Crop an image
Drop in a JPG, PNG, WebP, or other photo and drag across it to pick the part to keep. The pixel boxes take exact values when you need them.
How to use it#
- Drop an image onto the picture area, or click it to choose a file. The Open button on the Picture header swaps it for another.
- Drag across the picture to select the part you want to keep, or press Select all to start from the whole photo and trim it down.
- Drag inside the selection to move it, take a corner grip to resize it, or take a side to move only that edge. On a circle, the corner grips sit on its edge.
- Choose a shape if the crop has to be a circle, a square, 4:5 for Instagram, 9:16 for a story, widescreen, a YouTube thumbnail, a LinkedIn banner, an X header, or a Facebook cover.
- To save at an exact size, choose Custom size and type the width and height in pixels, such as 1080 by 1080. The selection takes that shape, and the download comes out at exactly that size.
- For an ID photo, choose Passport or visa photo, then the document. Pick 300 DPI to print it or 600 DPI for an online form, and size the selection until the head, chin to crown, fills the share of the height your document asks for, about two thirds for most.
- Adjust the Left, Top, Width, and Height boxes if the selection has to sit at exact pixels, then press Download.
Cropping throws pixels away, and that is the point#
A crop keeps a rectangle and discards everything outside it. The pixels that remain are untouched: nothing is scaled, stretched, or resampled, so the part you keep is exactly as sharp as it was in the original. The exceptions are the shapes that save at a set size: a passport photo, a YouTube thumbnail, a LinkedIn banner, an X header, and a custom size, which are scaled to the pixels they have to be.
What changes is the total. Crop a 4000 by 3000 photo to a square and you are left with 3000 by 3000, which is a third fewer pixels. That matters when the result has to meet a minimum size for a print or a profile picture. The Selection figure gives the size and the share of the original you will have before you commit to it.
Because a crop discards data, there is no undoing it once the file is saved. Keep the original if the picture is one you might frame differently later.
Choosing a shape#
Free lets you draw any rectangle, which is right when you are composing by eye. The presets are for when something else decides the shape: a square for a profile picture, 4:5 for a portrait post on Instagram, 16:9 for a slide or a video, 9:16 for a story or a Reel that fills a phone screen held upright, 4:3 for a print, and 3:4 for the portrait version of the same. Below them come the headers and thumbnails a platform asks for by name, Custom size for any other exact size, and Passport or visa photo, which keeps the eight documents in a list of their own so they do not crowd the rest.
Switching to a preset reshapes the selection you already have rather than clearing it, so you can frame first and constrain afterwards. If the new shape does not fit where the selection currently sits, it shrinks and moves until it does, which is always better than a crop that reaches past the edge of the photo.
Thumbnails, banners, and headers#
A YouTube thumbnail is 16:9 and saved at 1280 by 720, the size YouTube asks for. A LinkedIn banner is 4:1 and saved at 1584 by 396, and an X header is 3:1 and saved at 1500 by 500. Each is saved at that size because it is what the platform asks for, and a larger file would only be scaled down on the way in. It also keeps the file small: YouTube caps a thumbnail at a couple of megabytes, which a PNG of a whole camera frame can pass.
A Facebook cover takes the shape only, about 2.7:1 from the 851 by 315 that Facebook gives as its size, and keeps the pixels you selected. That figure is smaller than a cover is shown on a sharp laptop or phone screen, so a crop saved at it would look soft there. Facebook also shows less of the sides on a phone than on a computer, so keep faces and words away from the left and right edges.
Each of these has a part the platform covers. The profile picture sits over the lower left of a LinkedIn banner and an X header, and YouTube puts the length of the video in the bottom right corner of a thumbnail. Leave those corners for background, not for a face or a headline.
Cropping to an exact pixel size#
Choose Custom size and type a width and a height, up to 8,000 pixels a side. The selection locks to that shape, so 1080 by 1080 gives a square and 1080 by 1350 a 4:5 portrait, and the crop is scaled to exactly those pixels when it is saved. Move and resize the selection as usual to choose what goes in it. The file is named after the size, such as photo-1080x1080.jpg. The same box covers other exact sizes people search for, such as 1920 by 1080 for a wallpaper or a video frame, or 1200 by 630 for a link preview image.
Scaling down from a larger selection keeps the result sharp. Scaling up does not add detail, so when the selection holds fewer pixels than the size you typed, a notice under the picture says the crop is enlarged and will look soft. Draw a larger selection, or start from a bigger original. The Selection figure is what you have, and Saved at is what you will get.
Cropping a passport photo#
Choose Passport or visa photo under Shape, then the document under Document. Each one locks the selection to that photo's proportions and saves the crop at the pixel size that prints at its real size: 35 by 45 mm for a UK, Australian, Indian, French, or Dutch passport and for a Schengen visa, 2 by 2 inches for a US passport, and 50 by 70 mm for a Canadian one. You still choose what goes in the frame, by moving the selection and taking a grip to size it.
