Hi,
I believe that pdfs can make multiple use of pictures (and other objects).
right.
I have a fairly large picture which I want to include a number of times, once as the full picture and several other times concentrating on a portion of it. Are there any commands for cropping other than going through metapost?
Yes. Try this example. You can see from the resulting pdf file that the cow.pdf gets included only once. \useexternalfigure[cow] \starttext \setupclipping[nx=3,ny=3] % 1/3 of a sliced cow \hbox{% \clip [x=1,y=2]{\externalfigure[cow]} \clip [x=2,y=2]{\externalfigure[cow]} \clip [x=3,y=2]{\externalfigure[cow]} } \blank[4*big] % its in the details: \scale[sx=2,sy=2]{\clip [x=2,y=2]{\externalfigure[cow]}} \stoptext Patrick -- You are your own rainbow!