Get more accurate crops by zooming when you crop (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Everyone knows the crop tool is handy in Photoshop and quick for cropping an image. But once you have the area you want to crop selected, your only options are to transform the bounding box handles on the crop box, commit or cancel the crop. You can’t zoom in or out for a better preview of what you’re cropping. Or can you?

It’s true, you can’t select the Zoom tool from the Tools panel when you have an active crop on your image, but you can still use its functionality with a modifier key.

To zoom in or out while cropping:

1. Choose the Crop tool from the Tools panel.
2. Create the selection that you wish to crop.
3. Press [option][spacebar] ([Alt][spacebar] in Windows) and click on your image to zoom out, or press [command][spacebar] ([Ctrl][spacebar] in Windows) and click on your image to zoom in.