Why profile pictures crop badly
You upload a square and the service masks it into a circle. The corners have to be planned for.
Updated 2026-08-06
Most services accept a square image and then mask it into a circle for display. The four corners vanish in the process, which is about 21 percent of the square's area.
Fill the square with a face and the forehead and chin get clipped. Compose with some slack, assuming the circle is what people will see.
Recommended sizes
| Use | Size |
|---|---|
| General profile | 640 x 640 |
| High density screens | 1080 x 1080 |
| Only ever shown small | 320 x 320 |
Uploading at roughly twice the displayed size is the safe choice. The service scales it down anyway, so there is no downside, and it stops the image looking soft on dense screens.
How to do it
- Pick the Profile picture 1:1 preset.
- Turn on the circular crop guide under safe areas. The corners that disappear are marked.
- Adjust the crop so the face never touches the grey corners.
- If the photo is not tall enough to make a square, fill the sides with a background.