How do I crop an image in Photoshop?

Press C for the Crop tool, drag the handles around the area you want to keep, then press Enter. Ticking “Delete Cropped Pixels” in the options bar discards the outside area permanently; leaving it unticked keeps those pixels hidden so you can re-crop later. Note that this crops the whole canvas — every layer is cut at the same edge. To crop just one layer, use the marquee method in the next answer.

How do I crop a layer in Photoshop without cropping the whole canvas?

Select the layer in the Layers panel, drag a Rectangular Marquee (M) around the part you want to keep, invert the selection with Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + I, then press Delete or add a layer mask. Only that layer is cut; the canvas size and the other layers are untouched. On this page the same result is one drag plus a download, or one click if you use “Crop to layer”.

What's the difference between cropping an image and cropping a layer?

Cropping an image changes the canvas: the file gets smaller and every layer is cut at the new edge. Cropping a layer changes only that layer's content while the canvas keeps its original dimensions. If you crop an image when you meant to crop a layer, the whole composition is resized; if you crop a layer when you meant to crop the image, the file size stays the same and only one element gets tighter.

Can I crop just one layer in Photoshop?

Yes, but not with the Crop tool — it always acts on the canvas. Use a selection on the target layer and delete or mask the area outside it. If you only need the cropped layer as a file rather than inside a PSD, exporting that layer as a transparent PNG and running it through the cropper here is usually faster: “Crop to layer” finds its exact visible bounds without any manual dragging.

Is this image cropper free, and does it add a watermark?

It is free to crop images here, with no watermark on the output and no account required. Cropping happens locally in your browser, so there is no upload step and no per-file limit to enforce.

Can I crop a PNG image and keep the transparency?

Yes. Crop a PNG and export as PNG and the alpha channel is preserved exactly, including regions that are fully transparent. Exporting as JPG flattens transparency onto white, because JPG has no alpha channel — so choose PNG whenever the crop needs to stay transparent.

Can I crop an image to an exact pixel size?

Yes. Type the width and height you need into the size fields and the crop box becomes exactly that many source pixels, then drag it to position the framing. Combined with the aspect ratio presets, this covers fixed output targets like 1080×1080, 1200×630 or 512×512 without a separate resize step.

Can I crop an image on my phone?

Yes. The cropper works with touch: tap the drop area to pick a photo from your camera roll, drag inside the box to move it, and drag the corner handles to resize. The layout is built mobile-first, so the controls stay reachable on a small screen and the download saves straight to your device.

Crop Image Online — Free Layer-Based Image Cropper

Crop image files right in the browser: drag a selection box, type an exact pixel size, or crop a single transparent layer down to its own edges. Cropping runs on your device, so nothing is uploaded to a server. No install, no watermark, no account.

Crop an image now How to crop an image

Free · No watermark · PNG, JPG, WebP · Works on phones

Cropper

Crop image

Drop an image here to crop it

or tap to browse · PNG, JPG, WebP · stays on your device

Select image

Crop mode

Drag a box

Drag the handles to choose the area you want to keep.

Crop to layer

Trims the crop box to the visible edges of the layer, ignoring transparent or flat padding.

Aspect ratio

Exact size (px)

WidthHeight

Position (px) X 0 · Y 0

Output

PNG (keeps transparency)JPG (smaller file)

or tap to browse · PNG, JPG, WebP · stays on your device

Step by step

How to crop an image online

Five steps, no account needed. The whole flow runs in the browser tab you already have open.

01
Upload the image you want to crop
Drag a PNG, JPG or WebP file onto the cropper above, or tap the drop area to pick a file from your device. The file is read locally by the browser — it is not sent anywhere, which is why it appears instantly even for large photos.
02
Drag a crop box over the area you want to keep
Press anywhere inside the image and drag to move the crop box; drag one of the eight handles to resize it. Everything outside the box is dimmed so you can see the final framing before you commit to it.
03
Lock an aspect ratio, or type an exact size
Pick 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 9:16 and the box keeps that shape while you resize. If you need a specific output — a 1200×630 social card, a 512×512 icon — type the numbers into the width and height fields and the crop box snaps to them.
04
Or crop by layer instead of by box
Switch to “Crop to layer” and the box jumps to the real edges of the layer content, ignoring transparent padding or a flat background. This is the fast way to crop a transparent layer down to the pixels that actually carry the artwork.
05
Download the cropped image
Choose PNG to keep transparency, or JPG for a smaller file, then download. The crop is cut from the original full-resolution pixels, so the result is exactly the region you selected at its native size.

