To make a wide photo square, should I use the cropper or the resizer's Fill and crop or Fit inside?
Use the cropper when the product is not in the middle of the photo: it is the only one that lets you choose which square to keep. The resizer's 'Fill and crop' always takes the centered square, and 'Fit inside' keeps the whole picture and adds bars above and below. Each has its place.
The three methods on one photo
Take a product photo measuring 4000 × 3000 with the product on the left side, and a target of a 1000 × 1000 square.
- 'Fill and crop' in the Image resizer: it takes a 3000 × 3000 square from the middle of the original, starting at X = 500, and shrinks it to 1000 × 1000. Anything in the first 500 pixels on the left is removed.
- 'Fit inside': the whole photo shrinks to 1000 × 750 and sits in the middle of the square, with two 125 pixel bars above and below filled with the background color. Nothing is removed, but the product is smaller.
- The Image cropper at 1:1: the box also starts as the centered 3000 × 3000 square at X = 500, but you drag it to X = 0 so the whole product is inside, then shrink it to 1000 × 1000 in the resizer.
All three give you a 1000 × 1000 square, but with very different content. The question that settles your choice: where is the product in the photo, and may anything be trimmed from its edges?
The cropper: when the product is off center
If the product sits to one side, or there is a large empty area on one side, cropping is the only method that keeps the whole product and fills the square with it. You can also shrink the box around the product so it looks bigger, which neither of the other options can do. The downside is two steps: crop, then resize.
Fill and crop: when the product is centered
If you shot the product in the middle of the frame, the centered square is what you want anyway, and 'Fill and crop' gives you the final size in one step. It suits a batch of photos shot the same way, as long as you check in each one that the trimmed edges hold no part of the product.
Fit inside: when nothing may be cut
Some photos cannot lose their edges: a long product spanning the full width, an image with offer text on both sides, or a finished design. Here fitting keeps everything and adds a background. Pick a background color close to the photo's own so the bars do not stand out.
Steps with the cropper
- Open the photo in the cropper and choose 1:1.
- Drag the square around the product, or type X = 0 if the product is at the left edge.
- Download the result, which is 3000 × 3000 in our example.
- Open it in the resizer and type 1000 × 1000. Since it is already square, the fit mode does not matter.
Common questions
Why not choose 'Stretch'?
It squeezes a wide photo into a square, making the product look narrower than it is. Stretch only suits cases where the ratios nearly match.
Can I crop and shrink in the cropper alone?
No. The cropper does not change the pixel count; shrinking happens in the resizer.
Which method keeps the most quality?
All three end up shrinking the photo. The difference is what gets removed or added, not sharpness.