How To Crop Images with MS Paint

Overview

This tutorial will demonstrate how to crop a screenshot using Microsoft Paint (which comes with Windows XP). Cropping refers to modifying an image by eliminating parts of the image that you don't want. This is helpful for authors that upload their images as attachments to their mods. Uploading a 1024x768 image of a small dagger on the road isn't a good idea, cropping the image where it only shows the dagger is a good idea.

Procedure

Cropping an Image with Microsoft "Paint" is tricky since they do not have a built-in crop tool. Here are the steps to crop an image:

1. Start Paint (comes with Windows XP under Start Menu, All Programs, Accessories)
   
2. From the menu, click Image, Attributes, change both Width and Height to 10. This will make the blank image very small.
   
3. Close Paint and don't save the blank image. (it will remember the 10x10 size for new images from now on)
   
4. Find your file and right-click on it and open with Paint.
   
5. Select the tool on the top-right of the toolbar that looks like a dotted rectangle (called "Select")
   
6. Click and drag a box around the part of the image you wish to keep. This will act like your crop-selection tool.
   
7. From the menu, click Edit, Copy
   
8. From the menu, click File, New (should be a blank 10x10)
   
9. From the menu, click Edit, Paste (should now be the size of the copied image)
   
10. Save your newly cropped image in JPEG format.
    

References

Source: LHammonds Web Site