How to Crop a Picture into a Circle on iPhone

In most cases, you might need to crop photos into a circle to get a beautiful profile picture, create stickers for printing or maybe you want to use some rounded images in the design of your website. Circular images can also come in handy when designing invitations, business cards or attention-grabbing advertisements.

If you mainly use your iPhone for taking photos and editing them, you might have wondered at least once whether you can crop images into a circle on your smartphone. And the answer to this is yes. But you cannot do that with a built-in app. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s Photos app can crop images only into rectangles and squares.

It’s worth mentioning that you can crop a photo into a circle in the Mac’s Preview app. But it’s not exactly convenient since the Preview app doesn’t offer an extensive editing toolkit and you’ll need to transfer your photos from your smartphone to your computer.

So, what can you do?

Well, there are two solutions to this problem. First, you can go to the App Store and search for a third-party app for circle cropping that will suit your needs and wants, then download and install it. Below, you will find a list of great mobile apps, which will surely make your choice easier.

Second, you can make use of a web-based app for cropping. It’s an app that works in a browser – and your iPhone surely has one – and can be used on any device or operating system. You will find a list of the best browser-based apps for cropping in this article, too. Both lists contain advantages and disadvantages that the apps have.

Let’s take a closer look at all the options you have to crop a picture into a circle right on your iPhone.

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Top 3 Free Mobile Apps to Crop a Picture into a Circle on iPhone

1. Round Photo

Rating in the App Store – 4.8.

Number of reviews – 2400.

This is an uncomplicated and straightforward app for cropping a photo into a circle on iPhone. You will see the editing window as soon as you open the app. Here, you will find the following:

  • the Dimeter bar where you can enter the necessary number of pixels. By default it’s set to 1000 px;
  • the empty cropping area. By default, it will have a thick blue border;
  • the choice between saving your image in PNG or JPG.
how to crop a picture into a circle on iPhone

Each of these options can be adjusted to your liking. You can change the size of your round picture by typing in the necessary number of pixels, centimeters, millimeters, or inches. The border doesn’t have to be blue or thick – you can change its color as well as thickness. It’s also possible to get rid of the border completely, if you don’t like it. After you upload your photo into the app, you can make the image itself bigger or smaller, which will help you with positioning your main subject right in the center of the circle.

Since you want your photo to be round, you will need to crop it in PNG. This is due to the fact that some parts of your image will need to be transparent to create the illusion of a circle. If you crop in JPG, your round photo will have white borders around it. It might work if you want to post it on a website that has a white background – then those white borders will blend in with the background. But chances are, this isn’t really the result that you want.

Once the app is done, your cropped image will appear in the Recents album on your iPhone.

Main benefits of the Round Photo’s app:

  • Free access;
  • There’s a set of image editing tools. You can use filters and effects, change contrast, brightness and make some other adjustments to the image. It’s possible to blur the background, add text to a photo or decorate your image with some emojis.

Main drawbacks of the Round Photo’s app:

  • The ads are quite annoying since you see them not just when you are exporting your image, but when you are editing it, too.
  • This app doesn’t support batch processing. You can crop only one image into a circle at a time.

2. Circular Photo Cropping Tool

Rating in the App Store – 3.7.

Number of reviews – 159.

This app was designed solely for cropping a photo in a circle on iPhone. It should be pretty straightforward. However, even though there’s a tutorial that you can watch at the beginning, it will still take you some time to figure out how this app works. Oddly enough, here, you will need to double-tap to import your image into the app, go to the preview section and save the result.

how to crop into a circle on iPhone

To change the shape of the cropping area from a square to a circle, you will need to move the green slider at the bottom as far to the right as possible.

If you want to adjust the thickness of the border, click on the «+» icon in the bottom right corner to go to the General Settings. Here you can also set the distance from the edges, pick a different color for the border or the background; you can even have a patterned background!

The main drawback of this circle cropper is that you don’t see the changes you’re making immediately in the editing window. You can only see them, if you go to the Preview section. Moreover, in the free version, a watermark will be added to your cropped photo.

Another drawback is that the interface is not user-friendly – you need to press several buttons to perform a simple action. For example, there is no button to export the cropped image to your iPhone’s gallery. To do this, you’ll need to double-tap and choose “Share the cropped photo” from the menu that will open, and then select “Save Image”.

