“I need to make this image smaller.” That sentence could mean two completely different things, and mixing them up is how you end up with a photo that has your friend’s head cut off or a banner that’s the right size but stretched out of shape.
What cropping does
Cropping cuts away part of the image. You draw a box around the area you want to keep, and everything outside it is thrown away. The pixels you keep stay exactly as they were, so the remaining portion looks just as sharp. The image gets smaller because it contains less picture.
Use cropping when you want to change what’s in the frame: removing empty space, zooming in on a subject, cutting out a stranger in the background, or changing the shape from a rectangle to a square.
What resizing does
Resizing keeps the entire picture but changes how many pixels it’s made of. Shrink it and the same scene is described with fewer pixels. Everything is still there, just smaller. Our beginner guide, how to resize an image without losing quality, goes through what happens to the pixels.
Use resizing when the picture itself is fine but the file is too big or the dimensions don’t match what a website, form or platform needs.
A simple way to remember it
Cropping changes the content. Resizing changes the scale.
When you need both
Often, you do. Say a form wants a 4:5 portrait photo at 400 x 500 pixels, and your photo is a 3:2 landscape at 4000 x 2667. Resizing alone would squash it. The right order is:
- Crop first to the correct shape (4:5), choosing which part of the picture to keep.
- Then resize to the exact pixel dimensions (400 x 500).
Crop first, resize second. If you resize first and crop later, you may end up with fewer pixels than you need in the final result.
What about aspect ratio?
Aspect ratio is the relationship between width and height. When you resize with the aspect ratio locked, the shape never changes. When you need a different shape, that’s a job for cropping. We explain this properly in what is aspect ratio.
What if you want the whole picture in a new shape?
You have two honest options. One is to add blank space around the image to fill the new shape, like putting a wide photo on a square white canvas. The other is to accept that something has to be cropped. Stretching the picture to fit distorts it and almost always looks wrong. For square versions in particular, see how to make a square image from any photo.
Examples
- Passport-style photo: crop to the correct proportions, then resize to the required pixels. See our passport photo guide.
- YouTube thumbnail: usually just a resize, since you design it at the right shape from the start.
- Profile photo from a group picture: crop around the face, then resize.
Our free image resizer handles the resizing part. Crop to the right shape beforehand, then set your final width and height.