Crop an image

Aspect ratios

1:1 for profile pictures and tiles, 16:9 for video previews, 1200 × 630 for sharing previews — the dimensions expected by Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. Some services do not display smaller images.

Two things to keep in mind

Cropping recompresses the image. A crop is a new image, so recompression is unavoidable. Work from the original: every additional pass through a lossy format removes information.

Metadata is missing. The new crop does not retain EXIF metadata. That helps protect location data. To inspect it first, use the EXIF viewers .

Without a mouse

Use Tab to focus the bottom-right handle, then move it with the arrow keys. Hold Shift for larger steps. This makes cropping accessible without a mouse.

If you want to change dimensions rather than framing, the Image resizer is the more direct option.

Which aspect ratio for which purpose?

Social sharing previews typically use 1200 × 630 pixels, roughly 1.91:1. Square images may be cropped unpredictably on Facebook and LinkedIn. Shop product pictures are usually square, blog images often 16:9, and team portraits 4:5.

The most common mistake is cropping faces too tightly. A generous composition can look cramped in a small tile. Leave some extra space: you can crop it later, but cannot add it back.

Cut rather than scale

Serving a 4,000-pixel image at a displayed width of 400 pixels wastes loading time. Cropping removes areas nobody sees; resizing reduces the dimensions. For a clear subject, use both: choose the crop first, then resize to the required dimensions.