Resizing & Cropping Guides

Paint resizes one picture by pixels or percentage, PowerToys resizes a whole selection from File Explorer, and the Photos app is mid-redesign. Here is which to use.

Print sizes are in inches, but image files are in pixels. Here is the conversion for common print sizes, why the shape matters more than the size, and how to set the inches when you print.

The Preview app on iPhone has an Adjust Size option most people never find. Here is how to use it, how to cut the file size too, and when Safari is quicker.

Add up to 50 images, type one width, download one zip. What happens to mixed shapes and small images, and how to match heights instead.

Make it smaller, do it once, and compress last. The four ways a resize quietly costs you quality, and how to avoid each.

Preview resizes the file in place and Photos resizes a copy on export. Here is which to use, how to batch it, and when a browser tool is simpler.

Preview and Photos both crop in a few clicks, but they treat your original differently. Here is which one to use, and when a browser tool is quicker.

The Photos app turns a picture in a few taps. The harder case is a photo that looks fine on the phone and arrives sideways somewhere else.

LinkedIn's profile banner is an extreme 4:1 strip and the profile photo shows in a circle. Here are the pixels for each slot, and why a plain resize stretches a banner.

Facebook has four different image slots and four different sizes. Here's the pixels for each, and why a plain resize squashes a cover photo.

1080x1080 is square and your photo probably isn't. Lock the aspect ratio and you get 1080x810; unlock it and the picture stretches. Here's the route that works.

Instagram will crop your photo whether you choose the crop or not. Better to choose it yourself.

Your thumbnail is the advert for your video, and it'll be seen tiny. Design for that and it works.

Square is the default shape of profile pictures and product grids. Cropping to it properly takes ten seconds.

Round avatars and logos need a transparent background to actually look round. Here's how to get one that survives.

Sideways phone photos and backwards selfies both have simple fixes, and one genuinely interesting cause.

Sometimes 'half the size' is a far more useful instruction than working out what half of 4032 pixels is.

The most powerful edit available, and the one people do most carelessly. A few rules make the difference.

The most useful image operation there is — and the one with the most misconceptions attached to it.