Is my image uploaded to a server?

No. The image is decoded, cropped and re-encoded entirely in your browser with the built-in Canvas API — it never leaves your device and is never sent anywhere. That makes it safe to crop ID photos, passport pictures, signatures, scans and any private image you would not want to upload to a website.

How do I crop an image into a circle?

Turn on the "Circle" toggle. The crop box locks to a square and the result is masked to a circle. Because the corners outside the circle have to be transparent, a circle crop is always saved as PNG — JPEG cannot store transparency, so it would fill the corners with white. Use the PNG download for avatars and profile pictures; the transparent corners then sit cleanly on any background.

What is the difference between cropping and resizing?

Cropping removes the parts of the image outside your selection — it changes the composition and the pixel dimensions by cutting pixels away, but it never stretches what remains. Resizing keeps the whole image and scales every pixel up or down. They are often used together: crop to the right shape (e.g. a square or 7:9 passport ratio) first, then resize to the exact pixel size a form requires. Use the Image Resizer for the resize step and Compress to Size to hit a KB limit.

How do I crop a photo to passport size (35 × 45 mm)?

Click the "Passport 35×45 (India)" preset — it locks the crop box to the correct 7:9 ratio. Position the box so the head is centred with a little space above it, then crop. Millimetres only become pixels once you pick a print resolution (300 DPI ≈ 413 × 531 px for 35 × 45 mm), so after cropping to 7:9, use the Image Resizer to set the exact pixel size the portal asks for.

Does cropping reduce the image quality?

Cropping itself does not degrade the pixels you keep — it simply discards the ones outside the selection. Any quality change comes from the re-encode: choosing JPEG applies compression (use the quality slider), while PNG and WebP-lossless keep the kept pixels exact. For the sharpest result on photos with text or fine lines, output PNG; for the smallest file on a normal photo, JPEG at quality 85–92 is visually identical.

Are EXIF and GPS data removed when I crop?

Yes. Re-encoding the cropped pixels through the canvas produces a clean file with no EXIF block, so the camera model, capture time and GPS location are stripped automatically — a privacy benefit. The image is also auto-rotated to its display orientation first, so the crop matches what you see. Keep your original file if you need to preserve that metadata.

Crop Image

Crop a JPG, PNG or WebP image to any aspect ratio, an exact rectangle, or a circle — drag the box, rotate or flip, then download. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Drag an image here or click to browse

JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF

How cropping works

When you open an image, the browser decodes it into raw pixels with createImageBitmap() and corrects its orientation. You drag a crop box over the preview; the tool maps that box from screen coordinates to the original image's pixels using a single uniform scale, then copies just that rectangle onto a new canvas with ctx.drawImage(image, sx, sy, sw, sh, 0, 0, sw, sh). Finally canvas.toBlob() encodes the result to JPEG, PNG or WebP. There is no upload and no server round-trip — the whole crop happens in your tab.

Drag the middle of the box to move the selection; drag a corner or edge handle to resize it.
Lock a ratio (1:1, 16:9, passport 7:9…) so the crop keeps a fixed shape while you resize.
Rotate or flip the image first if it is sideways or mirrored, then crop.
Circle crop masks a square selection to a circle and saves a transparent PNG.

Common photo crop sizes

Use	Crop shape / ratio	Note
Indian passport / visa	35 × 45 mm (7:9)	Head centred, light background; crop to 7:9 then resize to the portal’s pixel size.
US visa / OCI photo	2 × 2 in (1:1)	Square. Face 50–69% of height.
Exam photo (SSC, IBPS, RRB)	200 × 200 px (1:1)	Square crop, then compress to the KB limit.
UPSC photo	300 × 300 px (1:1)	Square; max ~50 KB JPEG.
Stamp-size print	2 × 2.5 cm (4:5)	Common for school / college forms.
Profile / avatar	Circle (1:1)	Round crop on a square selection; save as PNG to keep transparent corners.

Aspect ratio sets the shape; the exact pixel size is a separate step — crop to the ratio here, then open the Image Resizer to set the precise width and height a form requires.

Crop, resize or compress — which do you need?