At 300 DPI, which is what photo printers expect, a 35 by 45 mm photo is 413 by 531 pixels and a US photo is 600 by 600. Choose 600 DPI for a form that wants more pixels: a UK digital photo must be at least 600 by 750, and 600 DPI clears that at 827 by 1063. The resolution goes into the file as well, so a print shop prints it at the right size rather than guessing. If your selection holds fewer pixels than the saved size, a notice says the photo is enlarged, and it will look softer than it did on screen. Draw a smaller selection or start from a bigger original.
Most rules also say how tall the head should be, from chin to crown, usually as a share of the photo's height: 64 to 76% for a UK passport, and 50 to 69% for a US one. This crops the photo to size and nothing more. Offices turn photos down more often for the background, the lighting, the expression, or glasses, and those depend on how the photo was taken, so check those against the rules for your document before you apply.
Cropping to a circle#
Circle keeps a square selection and saves only the round part inside it. The corners outside the circle come out transparent, so the picture sits cleanly on any background: a profile photo on a website, a round avatar in a slide, or a team page where every face has to match.
A circle is always saved as a PNG, even when a JPEG went in, because a JPEG cannot store transparency and would fill the corners white. That makes the file larger than a JPEG of the same crop. If the place you are uploading to draws its own circle, as most social networks do, crop to a square instead and let it do the rounding.
When to type the numbers instead#
Dragging is quicker for choosing what to keep, and harder for hitting an exact size, because the picture on screen is almost never displayed at its true pixel dimensions. On a photo from a modern camera, one pixel of pointer movement can be four or five real ones.
The magnifier closes most of that gap. While you drag a corner or a side, a round lens above the pointer shows the picture around it at four and a half times the size it is on screen, up to three times its real size, with the selection drawn in. That is enough to set an edge against a real boundary in the image, a hairline or the edge of a face, rather than guess at it. It goes when you let go.
The four boxes are the exact rectangle in the image's own pixels: how far in from the left, how far down from the top, and how wide and tall. Type into them to place an edge exactly, such as 40 pixels in from the left. They respect the chosen shape, so with square selected, changing the width changes the height too. To save the crop at a set size whatever you select, choose Custom size instead.
Composition, briefly#
The faint lines across the selection mark the thirds. A horizon or a subject placed near one of them, rather than dead centre, usually makes a stronger picture, which is why the rule of thirds is so widely taught.
The other thing worth watching is what the crop does to the edges. Cutting tightly around a person clips the space they are looking into, and a portrait that was comfortable at full frame can feel cramped. Leaving room on the side the subject faces costs you a few hundred pixels and is usually worth it.
Frequently asked questions#
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
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No. The crop is made in this tab using your browser's own canvas. The file is never sent to a server, so a screenshot with account details in it or a photo of a document stays on your device.
Can I crop to an exact pixel size?
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Yes. Choose Custom size under Shape and type the width and height, such as 1080 by 1080. The selection locks to that shape, and the download is scaled to exactly that many pixels, whatever size the selection is. To keep the original's pixels instead, leave the shape as it is and type into the Left, Top, Width, and Height boxes, which hold the selection in the image's own pixels.
What is the round magnifier that appears while I drag?
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It shows the corner or side you are placing, enlarged, with the selection drawn over the picture, so you can line it up against something real in the image. A large photo is displayed much smaller than it is, and on a phone your finger covers the very spot you are placing, as it does when you place the cursor in text. The lens sits just above the pointer or finger, moves aside near the top of the screen, and goes as soon as you let go.
Can I start from the whole photo and trim it?
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Yes. Select all puts the selection around the entire image, and you then drag a grip inward or type smaller numbers. It respects the chosen shape, so with a shape chosen it takes the largest rectangle of that shape that fits.
Can I move or resize a selection after drawing it?
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Yes. Drag inside the selection to slide the whole thing without changing its size, or take a corner grip to resize it, which keeps the opposite corner where it is. On a rectangle the grips are its corners; on a circle they sit on its edge, one on each diagonal. To make it only taller or wider, take the middle of a side instead, which moves that edge alone; with a shape chosen, the other side follows to keep the shape. Dragging out on the picture beyond the selection starts a new one; on a phone, hold your finger still for a moment first, since a finger that moves straight away scrolls the page. A single click changes nothing, so a stray press cannot lose a selection you spent time on.
Does cropping reduce the quality?
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The pixels you keep are unchanged, because nothing is scaled, except with a shape that saves at a set size: a passport photo, a YouTube thumbnail, a LinkedIn banner, an X header, or a custom size. Those are scaled to their size, and a notice says so when that means enlarging the selection. A JPEG is re-encoded on the way out, which costs a small amount, and PNG and WebP are written losslessly. What does drop is the total number of pixels, since the rest have been thrown away.
