Circular image crop to a transparent PNG
This circular image crop turns a photo into a round picture: slide the circle into place, zoom in, pick the output size and download a square PNG whose corners are transparent. The crop runs in your browser. Use it for a profile picture, an avatar or a round logo.
How to crop a picture into a circle
Select Choose image and pick an image file from your device. Once it opens, the preview shows a circle centered on the picture at 1× zoom, and Output size (px) is set to the shorter image edge. At those settings the circle is exactly as wide as the output, so the picture is neither enlarged nor shrunk.
Move Horizontal position and Vertical position to choose where the circle sits, and raise Zoom (×) to crop a smaller area. The preview updates after each change. Create PNG builds the file at the output size, and Download PNG saves it. Reset crop returns to the centered, largest circle.
- Select Choose image and pick a photo.
- Set Horizontal position, Vertical position and Zoom (×).
- Type the Output size (px) you need, in whole pixels.
- Select Create PNG, then Download PNG.
Position, zoom and output size
At 1× zoom the circle spans the shorter edge of the image. On a 4000 × 3000 photo it is 3000 source pixels across, so Horizontal position moves it from the left edge at 0% to the right edge at 100%, while Vertical position has no room to move it.
Zoom divides that diameter. At 2× on the same photo the circle covers 1500 source pixels, and both sliders can move it. Zoom (×) accepts values from 1 up to the shorter edge in pixels. The line under the controls shows the circle diameter in source pixels and the output size, and it warns when the output is wider than the diameter, because upscaling enlarges pixels without adding detail.
Output size (px) takes any positive whole number, and the tool sets no maximum. A very large size can fail when it exceeds what your browser's canvas or memory allows.
What the PNG contains
The download is a square PNG as wide and tall as Output size (px). Inside the circle you get the cropped picture. Outside it every pixel is fully transparent, and the boundary is antialiased, so the edge looks smooth rather than stepped. Pixels that were already partly transparent inside the circle keep that transparency.
The file is named after the original with -circle- and the output size added, for example photo-circle-3000.png. It holds one still frame: the browser applies the photo's orientation when it opens the file, an animated image gives one frame, and EXIF and other metadata are not copied. Colors are exported in sRGB, so wide-gamut or HDR colors can shift.
The checkerboard behind the preview only marks transparency and is not part of the file. After Create PNG, the page lists the pixel size and file size, and it says so when the PNG is not smaller than the original file.
Limits
This tool makes circles only. It has no ellipse, star, heart or freehand shape, and it draws no border around the circle. The circle always sits inside the image, so the corners of any picture, and the ends of a wide or tall one, fall outside the crop.
The corners stay transparent, because the tool fills nothing in. To put a solid color behind the circle, run the downloaded PNG through Image Transparent to Solid afterward.
You crop one image at a time, and choosing a new file replaces the current one. The page has no drag-and-drop area and no batch mode, and Choose image opens a single file. While the tool works, the Clear image button reads Cancel & clear and stops the work. An empty, damaged or unsupported file shows an error, and you can then choose another.
Questions
Can you crop a circular image?
Yes. The tool keeps the part of your image inside a circle and makes everything outside it transparent. The download is a square PNG with transparent corners and a smooth edge, so it looks round wherever PNG transparency is shown. You choose the circle's position, the zoom and the output size before you create it.
How do I make an image fit into a circle?
At 1× zoom the circle is as wide as the shorter image edge, which is the largest circle the image allows. The tool cannot shrink the picture inside the circle, so the corners always fall outside. To keep more of a wide or tall picture, pad it first with Image Aspect Pad, then crop the padded image here.
Can I crop a photo into a circle online without installing anything?
Yes. Open this page in your browser, select Choose image, then create and download the PNG, with nothing to install. The browser needs Web Workers, OffscreenCanvas and createImageBitmap. Without them the page says this browser cannot run the tool and keeps the file chooser disabled, so nothing half works.
How do I crop a picture to a specific shape?
This page crops circles only, with no ellipse, star, heart or freehand outline. For a rectangle or a square, Crop image keeps the part you select and saves a PNG. For a rectangle with rounded corners, Image Round Corners rounds each corner by the radius you set and saves a transparent PNG.
Why does my PNG look square or have a background?
Image files are rectangles, so the PNG is a square with the circle inside it. Its corners are transparent, not filled with a color. An image viewer can draw those transparent corners on white, black or a checkerboard, which makes the file look square even though nothing is stored in those corner pixels.
Why doesn't a position slider move the image?
A slider moves the circle across the space left around it. At 1× zoom the circle fills the shorter edge, so the slider for that direction has no room to travel. Raise Zoom (×) to make room in both directions. You can also focus a slider and press the arrow keys for small steps.
Which images can I use?
The tool opens images with your browser's own decoder, which handles JPEG, PNG and WebP. Other formats, such as AVIF or HEIC, work only where your browser can decode them. A damaged or unsupported file shows an error. A very large image can exceed your browser's memory, and Cancel & clear stops the work.
Does my image leave this device?
No. Opening, previewing and building the PNG all happen in your browser on this device. The tool does not upload, log or store the image. Clear image, Cancel & clear while the tool works, and leaving the page each release the image and the finished PNG from the page.