Cropping vs. resizing — and how to crop for social media
Cropping removes part of the picture — like cutting a photo with scissors. Resizing keeps the whole picture but makes it bigger or smaller. Crop to remove unwanted areas or to change the shape of the video; resize to change its resolution.
For social media, choose the aspect ratio first: 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, 1:1 or 4:5 for the Instagram feed, 16:9 for YouTube. Then move the box over the most important part of the scene.
The cropped video is encoded again by your browser’s hardware encoder. Keep “Same as the crop” for the sharpest result, or scale to 1080p / 720p when a platform expects a specific size.
Crop ratios for popular platforms
| Platform | Aspect ratio | Recommended size |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Stories | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 |
| Instagram / Facebook feed | 4:5 or 1:1 | 1080 × 1350 / 1080 × 1080 |
| YouTube, Vimeo | 16:9 | 1920 × 1080 |
| X (Twitter) | 16:9 or 1:1 | 1280 × 720 / 1080 × 1080 |
| 1:1 or 16:9 | 1080 × 1080 | |
| Cinematic look | 21:9 | 2560 × 1080 |
Tips
- Want to keep the whole picture but change the shape? Add a blurred background with the Aspect Ratio Converter.
- Turning horizontal videos into vertical ones? The TikTok / Reels / Shorts Converter has layouts made for that.
- Use the arrow keys to nudge the box pixel by pixel (Shift = 10 px, Alt = resize).
- Video sideways? Fix it first with the Video Orientation Fixer.