Square pictures turn up everywhere: profile photos, shop listings, album covers and feed posts. Most photos are not square, so something has to go. This page lets you crop a picture to a square in a couple of clicks, because the box is already locked to 1:1 and stays square however you move or resize it.
You choose which part of the picture to keep, and the rest is cut away. It runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and it is free with no watermark. Read on for how to frame a square well, when to add space instead of cutting, and how to square a whole set of photos at once.
How to crop a picture to a square
- Press Select images, or drop one or more pictures onto the page.
- A square box appears in the middle, as large as 80 % of the shorter side allows. The Shape is already set to 1:1.
- Drag inside the square to move it over the part you want. Drag a corner to make it bigger or smaller; it stays square.
- Check To in the panel. It shows the size of your square in pixels.
- Press Crop, then save the picture. Its name ends in _cropped, so the original is left alone.
The square can be as large as the picture's shorter side. On a photo 4000 pixels wide and 3000 tall, the biggest square is 3000 by 3000, and you decide which part of the width to give up. For a tighter crop, drag a corner inwards; the label on the box and the To line show the size as you go.
You can also type a Width in the panel, and with 1:1 locked the Height follows. The square cannot pass the edge of the picture, so if it stops short, move it towards the top left first. The other shapes, such as 4:5, 16:9 and Free, are still there under Shape if you change your mind.
Framing a square crop that looks right
A square has no long side to lead the eye, so where the subject sits matters more. A few habits help a square crop look deliberate rather than cramped.
- Faces and products: leave a little room above the head or around the object, so it does not touch the edges.
- Off-centre subjects: the thin lines inside the box split it into thirds. An eye or a horizon on one of those lines often looks more natural than dead centre.
- Wide group photos: a square loses a lot of the width. If the people at the sides matter, add space instead of cutting (see below).
- Text in the picture: zoom in with the + key to check that no letters are cut at the edge.
The shape of the photo decides which way the square can move. On a tall photo, the square spans the full width at most, so you choose between the top, the middle and the bottom: keep the face, drop the feet. On a wide photo you slide it left or right instead, choosing which side of the scene to keep.
Centre it puts the square back in the middle without changing its size. Reset puts a fresh box in the middle, but it also sets the Shape to Free, so pick 1:1 again afterwards if you still want a square.
A crop changes the shape and nothing else. If a face or a product looks out of the square, flip the photo so it looks into it instead. Other looks have tools of their own, used before or after the crop: a black and white photo helps a set of squares match, you can invert the photo into a negative, or make an upside down image that mirrors top to bottom like a reflection in still water.
Square crop or square with space: which do you need?
Cropping is one of two ways to get a square, and it always cuts something off. The other way keeps the whole picture and fills the rest of the square with a plain colour.
| Crop image to square | Make image square | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | The edges are cut away | Space is added around the picture |
| Keeps the whole picture | No | Yes |
| Best for | Faces, products, anything with a clear subject | Logos, wide scenes, artwork you must not cut |
| Size of the result | The square you draw | The picture's longer side, as a square |
For the second way, open make image square, which adds white or any colour you like around the picture. Want a round picture for an avatar instead? Crop image to circle works the same way with a circle. For a square tile with soft corners, crop it here, then use Round image corners.
Square many photos, and reach an exact size
Need to crop a photo to a square for every item in a shop? Select up to 100 pictures and square them in one run. The square you draw on the first picture is placed on each of the others at the same relative position and size, and each one stays square, which works best when the photos were taken the same way. The button reads Crop 12 pictures, or however many you added, and Save all as ZIP saves the results together.
A square crop keeps the picture's own pixels, so a large photo gives a large square. If a site asks for a set size, such as 1080 by 1080 or 500 by 500, open Resize image after cropping and type the width. With Keep the proportions on, the height follows and the square stays square. To cut one square into nine tiles for a profile grid, the Instagram grid maker does that next.
- Save as Original keeps the format: a JPG stays JPG, a PNG stays PNG, and an iPhone HEIC photo becomes JPG.
- PNG keeps every pixel of the square exactly; JPG and WebP are saved again at high quality.
- The saved square carries no location, camera or date details, and a sideways phone photo comes out the right way up.
- A logo on a transparent background stays transparent when saved as PNG or WebP. Saved as JPG, the transparent parts turn white.
Private square cropping in your browser
The picture is opened and cropped inside this browser tab, so you can crop a picture to a square without it ever being uploaded. Our server does no picture work, so there is nothing to delete afterwards. There is no account, no watermark and no cost, and image tools do not count toward the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large pictures may be too big for your browser; if one will not open, make it smaller first.
Crop to a square now
To crop an image to a square, drag the 1:1 box over the part you want, set its size with a corner, and press Crop. When nothing may be cut off, add space with Make image square instead.
It is free and private, with nothing uploaded. Select your pictures above to begin.
