Image Crop (Aspect Ratio)
Crop any image to a standard aspect ratio (1:1, 16:9, 4:3, etc.) — centered automatically.
How to use
- Drop or choose an image.
- Pick the target aspect ratio.
- The largest centered crop appears in the preview.
- Click Download to save.
About this tool
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Drop in an image, pick one of seven aspect ratios — 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 9:16, 21:9, 2:3 — and download the centre crop. The crop is always the largest rectangle of that shape that fits inside the original, so nothing is ever stretched or upscaled: a 4000×3000 photo cropped to 16:9 keeps its full width and loses 375 pixels from the top and bottom.
The output is re-encoded in the format you brought in, and that is where the cost hides. A PNG in gives a PNG out with every pixel intact. A JPEG in gives a JPEG out, and the canvas encodes it at the browser's default quality — measured here at exactly 0.92, byte-for-byte identical to passing that value explicitly — so the part of the image you kept is compressed a second time. For one crop that is invisible; for a file that has been through this a few times it is not, and if you need the original pixels the answer is to crop from a lossless master rather than to crop more carefully.
Formats the canvas cannot write are the sharper edge. A BMP or a GIF is decoded happily, but at save time the browser silently falls back to PNG while the download keeps the original extension — you get a file called photo-1x1.gif whose bytes are a PNG. Most software will read it anyway, having learned to trust content over names, but anything that dispatches on the extension will not. Rename it to .png and it is a perfectly good image.
Everything runs on a canvas in your browser; the file is never uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it always centered?
Center crop covers the most common need (subject usually near the middle) and keeps the tool one-click. For an off-center crop, use a full image editor — this tool optimizes for speed.
Is the image uploaded?
No. Cropping happens locally with Canvas; the image stays on your device.
Will the file get smaller?
Usually yes — fewer pixels means a smaller file. The output generally keeps the source's format, but a JPEG is compressed again when saved, so a lossy source loses a little quality.
What about EXIF orientation?
Browsers decode the image with its EXIF rotation applied, so portraits and landscapes are handled correctly before cropping.
Which ratio should I use where?
Square (1:1) is the safe default for profile pictures and feed posts. 4:5 is a common portrait shape for feed posts and takes more screen height than a square. 9:16 fills a phone screen for stories and short video. 16:9 is the shape of video thumbnails, presentation slides and page headers.
Does cropping reduce the image quality?
The pixels you keep are not resampled, so no detail is lost in the crop itself. The output is encoded again, though, so if it is saved in a lossy format there is the usual small generational cost of a re-encode. What definitely drops is the resolution, because the discarded edges take their pixels with them.
Why is my cropped file not much smaller?
Because file size follows the pixels that remain, and a centred crop to a nearby ratio often removes only a thin strip. Going from 4:3 to 1:1 discards a quarter of the frame; going from 16:9 to 4:5 discards far more. If the goal is a smaller file rather than a different shape, resizing or compressing is the operation you want.
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