What the image cropper does
The cropper cuts a rectangular region out of an image. You can drag the box freely, or lock it to a preset aspect ratio — 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 — so the result fits a profile picture, a slide or a widescreen banner without distortion. Exact position and size can also be typed in pixels for repeatable crops. The output is saved as PNG so nothing is lost at this stage; convert or compress afterwards if you need a smaller file. Everything runs in your browser.
Crop vs resize
Cropping removes part of the picture and keeps the rest at its original resolution. Resizing keeps the whole picture and changes how many pixels it occupies. To fit a photo into a slot of a different shape you almost always need both: crop to the right shape, then resize to the right size. Cropping first means the resizer never has to stretch anything.
| Ratio | Typical use |
|---|---|
| 1:1 | Profile pictures, Instagram square, app icons, product thumbnails |
| 4:3 | Older displays and projectors, many compact camera photos, iPad screen |
| 3:2 | Full-frame and APS-C camera photos, 6 × 4 in prints |
| 16:9 | YouTube, presentations, TV, most laptop screens, hero banners |
| Free | Trimming edges, removing a border, isolating one subject |
Composition tips
- Rule of thirds. Place the subject on one of the lines dividing the frame into thirds rather than dead centre; the crop box makes it easy to try both.
- Leave headroom. For portraits, keep a little space above the head and crop at the chest or waist — not at the neck, elbows or knees.
- Straighten first. The cropper does not rotate. If the horizon is tilted, fix it in an editor before cropping.
- Check the safe zone. Platforms overlay text and buttons on stories and covers; keep important content away from the edges.
- Crop for the destination, not the original. A landscape photo often needs a tight vertical crop for a phone story — that is normal.
How much can you crop?
Cropping throws away pixels, so the result has fewer than the original. A 4,000 × 3,000 photo cropped to its central quarter is 2,000 × 1,500 — still plenty for any screen and fine for a 6 × 4 print. Cropping to a tenth of the frame leaves 1,260 × 950, adequate on screen but soft in print. Check the output dimensions shown in the tool against what the destination needs; if it comes up short, the original did not have enough resolution for that crop.
Common uses
- Turning a group photo into an individual headshot.
- Removing a photobomber, a messy edge or a border added by another app.
- Cutting a product out of a busy background before listing it.
- Making a square or 9:16 version of a landscape image for social media.
- Isolating a chart or a section of a screenshot for documentation.
Privacy and metadata
The crop is performed by the Canvas API on your own device; the image is never sent anywhere. Because the output is redrawn, EXIF data (camera, date, GPS) is stripped from the result. That is usually what you want when publishing a cropped photo, and it also means a crop cannot be reversed from the output — keep the original.