Cut to the part that matters
Cropping is the most powerful edit in photography, and the simplest: remove what weakens the picture, keep what carries it. The cluttered desk around the product, the stranger at the edge of the family photo, the acres of sky above the document you photographed, the whole screenshot when you only need one dialog box — all solved by dragging one rectangle. This cropper works on a live preview right in your browser: draw the selection with mouse or finger, see exactly what survives, download. The original file is never modified.
How to crop an image
- Drop your image; it appears as an interactive preview.
- Drag a rectangle over the area you want to keep — everything outside dims.
- Not happy? Just drag again; each new drag replaces the selection, and the live pixel size is shown below.
- Click Crop & download.
Cropping with intent: three classic moves
The tightening: most photos improve when the subject fills more of the frame — crop until empty margin stops outnumbering subject. The rule of thirds: rather than centring everything, place the subject a third of the way into the frame; a crop can convert a static centred shot into a dynamic composition after the fact. The extraction: screenshots and scans often contain one useful region — a chart, an address block, an error message; crop it out and you've made a focused image that communicates instantly, instead of forcing viewers to hunt.
Pixels and quality: what cropping really does
A crop keeps the selected pixels at exactly their original sharpness — nothing is rescaled or recompressed beyond standard high-quality encoding. What changes is the count: crop a 4000×3000 photo down to a quarter of its area and you hold a 2000×1500 image. That's still plenty for screens and most prints, but it's why you should crop from originals rather than from already-small thumbnails. The dimension readout under the preview tells you the output size before you commit.
Practical notes
- Touch works: draw the selection with a finger on phones and tablets.
- Need an exact shape (square avatar, 16:9 banner)? Crop roughly to the right proportions here, then fine-tune size with the Resize tool.
- Format preserved: PNGs stay PNG (transparency intact), JPGs stay JPG.
- Privacy bonus: cropping out sensitive screen regions before sharing beats trusting recipients not to look.
One rectangle between you and a stronger image — and it never leaves your machine.
Quick reference
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Input | JPG, PNG, WEBP |
| Selection | Drag rectangle — mouse or touch |
| Preview | Live, with dimmed exterior + pixel readout |
| Quality | Kept pixels are untouched originals |
| Output size | Equals the selection (shown before download) |
| Format | Same as input (PNG keeps transparency) |
| Processing | 100% in-browser, no upload |
Frequently asked questions
Can I adjust the selection after drawing it?
Drawing a new rectangle replaces the old one instantly, which in practice is faster than nudging handles. The pixel readout updates live, so dial in the selection in two or three quick drags.
How do I crop to an exact ratio like 1:1 or 16:9?
Watch the live dimension readout while dragging — for 1:1 keep the numbers equal, for 16:9 aim for the proportion. Then perfect the exact pixels with the Resize tool. (Roughly right + resize beats eyeballing alone.)
Does cropping compress or blur my image?
No. The pixels you keep are copied at original sharpness and saved at high quality. The only thing that shrinks is the canvas — and the file size along with it.
Can I crop a transparent PNG without losing transparency?
Yes. PNG input produces PNG output with the alpha channel preserved across the cropped region.