Comparison

Photoshop crop layer vs. cropping in the browser

If Photoshop is already open, its crop tool is hard to beat. The friction is everything around it — a large install, a subscription, a slow launch. For a one-off crop on a machine without Photoshop, or on a phone, a browser tab is the shorter path. Here is the native workflow, and the equivalent here.

How to crop a layer in Photoshop

Photoshop’s Crop tool works on the whole canvas. To crop one layer without touching the others, you use a selection instead:

Open the file and select the target layer in the Layers panel.
Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and drag a selection over the part of the layer you want to keep.
Invert the selection with Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + I so everything outside the box is selected.
Press Delete (or add a layer mask) to clear the area outside the selection on that layer only.
Deselect with Ctrl/Cmd + D. The canvas is unchanged; only that one layer has been cropped.

Using the Crop tool instead — with “Delete Cropped Pixels” ticked — crops the canvas and every layer with it, which is usually not what people mean when they search for a way to crop a layer.

The same crop on this page

Drop the image or the exported layer into the cropper above.
Drag the crop box, or hit “Crop to layer” to snap it to the layer’s own edges.
Download the result as a PNG with its transparency intact.

Crop an image now

	Photoshop	image-layer.com
Install required	Yes, desktop app	No, runs in the browser
Cost	Paid subscription	Free, no watermark
Time to first crop	App launch + file open	Drop the file and drag
Crop one layer only	Marquee + invert + delete	One button (“Crop to layer”)
Works on a phone	Separate mobile app	Same page, touch handles
Deep retouching, filters, text	Yes — this is what it is for	No, cropping and layers only

If you already own Photoshop and the file is already open, use it. If you do not want to install anything for a single crop, this page does that part and nothing else.

How it works

What “crop image in layer” actually means

Most online croppers treat an image as one flat rectangle: drag a box, discard everything outside it, shrink the canvas to match. That is fine for a photo, but it is not what people mean when they search for “photoshop crop image in layer” — they have a stack of layers and want to change one of them without resizing everything else.

A layer is its own rectangle of pixels with its own alpha channel. Cropping a layer changes where that layer’s content ends while leaving the canvas, and every other layer, untouched. Confuse the two and either the whole composition gets cut at the new edge, or nothing resizes when you expected it to.

The other half of the problem is finding the right edges. An exported transparent layer usually carries a lot of empty alpha around the artwork — a 2000×2000 PNG whose visible content sits in a 600×480 patch in one corner. Dragging a box around that by eye is slow and never quite exact. “Crop to layer” reads the alpha channel, finds the bounding box of everything that is not transparent, and snaps the crop to it, to the pixel. If the layer is fully opaque with a flat background, it falls back to the background colour and trims that instead.

Cropping the image

Changes the canvas. Every layer is cut at the new edge, and the exported file gets smaller. Use it when you are reframing a photo or hitting a required output size.

Canvas resizes
All layers affected
What a normal cropper does

Cropping a layer

Changes one layer’s content. The canvas keeps its dimensions and the other layers keep their pixels. Use it to tighten a cut-out, trim a badge, or crop a specific layer to a selection.

Canvas unchanged
One layer affected
What “crop to layer” does here

Need the layers first? The AI layer editor splits a flat photo into transparent RGBA layers you can then crop individually.

Open the layer editor

Details

Crop image without losing quality, at an exact size

The crop is taken from the decoded source at full resolution, not from the preview on screen. Drag a 900×900 box on a 4000×4000 photo and you get 900×900 original pixels — nothing is scaled up or resampled on the way out. Export as PNG for a lossless result; pick JPG only when you want the smaller file.

For fixed output sizes the width and height fields are authoritative: type 1200 × 630 and the crop box becomes exactly that many source pixels, then drag it into position. That is the difference between “roughly a banner” and a file that drops into a template without a second resize step.

Crop a PNG image and the transparency survives, including a fully transparent crop region. Crop a JPG and you get a JPG-quality crop of a JPG source — cropping cannot recover detail the original never stored. WebP inputs work too, exporting as PNG or JPG.

Small screens get the same tool: touch-sized handles, single-finger dragging, and a layout that stacks instead of scrolling sideways. Cropping an image on a phone gives the same output as on a desktop.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about cropping images

Crop an image now — free, no signup

Drop a file in, drag a box or crop to the layer, download the result. Nothing to install and nothing to register for.

Start cropping Or split an image into layers first