Problem trying to crop a large map?

Question

Heres my problem I cant figure out. I'm working on a large state map (25 inches x 35 inches) but only wish to show a city and its main roads. I dont want to show 95% of the rest of the map. Problem is how (or can?) you crop the unused map? When I saved it as a jpeg and opened in PhotoShop to crop it appears fuzzy after I crop.
Any tips or suggestions?
Thanks

Answer 1

Incredible as it sounds, Illustrator cannot properly crop its own artwork. It has never provided a decent cutting tool. So everything for this common task becomes a ridiculously convoluted workaround.
You don't state what you intend to do with the cropped map after cropping it. Will you be printing it directly from Illustrator, or do you intend to use it as a spot graphic in a page layout program (InDesign, etc.)? Is this destined for commercial printing?
Assuming the answer to both those questions is yes, the closest thing Illustrator provides to what any decent drawing program can do in mere seconds (actually, properly trim vector artwork) is the Eraser tool.
1. Open a copy of the large map file.
2. Set four ruler guides to indicate the four edges of the desired crop.
3. Zoom out.
4. Eraser Tool: Outboard of the upper left bounds of the artwork, press and hold Alt. Drag the Eraser. This causes the Eraser to act in rectangular marquee mode. Drag until the marquee aligns with the left guide. You have to eyeball this because, in typical sloppy Adobe fashion, the Eraser tool fails to abide by snaps.
5. Similarly erase the artwork outboard of the other three sides.
6. Save as PDF for placement in InDesign as a vector spot graphic.
Be sure to check the result carefully after using this workaround. The sub-standard Eraser tool often alters the shapes of the remaining portions of open paths that it cuts.
The reason for having to resort to the half-baked Eraser tool is: There is no option to enable Illustrator's pathetic Scissor tool to simply make a straight cut across multiple objects at once. Illustrator's absurdly debilitated Knife tool can make a straight cut across multiple objects at once, but it cannot properly handle open, unfilled paths, of which maps have many (!). No Pathfinders work for proper crops of vector artwork, because they all also wreck open path strokes.
Thus, Illustrator's patently absurd three cutting tools fail to do what users of any decent vector drawing programs have always taken for granted from one properly done cutting tool. This is why whenever this common question arises, the answers in this forum always resort to some ridiculous method of merely masking the map (Artboards, Clipping Masks, tile printing , etc., etc.) or rasterization (egads! this is supposed to be a vector drawing program), not actually cropping it. I consider this a gross conceptual disservice to other users, especially beginners. "Cropping" does not mean "masking."
JET