Free tool
Make Image Square: Add a Background or Crop to Fill
Product photos, profile pictures and grid posts often need a perfect square, and the original is almost never one. This page gives you two honest ways to get there, adding space around the picture or cutting the long sides, and does a whole batch in one go.
Settings
A changed setting does every picture again. Settings are kept in this browser for next time.
Pictures are squared by your own browser and never leave your computer. Your last choices are kept on this device until you press Reset settings.
Two ways to reach a square
A wide picture does not fit a square without losing something. Either you keep every pixel of the picture and add bands above and below, or you keep the square filled and lose the long ends. The Shape setting is exactly that choice.
| Shape | What you keep | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| Fit the whole picture, add a background | All of the picture | Some of the square is background |
| Fill the square, cut the long sides | A full square of picture, cut from the centre | The edges of the long side |
With Fit you also get a Space around the picture slider, which keeps a margin of up to 30 percent on each side. With Fill the margin is not used, since the picture already covers everything.
Picking a background that looks intended
The bands are where a squared picture can look cheap or look designed, so the tool gives you six choices.
- Blurred copy of the picture. An enlarged, softened version of the picture itself sits behind the sharp one and is darkened slightly. It suits photos.
- Mirrored edges. The picture is reflected on each side so its edges carry on into the bands. It works well for textures and landscapes, and badly when the edge holds text.
- White or Black. Clean and neutral, and right for product shots on a plain shop page.
- A colour you pick. Use a brand colour so a set of pictures looks like one family.
- See-through (PNG). Leaves the bands empty. Save as PNG, or the empty area will turn into a flat colour in a JPG.
Setting the size and the file
Size in pixels is the side length of the finished square. The quick buttons offer 1080, 1200, 2048 and 500. Leave the box empty and the square is as big as the picture allows: with Fit it follows the longest side of the original, and with Fill it follows the shortest side, so you never cut more than you need.
If you ask for a size bigger than the picture can support, the tool says it enlarged the picture and by how many times, as a warning that it may look soft. Treat that note seriously, since enlarging cannot bring back detail that was never in the file.
Save as lets you keep the same type or switch to JPG, PNG or WebP, and Quality sets how hard JPG and WebP are compressed. A batch can be taken as one ZIP.
When a store or a grid needs one shape
Product grids look tidy only when every thumbnail has the same shape. If your photographer delivered a mix of tall and wide pictures, squaring them with the same background colour gives you a consistent set without re-shooting anything. This is part of the image preparation we plan into an online shop, described on our ecommerce development page, where the theme or template decides which shape each picture slot expects.
Slips to avoid
- Squashing a picture to fit. This tool never stretches, so heads and logos keep their proportions.
- Using Fill on a picture with a face near an edge. The centre is kept, so check the preview before you download.
- Choosing a see-through background and saving as JPG. Pick PNG.
- Picking a huge size for a small file. The warning note is your cue to go smaller.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a rectangular photo square without cropping?
Choose Fit the whole picture, add a background. The whole picture stays and the empty space above and below, or at the sides, is filled with the background you pick.
What size should a square image be?
That depends on where it will be used, so check the size the place asks for. The tool lets you type any pixel size and has quick buttons for 500, 1080, 1200 and 2048.
Does it stretch my picture?
No. The picture is scaled evenly, so shapes keep their proportions. Only the canvas around it changes.
Can the background match the picture?
Yes. The blurred copy and the mirrored edges both use the picture itself, and you can also type a colour of your own.
Can I do many pictures together?
Yes. Add them all, set the options once, and download everything as a ZIP file.
Do my pictures leave my computer?
No. Everything is done in your browser.
More free tools
- Image cropper: Crop pictures to a free box, a ratio, a social size or a circle, with rotate and straighten.
- image resizer: Resize pictures by pixels or percent with fit, crop or stretch, presets and file type choices.
- Add border to image: Frame pictures with a colour, gradient or blurred border and fit them to a post shape.
- Combine images: Join pictures side by side, stacked or in a grid, with labels, gaps and a background.
- image compressor: Compress pictures to a quality level or a target size in KB, with a before and after view.