Cropping removes the parts of a picture you don't want and changes its shape. Choose a ratio such as square, 4:3 or 16:9, then zoom and slide the crop area with the controls, or switch to free mode and trim each edge by a percentage. The preview updates as you work, and you download the result as PNG, JPEG or WebP. The picture never leaves your device.
How to use it
- Choose or drop an image.
- Pick the shape of the crop.
- Use the zoom and position sliders, or the edge trims in free mode.
- Choose a format and download.
When it helps
- Making a square profile picture from a landscape photo.
- Cropping a banner or thumbnail to an exact ratio.
- Cutting a distracting edge out of a shot.
- Preparing images for social posts.
Good to know
- Keep faces and important text well inside the crop area, because apps often trim a little more.
- Cropping keeps the original pixels, so a large source gives a sharper result.
- Use JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with sharp edges or transparency.
How the crop area is worked out
In a fixed shape such as 4:3, the tool first finds the biggest rectangle of that shape that fits inside your picture. Zoom then shrinks that rectangle, so a zoom of 200 percent selects half the width and half the height. The two position sliders move the rectangle left and right or up and down within the space that's left over.
In free mode there's no fixed shape. You trim a percentage from each of the four edges instead, which is handy when you just want to cut off a border or a stray object at the side. The preview and the size shown beneath it always reflect the pixels you'll download.
Worked example: a profile picture
Say you have a landscape portrait of 4000 by 3000 pixels and a site wants a square. Choose 1:1, and the tool selects a 3000 by 3000 square. Slide the position control until the face is centred, perhaps zoom in to 150 percent so the head fills more of the frame, and the result is a 2000 by 2000 image, plenty for any avatar.
Download it as JPEG for a small file or PNG if you need maximum fidelity. If the site then shrinks it to 400 pixels, starting from 2000 gives it room to scale down cleanly.
Choosing a ratio and a format
Common ratios are 1:1 for avatars and many posts, 4:5 for portrait Instagram posts, 16:9 for video thumbnails and slides, and 3:2 for traditional photographs. When in doubt, check the platform's own guidelines or the Social Media Image Size Guide.
On format, JPEG compresses photographs well but has no transparency, PNG keeps transparency and sharp edges but makes larger files for photos, and WebP is often smaller than both while supporting transparency. Browsers and most apps now read WebP, but some older software doesn't.
Cropping for print
For printing, work from the largest original you have, since printers need more pixels than screens. Check the pixel size of the crop against the print size you need.
Questions
Does cropping reduce quality?
Not by itself. The pixels inside the crop are kept at full resolution.
Is my image uploaded?
No, it's processed in your browser.