Crop an image to 16:9 (widescreen)

Why 16:9 is the widescreen default

16:9 means sixteen units wide for every nine tall, the shape standardized across HD and 4K video, YouTube players, and almost all laptop and TV screens. An image cropped to it drops into a video timeline, a slide, or a desktop background edge to edge.

Get the ratio right by cropping rather than stretching. Squeezing a 4:3 photo into a 16:9 box distorts everyone in it; cropping keeps proportions true and simply trims the top and bottom to the widescreen shape.

Common 16:9 jobs and their sizes

A YouTube thumbnail is 16:9 at 1280x720, a 1080p video frame is 1920x1080, and a widescreen slide is the same shape. For a thumbnail specifically, the crop a YouTube thumbnail page covers the text-safe area and click-through tips on top of the ratio.

Whatever the use, crop to 16:9 here first, then resize to the exact pixels the destination wants. Because you cropped to the matching shape, the resize fills it cleanly with nothing letterboxed.

Keep the subject in the wide frame

Widescreen is unforgiving of tall subjects. A standing person or a portrait orientation photo loses a lot of head and feet at 16:9, so drag the box to keep the important part inside the wide strip, or choose a different ratio if the subject is fundamentally vertical.

The crop runs locally in your browser, so nothing is uploaded. Frame it, download, and drop it straight into your video or deck.