By default, Easel allows you to select any portion of an image as the crop area. However, you can also constrain cropping with a preset aspect ratio. When cropping is constrained in this way, the crop area can only be drawn with the specified ratio of width to height, and can thus be made to fit in a given space, or on a certain paper size / margin setting combination.
Constrained cropping is turned on and off via the crop menu. When it is turned on, all cropping (except freehand) is constrained, and vice-versa. The current state is indicated by text of the Set Cropping Aspect item on the crop menu. When turned off, this item reads Set Cropping Aspect (not set), as shown. When turned on, the text in the parentheses describes the setting, as discussed below.
To turn constrained cropping on or off, right click any image, click Crop on the image menu, and click Set Cropping Aspect to get the cropping aspect menu:
Select None (unconstrained) to turn off constrained cropping
Select one of the other choices to turn on constrained cropping:
Current Image Aspect forces the crop area to retain the same proportions as the image itself
Current Page Aspect forces the crop area to have the same proportions as the currently selected paper size, margin, and orientation combination (click Page Setup on the file menu to view or change this).
Select Set Manual to specify the aspect ratio to be enforced.
Fill-the-Hole mode forces the crop area to vary according to the images' position relative to margins and other images. This is a powerful composing tool. See Fill-the-Hole Cropping for more information.
Fill-the-Frame mode, available only when the composition contains 1 or more frames, forces the crop area to retain the same proportions as a surrounding frame. See Working with Frames for more info.
Note 1: Constrained cropping applies to rectangular, elliptical and burst but not freehand cropping.
Note 2: Constrained cropping applies only when you create a new crop area. It does not apply when you are modifying an existing crop. To change a constrained crop and while keeping it a constrained crop, you must uncrop and then recrop.