image crop and aspect ratio
Cropping an image to a fixed aspect ratio is not about picking an arbitrary rectangle: it is about computing, from the original image's ratio and the target ratio, exactly which axis loses pixels and how many. This tool offers 7 preset ratios (free, 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 3:4 and 9:16) and centers the crop automatically around the middle of the image.
The height stays full and the width is trimmed down until it matches the 1:1 ratio.
A landscape photo loses most of its width when it becomes 9:16, the full-screen format of story apps.
A 90° or 270° rotation swaps width for height in the final reported size.
Cropping removes parts of the image to change framing or ratio, without stretching the content. Resizing changes the dimensions of the whole image. To fit a ratio without distortion, crop; to just make it smaller, resize.
9:16, the full-screen ratio used by Stories, Reels and TikTok; on a landscape photo that usually trims most of the width while keeping the full height.
Because a 90° or 270° rotation turns the file content itself sideways, so what was width becomes height and vice versa; a 1920x1080 crop rotated 90° gets exported as 1080x1920.
Cropping by itself does not recompress anything; quality loss only comes into play if the chosen output format is JPEG or WebP, which use a quality parameter (0.92 by default in this tool). On PNG, a lossless format, that parameter is ignored.
Because the preview uses a downscaled version of the image while you drag the selection, so it does not reprocess a multi-megapixel photo on every movement; the final download always crops and exports at the original file's full resolution.
Cropping happens entirely in your browser. No image is sent to any server.