What this image cropper does
Cropping is the oldest and most useful trick in photography: deciding what is not in the picture. The stranger at the edge of the family photo, the cluttered desk around the product shot, the three empty inches of sky above the house, the screenshot margins around the one paragraph you actually wanted to send — all of it can simply be left out. This cropper shows your picture at full size, lets you drag a selection over the part worth keeping with a mouse or a finger, dims everything outside the selection so you can judge the result honestly, and downloads exactly the rectangle you chose, at its true pixel size, as a PNG.
While you drag, the tool reports the selection's dimensions in pixels, live. That number matters more than it might seem: a crop is only as big as the pixels inside it. Crop a small corner out of a large photo and the result may be just a few hundred pixels across — plenty for a message or a thumbnail, not enough for a print. Watching the size as you drag lets you trade off framing against resolution with your eyes open. You can drag in any direction, start over by simply dragging again, and adjust as many times as you like before committing — nothing is final until you press the crop button, and even then your original file on your device is untouched; the crop is a new download.
How to crop an image
- Choose the image. It appears at working size in the box.
- Drag a rectangle over the part to keep — mouse on a computer, finger on a phone or tablet. The area outside darkens; the size readout shows the selection's pixels.
- Not quite right? Just drag again from a new starting point. Each drag replaces the last selection.
- Press Crop to Selection, check the preview, and download your cropped PNG.
Cropping well: a few practical notes
Crop for the destination's shape. Profile pictures are square, marketplace thumbnails are square, presentation slides are wide rectangles, phone wallpapers are tall ones. If you know where the picture is going, crop toward that shape and the destination will not chop it arbitrarily for you — automatic center-crops by websites have cut off a great many heads. Leave a little breathing room. A face touching the edge of the frame feels cramped; a small margin almost always looks more natural. And crop before you resize: if a form wants a 400 × 400 picture, the professional order is to crop the photo to a square first, then resize that square with our Image Resizer. Resizing an uncropped rectangle into a square either distorts it or forces the awkward automatic chop you were trying to avoid. Cropping is quick — it is worth doing deliberately.
Frequently asked questions
Can I adjust the selection after drawing it?
You redraw it: each new drag starts a fresh selection. That keeps the tool simple and predictable — most crops take two or three quick drags to land exactly right.
What format is the cropped image saved in?
PNG. Cropping is a precise, pixel-exact operation, so the result is saved losslessly. If you would rather have a JPG, run the crop through the Image Converter.
Why is my cropped image small?
A crop contains only the pixels inside your selection. Cropping a small region from any photo produces a small image — the size readout while you drag tells you exactly what you are getting before you commit.
Does cropping change my original file?
No. Your original stays exactly as it was on your device. The crop is a brand-new file that you download.
Private by design: cropping happens locally in your browser. The picture is displayed from your device, cut on your device, and downloaded to your device — no upload is involved at any step.