How Cropping Works

Cropping on kinja-img.com uses the c_fill parameter. Upload your image, then add dimensions to the URL — the server crops to those exact dimensions on the fly.

  1. Upload at kinja-img.com/crop-image
  2. Get your image URL
  3. Add w_, h_, and c_fill parameters
# Crop to exactly 800x600
/img/w_800,h_600,c_fill/photo.jpg

If the aspect ratio of your target doesn't match the original, edges are removed. Use gravity to control which part stays.

Social Media Presets

Common crop dimensions built into the tool:

  • Square 1:1 — 1080×1080 (Instagram posts)
  • Landscape 16:9 — 1920×1080 (YouTube thumbnails, desktop wallpapers)
  • Portrait 9:16 — 1080×1920 (Instagram Stories, TikTok)
  • Facebook Cover — 820×312
  • Twitter Header — 1500×500
  • Classic 4:3 — 1200×900 (presentations, blog images)

Select a preset on the crop page and the tool generates the correct URL parameters automatically.

Smart Gravity Positioning

When you crop a landscape photo to a portrait ratio, something has to go. Gravity tells the server which part of the image to keep:

  • g_center (default) — keeps the center of the image
  • g_north — focuses on the top (sky, heads in group photos)
  • g_south — focuses on the bottom (foreground, product shots)
  • g_east — keeps the right side
  • g_west — keeps the left side
# Keep the top of a landscape photo when cropping to square
/img/w_1080,h_1080,c_fill,g_north/photo.jpg

Crop vs Fit: Which to Use

Two parameters that look similar but do very different things:

  • c_fill (crop) — guarantees exact output dimensions. May cut off parts of the image that don't fit.
  • c_fit (resize) — guarantees nothing is cut. Output may be smaller than specified dimensions on one axis.

Use c_fill when you need pixel-perfect dimensions (social media, grid layouts). Use c_fit when you need the full image visible (blog posts, galleries).

Practical Examples

# Instagram square, focus on center
/img/w_1080,h_1080,c_fill/photo.jpg

# YouTube thumbnail, focus on top
/img/w_1280,h_720,c_fill,g_north/photo.jpg

# Twitter header
/img/w_1500,h_500,c_fill/photo.jpg

# Facebook cover
/img/w_820,h_312,c_fill,g_center/photo.jpg

Supports JPG, PNG, GIF, and WebP. Drag & drop or paste from clipboard to upload.

Open Crop Tool →