Crop a Reference on the Canvas Without Editing Its Source
Use a canvas crop when you want a tighter view of a reference on a board. refern stores that crop with the canvas element; this action does not rewrite the source image. You still need the canvas and source media to reopen the board correctly.
Apply a canvas crop
- Open a canvas and select the image element you want to change.
- Open its crop control. Frame the detail by dragging the crop handles.
- Choose an available aspect preset if you want a fixed proportion, or use free crop.
- Finish the crop, inspect its placement on the board, and save the canvas.
The crop changes the selected placement. It does not crop the source image's library thumbnail or every other board that uses that source. Use a second placement when you want the complete image and a close detail side by side.
Reframe or reset
Reopen the crop control to adjust the visible region, or use Reset to return to the full source framing. This depends on the source remaining available. A saved crop is not a backup of the hidden pixels.
Cropping cannot create extra detail. Enlarging a small region can reveal the source's resolution limits even though the crop has not changed the original file.
Choose the correct crop path
| Task | Appropriate path | File effect |
|---|---|---|
| Focus a reference on a board | Canvas crop | Saves placement/crop state with the canvas |
| Create a separate detail image | Library crop, save as a new file | Writes another media file |
| Alter the source image itself | Library crop, replace | Replaces source pixels; use an independent backup |
Read the library crop's save choice before confirming it. Do not rely on a temporary undo opportunity as your only recovery plan. A crop created in another app does not automatically gain refern's provenance information.
For a board that must remain editable, back up its canvas document, workspace data, and source media. See the reference backup guide.
To place and organize the image before cropping, follow the moodboard guide.