The Clipping feature is an easy and versatile way to crop vector or bitmap/raster objects in Inkscape. If you are exporting your inkscape document (SVG) to a bitmap (a PNG) with the “File > Export Bitmap” command, and want to only export a portion of your document, then changing the document size, and just exporting the document is probably the solution for your needs.

If you have a single path or object (like a star or a rectangle), and want to trim or crop that object down, then Boolean Operations is probably what you need.

If you have a complex drawing with many shapes and objects, and want to trim these, then Clipping is probably the solution for you.

This FAQ explains a few of the techniques that people actually mean when they say they want to crop in inkscape. Inkscape is primarily a vector graphics editor, so when someone asks this question, they could possibly mean something slightly different to a traditional image crop.

One of the most frequently asked questions from Inkscape users is “how do i crop an image or object?”.

Inkscape text to path inside circle