Resize, crop or compress: choose the right image change

This editorial guide is currently available in English. Calculator and tool interfaces support the site’s available languages.

Resizing, cropping and compressing solve different problems. Resizing changes the pixel dimensions. Cropping removes part of the composition. Compression changes how the image is encoded and can trade visual detail for a different file size. Choose the operation that matches the requirement before adjusting settings.

Resize for a pixel requirement

Use Resize Image when a form or layout asks for a particular width or height. A 2400 × 1600 image has a 3:2 aspect ratio. Reducing its width to 1200 while preserving that ratio produces a height of 800. Its pixel count falls from 3,840,000 to 960,000: one quarter as many pixels, even though each side is halved.

New height = original height × new width ÷ original width.

Lock the aspect ratio to preserve proportions. Unlocking it allows exact dimensions but can stretch people and objects. Enlarging a small image adds pixels through interpolation; it does not recover details absent from the original. Always inspect the exported result at the size you intend to use.

Crop for composition or shape

Use Crop Image to keep a selected rectangle. Pixel coordinates start at the top-left corner. In a 1600 × 1200 image, a crop beginning at left 200 and top 100 with width 1000 and height 800 keeps that rectangle. The right edge is 1200 and the bottom edge is 900, so it fits inside the source.

A square preset changes which area remains; it does not squeeze the whole picture into a square. Check faces, captions and important edges in the preview. You can resize the cropped result afterward if a service needs a specific pixel size.

Compress for a file-size requirement

Use Compress Image to export JPEG or WebP at a selected quality. Compare the actual output bytes with the original. If 800 KB becomes 240 KB, the reduction is (800 − 240) ÷ 800 × 100 = 70%. Re-encoding does not guarantee a smaller file, especially for an already optimized image.

For a strict upload limit, reduce dimensions as well as quality and check the downloaded file. Keep the original separately. The browser tools accept PNG, JPEG and WebP within the displayed size limits; they are not a universal converter for every camera or document format.