you’re asking how do I crop vector art? The answer is, you don’t.

The crop tool in Illustrator doesn’t actually clip any artwork like Photoshop, it simple creates boundaries for use when you do export your art. This is incredibly useful when Saving For Web.

Crop Tool in Action

Notice the crop in the image above, If I use the Save For Web.. tool, only the portion inside the crop area will be exported. Also, if I chose Save As.. and with PDF as the format, the crop area will become the dimensions of the saved PDF. 

The crop tool is even a great replacement to simple slicing since it snaps to guides. Also, if you need to create multiple slices, you can create multiple crop makes - just hold down the option key and drag to create a new crop area. For a few slices this may be a better option than the still buggy slice tool.

The crop tool can display a lot of valuable information for print or screen work. Double clicking-the crop tool brings up the crop preferences window. The section named ‘Display’ allows you to turn a number of helpful visuals like Crop Area Rulers, Center Mark and Screen Edge. These displays are on even while not using the crop mark, so they are probably good during later stages and not while creating.

Crop Tool Preferences Window