How to crop an image to the right aspect ratio
Aspect ratio is the shape of a picture: width compared with height. Cropping an image to a ratio first, and only then resizing, is the cleanest way to hit a platform's size without stretching anything. A 4:5 crop, for example, can be resized to 1080×1350 for Instagram with no distortion.
Pick the ratio here, drag the frame so the subject sits where you want it, and download. If you then need exact pixel dimensions, run the cropped file through the image resizer.
| Ratio | Common size | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 | 1080 × 1080 | Instagram square post, profile pictures |
| 4:5 | 1080 × 1350 | Instagram and Facebook portrait posts |
| 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | Stories, Reels, TikTok, Shorts |
| 16:9 | 1920 × 1080 | YouTube thumbnails, slides, desktop wallpapers |
| 4:3 | 1600 × 1200 | Photos from most phone cameras, print |
Cropping tips for better photos
A crop is the quickest edit that makes a photo look intentional. A few habits help:
- Put eyes or the main subject roughly a third of the way in from an edge, not dead center, unless you're going for symmetry.
- Leave room in the direction a person is looking or moving.
- For stories and Reels, keep text and faces away from the top and bottom, where the app's buttons and captions sit.
- Crop before you compress or resize; every step after works on fewer pixels.
Photo cropper vs resizer: which do you need?
Cropping removes the edges of a picture and changes its shape. Resizing keeps the whole picture and changes how many pixels it has. If a platform says your image is the 'wrong shape', crop it. If it says the file is too large or too small, resize it. Often you'll do both, in that order.
On a phone you can crop in the Photos or Gallery app, but those editors rarely offer every ratio a platform wants and some save over the original. Cropping a copy in the browser leaves your original photo untouched, and the downloaded PNG keeps every pixel inside the frame at full resolution, so it's ready to resize or compress next.