Goal	Use
Cut away unwanted edges / change the shape (square, circle, 7:9)	This tool — Crop Image
Change the pixel dimensions of the whole image (e.g. → 200 × 200)	Image Resizer
Reduce file size by lowering quality (same dimensions)	Image Compressor
Hit an exact KB limit (e.g. under 50 KB)	Compress to Target Size

Tips for a clean crop

Pick the ratio first. Lock the shape (e.g. 1:1 for an exam photo, 7:9 for a passport) before positioning, so resizing the box can't distort it.
Centre the subject. For ID photos, keep the head centred with a little headroom — most portals reject off-centre or tilted faces.
Crop, then resize, then compress. Crop to the right shape here, set the exact pixels with the Resizer, then hit the KB limit with Compress to Size — this order keeps the most quality.
Use PNG for circles and graphics. Circle crops and images with text/lines stay sharp and keep transparent corners in PNG; JPEG is best for normal photos.
Rotate before cropping if the photo is sideways — the crop box always works on the upright image.

What an aspect ratio really is

An aspect ratio is just the width of an image compared to its height, written as two numbers separated by a colon. A 1:1 ratio is a perfect square; 16:9 is a wide rectangle 16 units across for every 9 units tall. The numbers are a proportion, not pixels — 16:9 describes a 1920×1080 frame and a 1280×720 frame equally, because both reduce to the same 16:9. You find the simplest form the same way you simplify a fraction: divide both sides by their greatest common divisor. 1920×1080 both divide by 120 to give 16:9; an Indian passport photo of 35×45 mm divides by 5 to give 7:9.

Locking a ratio in this tool keeps that proportion fixed while you resize the crop box, so the selection can never end up subtly stretched or squashed. That matters because the crop only ever cuts pixels away — it never scales them — so the shape you select here is the exact shape you download. Common ratios exist for real reasons worth knowing:

1:1 (square) — profile pictures, app icons, most exam and ID photos, Instagram's classic format.
4:3 — the traditional photo and older-screen ratio; still common for prints and many camera sensors.
3:2 — the 35 mm film ratio, used by most DSLRs and the standard 4×6 inch print.
16:9 — the widescreen video and modern-display ratio; the right shape for YouTube thumbnails and slide backgrounds.
9:16 — vertical video: Reels, Shorts, TikTok and phone-screen wallpapers.
7:9 — the 35×45 mm proportion used by Indian passport and most visa photos.

From millimetres to pixels: print sizes and DPI

Passport and stamp-size requirements are given in millimetres, but a digital image is measured in pixels, and the bridge between them is DPI (dots per inch, equivalently pixels per inch). The conversion is simple arithmetic: pixels = millimetres ÷ 25.4 × DPI, since there are 25.4 mm in an inch. Print photos are conventionally produced at 300 DPI, which is the point at which individual dots become invisible at reading distance.

Worked through, a 35 × 45 mm Indian passport photo at 300 DPI is (35 ÷ 25.4 × 300) × (45 ÷ 25.4 × 300) ≈ 413 × 531 pixels. A US 2 × 2 inch visa photo at 300 DPI is exactly 600 × 600 pixels. This is why "crop to the ratio here, then resize to the exact pixel size" is the recommended order: cropping fixes the shape (7:9, 1:1), and the resize step turns that shape into the precise pixel count a portal demands. Pick a higher DPI only if a printer specifically asks for it — for an on-screen upload, the portal's stated pixel dimensions are all that matter, and DPI is just the unit you used to arrive at them.

Composition: where to put the subject

A good crop is as much about what you remove as what you keep. Two simple rules cover most situations:

The rule of thirds. Imagine the frame divided into a 3×3 grid. Placing your subject — or a person's eyes — on one of the grid lines or intersections tends to look more natural and balanced than dead-centre. It is a guideline photographers have used for centuries, not a law, but it is a reliable default for hero images, banners and social posts.
Headroom and centring for ID photos. Identity documents reverse that advice: passports, visas and exam portals want the head centred, facing forward, with a small, even margin of space above the hair and the face filling a consistent portion of the frame. Off-centre, tilted or zoomed-in faces are among the most common reasons an automated photo check rejects an upload, so for these use the dedicated photo presets and keep the face square in the middle.

Cropping tightly also pays a hidden dividend: a photo cropped to just the subject, with the background trimmed away, compresses to a much smaller file than one full of empty space — useful when the same image then has to fit a strict KB limit.