Main benefits of the Circular Photo Cropping Tool:

  • This app isn’t just for cropping. It offers some other tools and features for image editing. For instance, you can apply a filter to your photo. Thus, you’ll be able to do all the editing in one place and won’t have to switch between several different apps.
  • You can save the processed image to your camera roll or share it directly to your social media – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Main drawbacks of the Circular Photo Cropping Tool:

  • You won’t be able to use it for free. There is a free version, but the app adds a watermark to your cropped photo. Even in the preview section, this watermark will be perfectly visible on your image.
  • Ads will be shown to you at every stage of the entire process.
  • This app makes such a simple task as cropping unnecessarily complicated due to its interface being inconvenient and unhandy.

3. Photo Crop Editor

Photo Crop Editor is a great app to crop photos into a circle on iPhone. In fact, it offers an array of options for cropping. You can select the “Free form” option to crop your image however you want. It’s also possible to select one of the templates with popular aspect ratios or pick one of the different shapes, such as a circle, a heart, a triangle, etc.

how to crop in a circle on iPhone

Here’s how you can crop an image into a circle in Photo Crop Editor:

  1. Select and import your image from your phone’s gallery.
  2. Pick the Circle shape in the app.
  3. Resize the cropping area to your liking, adjust the size and placement of the photo itself. Tilt your image, if it needs to be straightened.
  4. Make some editing tweaks if necessary.
  5. Export your cropped image.

Quite quick and simple, isn’t it?

Main benefits of the Photo Crop Editor:

  • It is free and doesn’t have any ads. Nothing will distract you from cropping your images.
  • It is very easy to use, even if you are a beginner.
  • The app works quickly, so you will get your processed images in little to no time.

Main drawbacks of the Photo Crop Editor:

  • You can’t process multiple images in one go.
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How to Crop a Picture into a Circle on iPhone Using Online Tools

Most online tools to crop photos into a circle on iPhone can be just as efficient and user-friendly as the mobile apps. One of the best things about web-based apps is that they can be used on different devices and operating systems. It can be incredibly convenient, and this is why some developers opt for creating apps that work in a browser. It is often a priority for them to create an app that has great usability and produces results of high quality regardless of the device that people use it on.

Browser-based apps need the Internet connection; otherwise the website simply won’t load. But most mobile apps tend to require at least some connection to the internet anyway. Another difference is that your cropped images will be saved to Downloads, not to Photos. Other than that you won’t see much difference between using a mobile app or a browser-based app.

1. iPhonecrop.com

Using iphonecrop.com to crop an image into a circle is incredibly simple. You upload a picture, adjust the cropping area and save the result. Before downloading your cropped picture to your iPhone, you’ll be able to preview it right in the app. Everything works quickly and easily. What’s also great about this app is that the interface isn’t flooded with ads. You won’t need to register or subscribe to anything. This is an amazing option for those who only need to crop one photo into circle on an iPhone and want to do it within a few seconds.

how to crop in circle on iPhone

What are the disadvantages of this app you may ask? Well, you can crop only one photo at a time. It won’t be a good fit for you if you need to process a batch of images in one go or if you want to experiment with different cropping shapes. It doesn’t have any other tools for basic image editing, either. Thus, you won’t be able to apply any filters or edit the image itself in any other way. You can use this app only to crop a picture into a circle on iPhone.

2. crop-circle.imageonline.co

This is another free online tool for circle cropping on iPhone. It’s a good web-based app, but it does pose a certain challenge. To create the cropping area, you will need to drag the green borders with your finger. It sounds simple, but sometimes it might take you a try or two to do this. You can resize the image itself to position your subject in the center. Similarly to the previous app, it’s also possible to preview your cropped image before exporting it.

how to crop in circle on iPhone

This app allows you to crop a picture into circle on iPhone without paying anything or signing up. It is worth mentioning, though, that the interface will contain some ads, which will make the editing process somewhat inconvenient. In addition to this, there’s no batch processing. You will only be able to crop a single photo into a circle. You won’t find any additional tools for some basic image editing, either.

3. Watermarkly

Here’s another browser-based app that you should definitely give a try – Watermarkly. Unlike the previous two options, on this website, you can do more than just cropping photos, you can also compress images, resize photos, blur different parts of a picture, watermark photos, and much more. Fret not! This app may have an array of tools and features to offer, but it’s not confusingly complex and complicated like, say, Photoshop. All the online tools have an intuitive interface and are user-friendly, so even a complete beginner will be able to use any of them.

To crop a picture into circle on iPhone, go to Tools > Crop Photos. Then scroll down a bit and click on the “Crop Photo Online” red button. This will open the image cropper.

