Crop Photo Online

1. Open your image

   Press “Choose image”, drag the file into the workspace or paste it with Ctrl+V. Just want a test run? Click “Try a sample photo” and experiment with no strings attached.

2. Pick the aspect ratio

   Tap one of the chips above the preview: Free, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16, 3:2 or 2:3. The selection frame snaps to the chosen ratio instantly and keeps it as you move the box around.

3. Frame your subject

   Drag the corners of the frame to tighten or widen the selection, then slide the box to the right spot in the photo. Once the framing looks good, press “Apply crop”.

4. Check and download

   Review the result in the preview and click “Download” to save the file. Cut away too much? The “Undo” button brings back the original image in a snap.

Cropping is the fastest way to turn an ordinary shot into an image ready for a specific destination. The most frequent cases:

• Square for Instagram — the 1:1 chip trims the excess and centers the subject in the feed.
• Vertical for stories — with 9:16 you fill the whole phone screen, no black bars.
• Banners and covers — 16:9 is perfect for blog headers, presentations and video thumbnails.
• Classic prints — 3:2 and 4:3 match the traditional photographic formats (10x15, 18x24).

Then there's the “corrective” crop: removing a passer-by who wandered into the frame, a finger over the lens, a distracting sign. Often, tightening the frame by just 10-15% gives the shot a whole new punch.

Choosing the aspect ratio before you crop avoids nasty surprises at publishing time: many platforms crop whatever doesn't fit their format on their own, and they rarely do it with any judgment. This table sums up the most useful pairings:

For the pixel dimensions each platform expects, every up-to-date value is in the guide to social media image sizes.

When you press “Apply crop”, the browser copies onto the Canvas work area only the pixels inside the selection frame: there's no resampling and no interpolation, so the portion you keep retains exactly the definition of the original shot. It's a different operation from resizing, which recalculates every pixel to change the resolution of the whole image.

All of this happens locally: the image is never transmitted to any server, and what you crop stays visible to you alone. On top of that, exporting through the Canvas strips out the EXIF metadata — GPS coordinates, phone model, date of the shot — a precious detail when you publish personal photos. The downloaded file is clean, watermark-free, in JPG, PNG or WebP depending on the original.

A good crop follows a few time-tested rules. First: apply the rule of thirds, placing the subject on one of the imaginary lines that divide the frame into nine parts, rather than dead center. Second: leave some “air” in the direction of the gaze or the movement — a cyclist racing toward a cut-off edge feels uncomfortable. Third: if the horizon is tilted, straighten it before cutting with the tool to rotate the photo, so the frame works on an image that's already level and you don't waste pixels.

A common mistake to avoid: cropping too tight on a face. Cutting through the forehead or chin only works in very deliberate portraits; when in doubt, keep a margin above the head. And if the image is headed for a round avatar, after the 1:1 crop you can finish it with rounded corners or the circle crop.

Don't crop the same area twice “by eye”: every JPG save recompresses the file. Decide the destination first, pick the right chip and cut once.