burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The 'crop' term refers to the fact that at 100% "pixel for pixel" view of most high resolution images, the image must be cropped to be displayed on the monitor.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Kozan Loc: Trenton Tennessee

If you take a picture then display it on your camera's monitor, then push the + button repeatedly until you get the smallest little square that shows the cropped image, that's a 100% crop.

On my Nikon D850, I have set the middle button on the multi-selector to zoom in either 100% or 200%.
I'm pretty sure that is what 100% crop is referring to.

BebuLamar

Yes Burk! The term isn't correct but I am seriously wonder if anyone actually doesn't understand what it meant? If all of us do know what it meant than does it really matter if the term is used incorrectly?

User ID

Gotta agree with Burk about that. The OP asks
NOT for all the rhetorical arguments that have
ensued, which all seek to show who, if anyone,
knows the "true meaning" of "100% crop".

The OP clearly asks *what people mean* by
100% crop, per the people who say it ... NOT
per "the authorities".

Sooooo ... for the OP, expanding just a bit on
Burk's wording:

Since it's not practical [nor permitted ?] to
post a finished edited file at its full resolution
cuz it may well be 4000x6000 or even 7000x
11,000 pixels. FULL resolution equals 100%
resolution ... it's conversational English, not
necessarily technically rhetorically perfectly
accurate English.

OK, so that covers the meaning of "100%."

The word "crop", in such usage, means "a
small segment cropped out of the full rez
image file" ... so as to be postable without
overloading bandwidth [or breaking rules ?].

Thus the posting of a "100% crop" shows
the quality of detail, focus, noise level, etc
of a 5000x7000 pixel image, by posting a
600x900 pixel "crop" from the full image.

The full image, acoarst, must be resized to
about 1800x1200 for posting, so as to not
overload the system with a gigantic file. So
you post the resized image, and a so-called
100% crop, if the discussion is about noise
or detail or something not really visible in
the down-sized 1800x1200 version.

=========================
=========================

All that crappola about pixel-for-pixel on a
monitor is pointless. In a practical sense, it
NEVER happens. All viewers can zoom their
monitors to any magnification. Pixels in the
original file maybe displayed small than, or
larger than, the "monitor pixels". "Monitor
pixels" are like printer dots, no real relation
to pixels in the image file.

=========================

FWIW, there is no such thing as uncropped
images. The world is wide. The lens crops
the world. The sensor crops the lens's view.
And the user is welcome to "join in the fun".

Even if you never use the cropping tool in
your editing app, you're cropping when you
aim and frame in-camera. Some peeps are
verrrry proud of their "perfect" ability to do
exactly that ... but are BS-ing themselves,
which is OK until they harangue the rest of
us to support their pride of self deception.


.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

The insert in the following image is a 100% crop if you view the download.

The image was shot using a Minolta AF 500mm f/8 reflex lens on a Sony A7R II with LA-EA4 adapter and I wanted to show the full resolution of the combo.

bwa

(Download)

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

That makes much more sense than tying it to an aspect ratio. If we accepted the A/R definition then we would not be able to have a coherent discussion unless everybody used the same base. Those who use 4:3 would mean something different than users of 3:2 (which would differ from those who favor 16:9, ...). Talk about ambiguity.

CO

It can happen if the software package has the correct monitor resolution entered. Photoshop calls it Actual Pixels. Other software packages call it 100% view. The software can map one image pixel to one monitor pixel.

(Download)

User ID

Yes. "It CAN happen if ..."
And you CAN get hit by a
meteorite, if ...

But, what is POSSIBLE is
NOT what the OP asks to
have clarified. The OP is
asking for clarity and not
for obfuscation.

.

CO

No obfuscation. As long as the correct monitor screen resolution is entered into the software, the software will accurately zoom to 100% when selecting "Actual Pixels" (Photoshop) or 100% view (other software packages).

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Like others have said it is cropping or zooming into the pic until one pixel of image equals one pixel of monitor. This is also how much you can crop or magnify an image without seeing pixelation of the image on the screen. If you are still confused download and install the free image viewer Hornil Photo Viewer and set the magnification to 100%, or if you are in Photoshop, set the image size to 100% in the lower left corner of the frame.