Why crop?
Cropping is the quickest way to improve a photo’s composition. Removing distracting edges draws attention to the subject; moving the subject off-centre often creates a more dynamic image, following the rule of thirds. Cropping is also how you adapt one picture to many places: a square for a profile, a 16:9 strip for a banner, a 4:5 portrait for an Instagram post.
Choosing an aspect ratio
- 1:1 – profile pictures, Instagram square posts, product thumbnails.
- 4:5 – the tallest ratio Instagram allows in the feed; takes more screen space on phones.
- 3:4 – a portrait phone photo; common for printed portraits and Pinterest-style vertical images.
- 4:3 – the native shape of most phone camera photos; good for prints and presentations.
- 3:2 – the native shape of most DSLR and mirrorless cameras, and of 6 × 4 inch prints.
- 16:9 – video thumbnails, presentations, desktop wallpapers and website banners.
- 9:16 – Stories, Reels, TikTok and phone wallpapers.
Cropping and resolution
Every crop throws away pixels, so it is worth checking the size readout under the preview before you save. A 12 MP phone photo cropped to its central quarter still leaves about 2000 × 1500 pixels, which is plenty for screens and small prints. Cropping a small area out of a much larger scene, such as a face in a group photo, can leave only a few hundred pixels, which will look soft if it is displayed large. As a rough guide, aim for at least 1080 pixels on the short side for social media, and 300 pixels per inch of print size for photo prints, so 1800 × 1200 for a 6 × 4 inch print.
How it works
When you add an image, it is decoded in a background Web Worker, which means HEIC photos and images with EXIF rotation display the right way up. A lightweight preview, at most 1600 pixels on its longest side, is shown for you to position the crop box. When you click “Crop image”, the selection is mapped back to the original dimensions and applied to the full-resolution pixels, then encoded in the format you chose. At no point is the image sent over the network.
Related tools
Need a round avatar? Use Circle Crop, which saves a PNG with a transparent background. To crop and resize to a platform’s exact size in one step, use the social media image resizer.