Next, import one or several images. Once your images are in the app, select the circle shape at the bottom. Adjust the size of your cropping area by dragging the green borders with your finger. If you need to tilt the image itself, click on the round arrow and adjust the slider. Go to the export settings by tapping the “Next Step” button. Specify the settings and export your image.

how to crop picture in a circle on iPhone

The app is completely free. You won’t see any ads. You won’t have to create an account. No watermarks will be added to your cropped images. If you also need to crop images to prepare them for posting on popular social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, Watermarkly offers a set of ready-made templates – your cropped images will have the necessary aspect ratios and pixel dimensions. Isn’t that convenient?

Let’s see what else you can do for free in Watermarkly:

  1. Process a batch of images. It means that you can upload several different images and crop them into a circle, square or rectangle in one go.
  2. Use the duplicate feature. In the image cropper, you can make a copy of your image at the editing stage and crop it in a different way. For instance, you can crop a single image into a circle and a square and see which version you like the best.
  3. Change the pixel dimensions of your image. It’s also possible to make your image smaller or bigger by a certain number of percent.
  4. Keep the metadata of your file.
  5. Blur faces and blur license plates if needed.
  6. Rename your processed files.

The main drawback of Watermarkly is that you can crop up to 10 images per day in the free version.

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Why You Might Need to Crop a Picture into a Circle on Your iPhone

Now that you know how to do circle cropping on iPhone, let’s take a look at the main reasons why round images might be of use to you:

  1. Guide the viewers’ attention. If you want your main subject to attract all the attention, you can place it in the center of a circular image. The viewers’ gaze will gravitate towards it automatically. This is why a lot of social media platforms tend to have round-shaped profile photos. Another common strategy is to add a round portrait to a business card or an email signature. This way, your face won’t surely go unnoticed.
  2. Remove all the distractions. No matter how beautiful your main subject is, if there’s a distracting element in the background, it will draw all the attention first. Circle cropping on iPhone can help you get rid of all the unnecessary bits of an image or any other visual noise.
  3. Follow the trends. Nowadays, circles are quite widespread in different types of design. If you crop images into a circle on iPhone, you can make your visual content more modern, trendy and eye-catching. It can be a good idea to post some circular images on your website or social media profiles.
  4. Experiment. You can think outside the box; quite literally. Surely, rectangular images are common. But no one is stopping you from experimenting with shapes, and cropping images into a circle is a great start. And you don’t have to crop only photos. You can design a patterned image or download an image of one solid color from the Internet, then crop and use it on your website. You can combine a few photos into a collage, then crop it into a circle. The possibilities are endless!
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Why Do Round Profile Pictures Look Better Than Square Ones?

Quite a lot of social media platforms have round profile pictures. In fact, it seems to be kind of a trend right now. Have you ever wondered why that is? Well, you’re about to find out!

It’s worth mentioning that not all platforms offer a decent cropping tool. This is why you should crop a picture in a circle on iPhone before uploading it to your social media profile.

Now, let’s take a look at why a round image tends to be a better fit for a profile picture than a square one:

  1. No sharp corners. A human face has the shape of an oval or a circle. Sharp corners of a square image create some disharmony and visual noise, which can be distracting. Rounded images have the same shape as a face does, therefore you see a circle within a circle, and that creates harmony. And all the attention is focused on the face.
  2. The center of attention. In a profile photo, the face should be positioned in the center. This way, it literally becomes the center of attention. Moreover, in a square, the distance between the center and the corners tends to be large. It’s larger than the distance between the center of a circle and its edge. Therefore, to see everything, the viewers’ gaze will move around a square image for a longer period of time. But people will be able to focus on your face much faster if the image has the shape of a circle.
  3. The less background, the better. What’s the most important part of a profile picture? A face, of course. It needs to occupy the majority of your profile picture. In most cases, square images tend to show more of the background than round ones. So, a round profile picture will highlight your face much better than a square one.

Please note that if your profile picture shows a landscape or something abstract, you won’t have to worry about any of the reasons listed above. In fact, if there’s no face in your profile picture, it will be better if it has a square shape – this way, it will show more details. And the more details people will see, the better.

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Summing Up

Now you know how to crop a picture into circle on iPhone. It’s perfectly possible for you to do this easily, quickly and for free; even though there are no built-in options. Each app that was featured in this article has its own advantages and disadvantages, but at the end of the day, no matter which one you choose, you’ll surely get great results. It might be a good idea to try out a few or all of them and see which one suits your needs the best. Now, go ahead and crop your beautiful images into a circle!