Circle Crop Image
100% private — runs on your device, never uploaded. Works offline once loaded.
Crop any image into a perfect circle with a transparent background — ideal for round profile photos and avatars. Everything runs locally in your browser, exported as a PNG.
How a circular crop is built
A true circle crop isn't a visual trick — it's a mask. The tool draws your photo onto a canvas, then clips everything outside a circular path and discards it, leaving a fully transparent area around the round subject. That's why the output has to be a PNG: JPEG has no concept of transparency, so a JPEG "circle crop" would need to be filled with a solid background color instead of true transparency.
Because the circle is inscribed inside your selection, whatever square region you frame becomes the circle's diameter. A tightly cropped face fills the circle edge-to-edge; a looser selection leaves visible padding of the original photo's corners before they get clipped away.
Where round images are actually required
Almost every social and messaging platform — LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Google accounts — displays profile photos inside a circular mask automatically, but they crop that circle from the center of whatever square you upload, which often clips chins or hairlines badly. Pre-cropping the circle yourself means you control exactly what's inside the frame instead of leaving it to an unpredictable auto-crop.
- Team or staff directory pages that need uniform round headshots
- App icons and avatar badges that expect a circular PNG with transparency
- Email signature photos dropped into HTML templates with a round frame
- Video call platforms that show a still round image when the camera is off
- Presentation slides or org charts using circular photo bubbles
Getting a well-centered result
A square source photo, with the subject's eyes roughly in the upper-middle third, gives the most predictable circle: it avoids the top-of-head or shoulder clipping that happens when a rectangular photo gets forced into a round frame. If your original photo is a wide rectangle, crop it to a square first with a straight crop tool, positioning the face where you want it, before running the circular crop.
Why pre-cropping saves time
Many apps display round avatars by applying their own center crop after upload. That sounds convenient until the automatic crop trims hair, foreheads, or logos differently on desktop and mobile. By circle-cropping the image yourself first, you decide exactly what stays inside the visible frame and you can test it against any background color before uploading. It is especially helpful for team directories, speaker pages, member portals, and branded badge graphics where consistency matters more than letting each platform guess the crop for you.
Frequently asked questions
Does it have a transparent background?
Yes — the area outside the circle is transparent, and the result is saved as a PNG.
Are my images uploaded?
No — cropping happens on your device and your files stay private.
Why is the output always a PNG?
Only PNG supports the transparent corners outside the circle; JPEG has no alpha channel, so it can't represent a see-through background.
Will the circle be centered on my selection?
Yes — the circle is inscribed in the square area you crop, so whatever you frame in the middle becomes the visible portion of the circle.
What happens to a rectangular photo?
The longer side gets trimmed to make a square first, then the circle is cut from that square — so tall or wide photos may lose more from the edges than you expect unless you frame carefully.
Can I use the round image on a colored background?
Yes — because the surrounding area is transparent rather than white, the circle will sit cleanly on any background color or image behind it.
Does it work for logos, not just faces?
Yes, any image can be circle-cropped — it's commonly used for badge-style logos and icons as well as profile photos.
Is there a size limit on the source photo?
No fixed limit — very large photos are processed at their original resolution locally in your browser, so extremely large files may just take a moment longer.
Why does my avatar still look cropped differently on some platforms?
Some services place your finished circular PNG inside their own additional padding or mask. Starting from a slightly looser crop usually gives the subject enough breathing room across different app layouts.
Can I make a circle crop from a transparent logo?
Yes. If the source already has transparency, the tool keeps it and only removes the areas outside the circular mask, which is useful for badge-style brand marks and app graphics.
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