Crop or resize: which do you need?
Cropping removes the parts of an image you do not want and, when you lock a ratio, changes its shape. Unlike resizing, it never stretches anything and never invents detail: every pixel in the result was already in the original. This guide covers when to crop rather than resize, which ratio suits which use, how the centred crop works when you do not draw one yourself, and how to fix the usual problems.
Resizing changes how many pixels an image has. Cropping chooses which pixels to keep. If the shape is right and the image is simply too large, resize it. If the shape is wrong, or there is something in the frame you want gone, crop it.
When you need both a particular shape and an exact pixel size, crop first and resize second. That way you decide what gets cut. If you go straight to the Resize tool with Fill & crop, it always keeps the centre, which is fine for a centred subject and wrong for anything off to one side.
Worked example: one photo, four ratios
Take an illustrative 4032 × 3024 phone photo, which has a 4:3 shape. If you pick a ratio and do not draw a crop, the tool takes the largest centred area with that shape.
| Ratio | Result | What is removed |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 | 3024 × 3024 | 504 pixels from the left and right |
| 4:5 | 2419 × 3024 | 806 pixels from the left and right |
| 16:9 | 4032 × 2268 | 378 pixels from the top and bottom |
| 3:1 | 4032 × 1344 | 840 pixels from the top and bottom |
The arithmetic is simple. For a ratio wider than the photo, the full width is kept and the height becomes width ÷ ratio. For a narrower ratio, the full height is kept and the width becomes height × ratio. Every result above still has far more pixels than any social network displays, so you can resize afterwards without enlarging anything.
Aspect ratios and where they are used
| Ratio | Shape | Typical uses |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Any | Removing clutter, trimming screenshots, isolating part of a document |
| 1:1 | Square | Profile pictures, square posts, product thumbnails, album art |
| 4:5 | Slightly tall | Portrait social posts such as 1080 × 1350, 8 × 10 inch prints |
| 3:4 and 4:3 | Standard photo | The native shape of most phone cameras, tablets, older slides |
| 3:2 and 2:3 | Classic print | Many dedicated cameras, 4 × 6 inch prints, Pinterest-style pins |
| 16:9 and 9:16 | Widescreen | Video thumbnails, presentations, wallpapers; 9:16 for stories and vertical video |
| 1.91:1 | Wide | Link preview images such as 1200 × 628 |
| 3:1 | Banner | Profile headers such as 1500 × 500 |
| 4:1 | Long banner | Wide page banners such as 1584 × 396 |
| Circle | Round | Round avatars, stickers and badges |
Platforms change their recommended sizes now and then, so treat the examples as a starting point. If a print size you need is not in the list, such as 5 × 7 inches or A4, use the Resize tool with that physical size and Fill & crop, or choose Free here and frame it by eye.
How to crop step by step
- Drop your images on the page, choose them with the file picker, or paste from the clipboard. Up to 50 files at once on the free version, each up to 200 MB.
- Pick an Aspect ratio chip, or Free for any shape.
- Press the crop button on a file card to open the editor. Drag the box or its handles, drag the image underneath, and use zoom in and out to frame it. The toolbar also rotates by 90 degrees, flips horizontally or vertically, and resets.
- Press Apply. The crop button stays highlighted on that card so you can see which files have a manual crop.
- Repeat for any other photo that needs its own framing. Cards you leave alone get the centred crop at the chosen ratio.
- Choose the output format (JPG, PNG or WebP) and quality. Turn on Also limit file size if the result has to fit under a cap.
- Press Crop and download each file, or all of them as a ZIP.
Circle crops and transparency
Circle makes the crop box square and removes everything outside the circle. Choosing it switches the format to PNG, because JPG cannot store transparent pixels. WebP also keeps the transparent corners and gives a smaller file.
If you switch back to JPG, the corners are filled with the Background colour instead. That is useful when the circle will sit on a page of a known colour, but it means the corners are no longer see-through. Many profile picture slots already display images in a circle, so a plain square crop is often enough there; the circle export is for places that show the full square.
Framing tips for a better crop
- Place the main subject, or a person's eyes, roughly a third of the way into the frame rather than dead centre. It usually looks more natural, especially in wide ratios.
- Leave a little space above a head and more space on the side a person is facing or a subject is moving towards.
- Avoid cutting exactly at joints such as wrists, elbows or knees. Crop a little above or below them instead.
- If the horizon is tilted, straighten it first with a custom angle in Rotate & flip; the straight edges of a crop make a slight tilt more obvious.
- For a banner, keep text and faces away from the outer edges, because many sites overlay a profile picture or buttons on part of the banner, and the visible area can change between phone and desktop.
Cropping photos for print
Printers and photo labs crop automatically when the image shape does not match the paper. A 4:3 phone photo sent for a 4 × 6 inch print, which is 3:2, loses a strip from the top and bottom that you did not choose. Cropping to 2:3 or 3:2 yourself first means the lab prints exactly what you framed. For 8 × 10 inch prints, crop to 4:5.
Cropping also lowers the pixel count, which matters on paper. For a sharp print at 300 DPI, each inch needs 300 pixels, so a 6 inch side needs 1800. If a tight crop leaves fewer pixels than that, print smaller or crop less.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing changed. Free was selected and no crop was drawn, so the image passed through at its full size. Pick a ratio or open the editor.
- The result is not the pixel size I need. Cropping only removes pixels. Run the cropped file through Resize to reach exact dimensions.
- The crop looks blurry after posting. A small part of the photo was cropped and then enlarged by the platform. Crop less tightly or start from the original rather than a forwarded copy.
- The circle has white corners. The format is JPG. Switch to PNG or WebP.
- The photo is sideways. Use the rotate buttons in the editor; the orientation stored by the camera is applied before you see the photo, so this is only needed when the photo was genuinely taken at an angle.
- Every photo in the batch is cropped the same way. Cards without a manual crop all get the centred crop. Open the editor on the ones that need different framing.
Cropping in your browser compared with uploading
People often crop to remove something private: a house number, a name on a screen, a child in the background, a document behind the subject. Sending the uncropped original to an online editor to do that defeats the purpose, because the full image has already left your device. Here, the crop is calculated and encoded in your browser and nothing is uploaded, and the exported file does not carry the original camera metadata such as GPS location.
The editor built into your phone crops a single photo perfectly well. Where this tool helps is with batches: the same ratio across dozens of images, a manual crop only where it is needed, and one ZIP at the end. Pro raises the batch limit to 500 files and 1 GB per file and lets the installed app work offline.