Image Cropper
Drag a frame, pick a ratio, download. Circle crop for avatars, and nothing leaves your device.
In short
Crop to 1:1 for profile pictures, 16:9 for video thumbnails, 9:16 for stories, and 4:5 for the largest Instagram feed format. Circle crops must be saved as PNG or the transparent corners turn white.
Choose an image or drop one here
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF or AVIF · stays on your device
Last reviewed
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type here is uploaded, stored or logged.
Common crop ratios and where they're used
| Ratio | Shape | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 | Square | Profile pictures, Instagram posts, app icons |
| 4:5 | Tall portrait | Instagram portrait, the largest feed format |
| 9:16 | Full portrait | Stories, Reels, TikTok, phone wallpapers |
| 16:9 | Widescreen | YouTube thumbnails, presentations, video |
| 4:3 | Classic | Older cameras, some print sizes, older projectors |
| 3:2 | Photographic | DSLR default, 6×4 inch prints |
| 1.91:1 | Wide banner | Open Graph and social link previews |
Profile pictures specifically
Almost every platform displays avatars as circles but stores them as squares. So crop to 1:1, and use the circle preview to check nothing important sits in the corners that will be clipped.
Size: at least 400×400. Platforms downscale aggressively but never upscale well, so a small source looks soft everywhere it's shown large. 800×800 is a safe default.
Leave a little breathing room around the head. A face cropped tight to the frame edge looks cramped once the circle mask is applied, because the corners you were using for spacing disappear.
Turning on circle crop saves as PNG so the corners stay transparent. Save a circle as JPEG and the transparent area becomes white, which looks wrong on any dark background.
Cropping doesn't reduce quality. Re-encoding does
Removing pixels doesn't degrade the ones that remain. What costs quality is the save:
- PNG is lossless. The crop is pixel-identical to the original region. Larger files, and the right choice for text, screenshots, logos and anything with transparency.
- JPEG recompresses every time you save. One pass at 92% is visually indistinguishable; repeatedly opening and re-saving is what produces the degraded look people associate with "over-compressed".
- WebP is typically 25–35% smaller than JPEG at matching quality, and supports transparency.
For a single crop-and-save, any of them is fine. If you'll edit again later, keep a PNG master and export JPEG copies.
Composition, briefly
The rule of thirds. Place the subject about a third of the way across rather than dead centre. Centred works for symmetry and formal portraits; off-centre usually looks more considered.
Watch the edges. Cropping through joints, wrists, ankles, necks. Looks uncomfortable. Cut through the middle of a limb instead.
Leave looking room. If someone faces left, leave more space on the left. A subject looking straight out of the frame edge feels cramped.
Straighten first. A sloping horizon is far more noticeable than a slightly imperfect crop.
Metadata is stripped
Redrawing on a canvas discards all EXIF data, GPS coordinates, camera model, timestamps. Phone photos routinely embed the exact location where they were taken, and people publish their home address without realising.
Orientation is applied before stripping, so images stay the right way up rather than flipping sideways as they do in some tools.
Crop first, then resize
If you also need to hit a file-size limit, do it in that order. Cropping changes the dimensions, so resizing first means doing it twice. Crop here, then run the result through the image resizer.
Frequently asked questions
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by your browser, drawn to a canvas and re-encoded locally. It never touches a network, which makes this safe for ID photos, documents and anything private. You can prove it by loading the page, going offline, and cropping anyway.
How do I crop a profile picture?
Choose the 1:1 preset, position the frame over the face, and turn on circle crop if the platform displays avatars as circles. Most do. Circle output is saved as PNG so the corners stay transparent rather than turning white.
What size should a profile picture be?
Square, and at least 400×400 px. Larger is fine, since platforms downscale. Going smaller means visible softness when it is displayed at full size. Crop first, then use the image resizer if you also need to hit a file-size limit.
Does cropping reduce quality?
Cropping itself removes pixels rather than degrading the ones that remain. Quality loss comes from re-encoding: saving a JPEG always recompresses it. Save as PNG for a lossless result, or keep JPEG quality high if file size matters more.
Is EXIF data removed?
Yes, as a side effect of redrawing on a canvas. GPS coordinates, camera model and timestamps are all discarded. Orientation is applied first, so the picture stays the right way up. Useful if you are posting a photo publicly.