Adobe added a content-aware fill option to the crop tool making it a one step process to crop and fill in blank canvas space around an image. It doesn’t sound too exciting at first until you use it. The content-aware function has been upgraded and is ‘up to 3X faster with even better results! Here’s how to use the new Content-Aware Crop Tool.

Straighten, Crop and Watch it Fill

Select the crop tool and in the Options bar at the top of the screen, check the Content-Aware checkbox to turn on the Crop tool’s Content-Aware option.

Using the straighten tool, click and drag a line on an object that should be straight. When you release the mouse button, the image shifts into position. Double click on the image and watch it fill in the blank space around the image.

Rotate and straighten

You can still crop free hand. Move your cursor outside of a corner of the crop boundary. When the cursor changes to a double-pointed, curved arrow, drag to rotate and straighten the photo. Use the crop grid that appears as a guide to straightening an object in the photo, like the lines on the garage door.. Then release your mouse. To commit the crop, double mouse click on the image.

Extended Borders

Sometimes you just need to extend an image’s borders. Draw a crop around the entire image then select a center point of the crop boundary edge. Click and drag. When you let go, you can visually see the canvas size extended. Double click on the image and Content-Aware will fill in the border.