Circle crops, transparency and the format choice

A circular avatar is really a square crop with the corners made invisible, and that "invisible" is the catch. Only formats with an alpha channel — the extra layer that records how transparent each pixel is — can store see-through corners. PNG and WebP have one; JPEG does not. If you saved a circle crop as JPEG, the format has nowhere to record transparency, so it would fill the four corners with a solid colour (white, in this tool) and you would get a white-cornered square instead of a clean circle. That is exactly why the Circle toggle always outputs PNG: the corners stay genuinely transparent, so the avatar sits cleanly on any background colour a website or app places behind it.

For rectangular crops the format choice follows the content. Choose JPEG for ordinary photographs where a small file matters and a little compression is invisible; choose PNG for screenshots, logos, line art or anything with sharp text and flat colour, where lossless encoding keeps edges crisp; choose WebP when you want PNG-grade quality at a smaller size and the destination supports it.

Does cropping lose quality? Pixels, re-encoding and orientation

Cropping itself is lossless: it discards the pixels outside your selection and copies the ones inside verbatim, with no stretching or resampling, so every kept pixel is identical to the original. The only place quality can change is the final re-encode. If you save the crop as JPEG, the encoder applies its usual lossy compression (controlled by the quality slider); if you save as PNG or lossless WebP, even that step is exact. So for the sharpest possible result on text or fine lines, output PNG; for the smallest file on a normal photo, JPEG at quality 85–92 is visually identical to the source.

One more subtlety the tool handles for you is EXIF orientation. Phone cameras often store a photo's pixels sideways and add a metadata flag that says "rotate this when displaying." If a cropper ignores that flag, the image you crop and the image you see can disagree. This tool decodes with the orientation applied first, so the upright picture on screen is exactly the one the crop box operates on — and because the result is re-encoded through the canvas, the EXIF block (including any GPS coordinates) is stripped from the output, a small privacy win whenever you share the cropped image.

Frequently asked questions

Is my image uploaded to a server?: No. The image is decoded, cropped and re-encoded entirely in your browser with the built-in Canvas API — it never leaves your device and is never sent anywhere. That makes it safe to crop ID photos, passport pictures, signatures, scans and any private image you would not want to upload to a website.
How do I crop an image into a circle?: Turn on the "Circle" toggle. The crop box locks to a square and the result is masked to a circle. Because the corners outside the circle have to be transparent, a circle crop is always saved as PNG — JPEG cannot store transparency, so it would fill the corners with white. Use the PNG download for avatars and profile pictures; the transparent corners then sit cleanly on any background.
What is the difference between cropping and resizing?: Cropping removes the parts of the image outside your selection — it changes the composition and the pixel dimensions by cutting pixels away, but it never stretches what remains. Resizing keeps the whole image and scales every pixel up or down. They are often used together: crop to the right shape (e.g. a square or 7:9 passport ratio) first, then resize to the exact pixel size a form requires. Use the Image Resizer for the resize step and Compress to Size to hit a KB limit.
How do I crop a photo to passport size (35 × 45 mm)?: Click the "Passport 35×45 (India)" preset — it locks the crop box to the correct 7:9 ratio. Position the box so the head is centred with a little space above it, then crop. Millimetres only become pixels once you pick a print resolution (300 DPI ≈ 413 × 531 px for 35 × 45 mm), so after cropping to 7:9, use the Image Resizer to set the exact pixel size the portal asks for.
Does cropping reduce the image quality?: Cropping itself does not degrade the pixels you keep — it simply discards the ones outside the selection. Any quality change comes from the re-encode: choosing JPEG applies compression (use the quality slider), while PNG and WebP-lossless keep the kept pixels exact. For the sharpest result on photos with text or fine lines, output PNG; for the smallest file on a normal photo, JPEG at quality 85–92 is visually identical.
Are EXIF and GPS data removed when I crop?: Yes. Re-encoding the cropped pixels through the canvas produces a clean file with no EXIF block, so the camera model, capture time and GPS location are stripped automatically — a privacy benefit. The image is also auto-rotated to its display orientation first, so the crop matches what you see. Keep your original file if you need to preserve that metadata.