# Problem straightening horizon with the crop tool.



## AngelaS (Sep 13, 2018)

Hello.  My problem relates to straightening with the crop tool -  when you hover your cursor just outside the edge of the photo until your cursor changes to a curved double-ended arrow, and then you rotate the photo within the frame.
My crop tool starts off with the usual grid of nine.  However, yesterday,  without explanation,  the overlying grid that appears as a reference to help make the horizon level has changed to a grid of lots of tiny squares.  I find this very distracting and much harder to see the lines on the image below.  I can't quite remember what size the grid was before,  but it certainly wasn't so many tiny, distracting squares.  There must be a setting somewhere to change it back,  but I  just can't find it.

Please help! It's driving me nuts!

Many thanks,
Angela.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 13, 2018)

While the crop tool is active, press the 'O' key (Overlay) a few times. That will toggle through several options.


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## AngelaS (Sep 14, 2018)

Hello Johan, 
Thanks for your reply. I've already tried this, but it only changes the grid overlay that appears when you first click the crop tool. The grid that then appears secondly to rotate does not change when you toggle through O. (At least it doesn't on my pc!) 
Anyone else please?!


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 14, 2018)

AngelaS said:


> Hello Johan,
> Thanks for your reply. I've already tried this, but it only changes the grid overlay that appears when you first click the crop tool. The grid that then appears secondly to rotate does not change when you toggle through O. (At least it doesn't on my pc!)
> Anyone else please?!


That second grid is supposed to be like that. It's to help you to see that the lines are really straight. AFAIK, it has always been like that, but since the latest update it's more visual than in the past. You can't change the grid, but you can turn it off in the lower left corner by setting the Overlay to 'Never'.


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## AngelaS (Sep 14, 2018)

Ah... It does look very bold, so much so that I can hardly see the image beneath. I presumed that previously the squares were larger. If I can dial down the darkness of the lines it would help.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 14, 2018)

You can't. You can only turn it off completely.


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## AngelaS (Sep 15, 2018)

So... This was driving me mad because I knew the grid didn't used to be so small.  I have pulled up LR on my laptop (LR Classic 7.3.1) and confirmed what I thought.  On there,  the grid that appears in order to straighten* IS* larger.  The squares are twice the size of those that suddenly appeared on my other pc, (LR Classic 7.4) approx 22 squares across the image,  and less bold too. 

Please can anyone confirm whether this grid can be switched back to the larger size?  

Or out of interest,  how many squares does everyone else get when they use this straighten tool?    (When you hover your cursor just outside the edge of the photo until your cursor changes to a curved double-ended arrow, and then you rotate the photo within the frame)
And which version are you on?

thanks,
Angela.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 15, 2018)

It's clear that you don't believe me anyway, so I will not comment any further.


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## AngelaS (Sep 15, 2018)

Johan,  it is not a case of me not believing you.  My concern was that you  said  "it has always been like that, but since the latest update it's more visual than in the past "  and my head was telling me that no,  it has *not* always been like that.  I knew that it used to be a different size.
No-one has told me yet that the latest update has made the squares smaller for everyone,  that is what I am trying to establish.  If other users tell me that yes,  the latest update reduced the size of the squares and there's nothing to be done,  then that's that and I'll just have to live with it.

Please don't take my previous post as it was not intended.
Angela.


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## DGStinner (Sep 15, 2018)

If the squares are distracting, use the level tool inside the crop tool.  Just draw a line that should be horizontal or vertical and Lightroom will rotate accordingly.


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 15, 2018)

AngelaS said:


> Johan,  it is not a case of me not believing you.  My concern was that you  said  "it has always been like that, but since the latest update it's more visual than in the past "  and my head was telling me that no,  it has *not* always been like that.  I knew that it used to be a different size.
> No-one has told me yet that the latest update has made the squares smaller for everyone,  that is what I am trying to establish.  If other users tell me that yes,  the latest update reduced the size of the squares and there's nothing to be done,  then that's that and I'll just have to live with it.
> 
> Please don't take my previous post as it was not intended.
> Angela.


Asking people to count the number of squares is probably a waste of time, as the number of visible squares will change depending upon the visible area of the image on the screen, and that will be affected by LR panel display and size, screen size/resolution, etc. The size of the grid squares does not scale if you increase/decrease the display area, thus the number of squares will increase/decrease accordingly. For what it's worth, I've just compared LR5, LR6 and LR7.5 and I see no difference in the size of the grid squares. But that's on the same monitor, whereas if I compared between the same LR version on two different monitors, each with a significantly different resolution, then I most certainly would expect to see a difference.

So, the question is: what is the screen resolution used on your two systems?


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## Dan Marchant (Sep 27, 2018)

Turn off the overlay and use the Angle tool instead - levelling the image is what the Angle tool is for.


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## PhilBurton (Sep 28, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> A
> ...
> For what it's worth, I've just compared LR5, LR6 and LR7.5 and ...
> 
> ...


Jim,

I have to ask you this.  How do you maintain installs of LR 5, LR 6, and LR 7.5 on one system.  Doesn't your catalog or your preferences files get hopelessly confused?

Phil Burton


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 28, 2018)

PhilBurton said:


> Jim,
> 
> I have to ask you this.  How do you maintain installs of LR 5, LR 6, and LR 7.5 on one system.  Doesn't your catalog or your preferences files get hopelessly confused?
> 
> Phil Burton


Each installation uses its own catalog and preference file.


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