CodeKitHubWhat Is This Tool?
An image cropper cuts a rectangular region out of a picture and discards the rest. It is the most basic and most frequently needed photo edit: trimming a screenshot down to the relevant window, cutting yourself out of a group photo for an avatar, removing a messy background edge, or reframing a landscape shot into a square for a post.
This cropper runs on the HTML5 Canvas API inside your browser. When you pick a file it is decoded locally, you adjust the selection by dragging its edges and corners, and the crop is produced by copying just those pixels onto a new canvas. Because there is no server involved, there is no upload wait, no file-size fee and no privacy trade-off — the tool works even offline once the page is loaded.
Why Use It?
- Drag-and-adjust selection: move the box or pull any corner or edge handle until the framing is exactly right, with live size feedback in pixels.
- Aspect-ratio presets — 1:1, 4:3, 16:9 and 9:16 — lock the box shape for avatars, thumbnails and vertical video covers, or switch to free mode for arbitrary crops.
- Download as PNG (lossless, keeps transparency) or JPG (smaller files for photos) — you choose at export time.
- 100% local processing with the Canvas API: your image is never uploaded, sent or stored anywhere, which matters for ID photos, documents and screenshots containing personal data.
- Free, no watermark, no sign-up, and it works on phones and tablets with touch dragging as well as on desktop.
How to Use
- Click the upload area or drop an image file onto it — JPG, PNG, WebP and most common formats work.
- Drag inside the selection box to move it, or drag the corner and edge handles to resize it.
- Optionally pick an aspect-ratio preset (1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 9:16) to lock the box shape, or keep it free.
- Choose PNG or JPG as the output format.
- Press the crop button and the cropped image downloads immediately.
Example
Input
A 4000×3000 photo, selection locked to 1:1 over the face, 800×800 area chosenOutput
An 800×800 PNG containing only the selected squareThe output keeps the original pixels one-to-one — cropping never rescales or recompresses the selected area unless you export as JPG, which applies mild photo compression.
Common crop ratios and where they're used
Pick the ratio from the platform you are publishing to, not from the source image — a 16:9 thumbnail cropped from the center of a vertical photo usually beats letterboxed padding. When a platform lists an exact pixel size, match its ratio here first; getting the shape right at the crop stage avoids the automatic center-crop many sites apply, which routinely cuts off heads and text.
| Ratio | Shape | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 | Square | Profile pictures, Instagram feed, app icons |
| 4:3 | Classic landscape | Presentations, older cameras, iPad screens |
| 16:9 | Widescreen | YouTube thumbnails, video covers, monitors |
| 9:16 | Vertical | Stories, Reels, TikTok, phone wallpapers |
| Free | Any rectangle | Trimming screenshots, removing edges, custom layouts |
Where cropping fits among the image tools
Cropping changes what the image shows; resizing changes how large it is. A typical avatar workflow uses both: crop to 1:1 here, then scale to the required 400×400 with the Image Resizer. Doing it in that order keeps the subject sharp, because scaling happens once, on the final framing.
If the file is still too heavy after cropping — common with large phone photos — run it through the Image Compressor. And when the goal is hiding information rather than removing it from frame, blurring or pixelating the sensitive region with a censor tool preserves the rest of the picture.
→ Image Resizer · Image Compressor · Photo Censor / Blur Tool
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my image uploaded to a server?
No. The file is opened directly by your browser and processed with the Canvas API on your own device. Nothing is transmitted, stored or logged — you can verify this by loading the page, disconnecting from the internet, and cropping anyway. That makes the tool safe for ID cards, contracts and other sensitive images.
Which aspect ratio should I use?
1:1 (square) fits most profile pictures and Instagram feed posts. 4:3 matches classic photo and presentation formats. 16:9 is the standard for YouTube thumbnails, video covers and widescreen displays. 9:16 is for vertical content — Stories, Reels, TikTok and phone wallpapers. When no platform dictates the shape, free mode lets you crop to any rectangle.
Should I download as PNG or JPG?
PNG is lossless and preserves transparency, making it right for screenshots, graphics, logos and anything with text. JPG compresses photographic content into much smaller files with barely visible quality loss, making it right for photos you plan to share or upload. If in doubt: text or transparency → PNG, photograph → JPG.
Does cropping reduce image quality?
Cropping itself is lossless — it copies the selected pixels unchanged, so the cropped region is pixel-identical to the original. The only quality decision is the export format: PNG keeps everything exactly, while JPG applies photographic compression. The tool never scales your image, so no sharpness is lost to resampling.
Can I crop to exact pixel dimensions?
The selection size is displayed live in pixels while you drag, so you can fine-tune the handles until it reads the size you need. If you need an exact target size like 512×512 regardless of the source framing, crop to the right shape here (1:1 in that case) and then scale the result with the Image Resizer.