Why does the selection move when I change the shape?
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Because the new shape has to fit inside the photo. Turning a wide selection into a square makes it taller, and if that would reach past the bottom edge it shrinks and slides up until the whole rectangle is inside the picture.
What format do I get back?
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The one you put in, where your browser can write it: a JPEG comes back as a JPEG and a WebP as a WebP. Everything else, including GIF and AVIF, is saved as PNG, which is lossless and keeps any transparency the picture had. An animated GIF comes back as a still of its first frame. A circle crop is always a PNG, since its corners are transparent, and a passport photo is always a JPEG. The file is named with -cropped on the end, with the platform or the size for a social or custom crop, or with the document and size for a passport photo, so it never replaces the original in your downloads.
How do I crop an image into a circle?
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Choose Circle under Shape. The shading gets a round hole, and whatever is inside the circle is what you keep. Drag inside it to move it, or take one of the grips on its edge to make it larger or smaller, then download. The result is a PNG with transparent corners.
What shape should I crop to for Instagram?
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Use 4:5 for a portrait post, which is the tallest shape the feed shows and so takes up the most room on a phone screen. Instagram displays it at 1080 by 1350 pixels, so a crop at least that big stays sharp, and Custom size at 1080 by 1350 saves it at exactly that. A story or a Reel takes the whole screen at 9:16, which it shows at 1080 by 1920. For a profile picture, crop a square and let the app round it.
What size is a Facebook cover photo?
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The Facebook cover shape is about 2.7:1, from the 851 by 315 pixels Facebook gives as its size. It keeps the pixels you select instead of scaling to that figure, because a cover is shown larger than that on a sharp screen. Select at least 851 by 315, and more if the original has it. Facebook shows less of the sides on a phone, so keep faces and words toward the middle.
How do I crop a passport photo?
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Under Shape, choose Passport or visa photo, then pick the document under Document, such as UK passport, 35 × 45 mm, or US passport, 2 × 2 in. The selection takes that shape. Move and resize it until the head, chin to crown, fills the share of the height your document asks for, such as 64 to 76% for a UK passport, then download. You get a JPEG at the exact pixel size for that photo at the resolution you picked, 300 DPI for printing or 600 DPI for an online form, named after the document and size, such as photo-passport-35x45mm.jpg.
Will my passport photo be accepted?
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That is up to the office that takes the application, and a crop cannot promise it. The crop gets the size and the proportions right, which are the easy part. Offices turn photos down far more often for a shadow on the background, uneven lighting, a smile, glasses, or a tilted head, and cropping fixes none of those. Take the photo against a plain light wall in even daylight, facing the camera, and read the rules for your document before you send it.
Which passport and visa sizes are listed, and where do they come from?
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UK, Australian, Indian, French, and Dutch passports and Schengen visas at 35 × 45 mm, US passports at 2 × 2 inches, and Canadian passports at 50 × 70 mm. Each size and head height was checked against the issuing government's own guidance. Australia allows 35 to 40 mm wide and 45 to 50 mm high, and 35 by 45 mm sits inside that. A US visa photo is also 2 by 2 inches, so the US entry gives the right size for it. A country missing from the list may well use 35 by 45 mm too, but check its rules before you choose that size.
Which image types can I crop?
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JPG, PNG, and WebP all work, and so does any other picture your browser can open, such as GIF or AVIF. A JPG and a WebP come back in the same format, and everything else comes back as a PNG. A screenshot is usually a PNG, so it stays a PNG.
How do I crop a picture to a square for a profile photo?
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Choose Square (1:1) under Shape, then slide the square over the face or logo and take a grip to make it larger or smaller. Width and Height stay equal. Most sites, LinkedIn among them, ask for a square and round it themselves, so a circle crop is only needed when the picture goes somewhere that does not.
Can I crop a photo on my phone?
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Yes, on an iPhone or an Android phone. The page works in the phone's browser: choose a photo from your camera roll, drag the selection's grips with a finger, and download. A magnifier above your finger shows the corner or side you are placing. An iPhone photo saved as HEIC may be refused, since most browsers cannot read HEIC, so turn it into a JPG with the HEIC to JPG converter first.
Does the cropped photo keep its location and camera details?
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No. The crop is drawn fresh from the pixels, so the camera model, the date, and any GPS location stored in the original are left behind. A passport photo keeps one detail, its print resolution, so it prints at the right size. A photo your phone took sideways is turned upright first, so the crop comes out the right way up.
Can I crop several photos at once?
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No. A crop is a decision about one picture, and the rectangle that is right for one is rarely right for the next. Resizing and converting are batch jobs and have their own tools here.