How To Crop In Canva (Images, Videos, or Elements)

how to crop in canva
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Resizing and cropping photos is a piece of cake with Canva.

Let me give you an example. Last week my friend wanted a cute new profile pic for Instagram.

She had this great photo of herself at the beach but it was way too wide.

I told her no problem!

We popped it into Canva, dragged the crop tool to get rid of the extra background, and bam – perfectly sized profile pic ready to upload.

Canva makes all those tweaks so easy.

Let’s take a look at how to crop in Canva.

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How To Crop In Canva

Here are the steps of cropping in Canva:

1. Log In Or Sign Up In Canva

Go to the Canva homepage.

Click on the ‘log In’ button to log into the Canva homepage from the top right corner of the screen and then enter your email address and password.

Click on the ‘Sign Up’ button to create a new Canva account from the top right corner of the screen and follow the signup process.

2. Open New Designs/Recent Designs

After logging in or signing up on Canva, you will get directed to the Canva homepage.

If you want to open a new design type, then click on the ‘Create a Design’ button from the top right corner of the Canva homepage.

Now a menu of various design types such as resumes, presentations, posters, and more will open.

Scroll through the design types or use the search bar to search for your specific design.

Choose the design type that you want to create by clicking on it. As a result of which you will get directed to a blank canvas.

create a design
create a design 3

Or if you want to crop the image or video in your past design then go to the recent design section.

On your Canva homepage, you will see a subheading ‘Recent Designs’. This section shows the designs that you have worked on in the past.

open a recent design

Under the recent design section, click on the past design thumbnail that you want to work on. Canva will then allow you to continue editing and customizing your design.

Note: for this tutorial, I will create a new design type.

3. Crop In Canva

There are many ways to crop in Canva. From simply cropping an image and video to creatively cropping them in a shape, follow the steps below.

a) Crop An Image In Canva

For cropping an image in Canva, we have to first add an image onto the design and for that purpose, we have two methods.

Once you get directed to the blank canvas, click on the ‘Uploads’ button from the left sidebar and then on the ‘Upload Files’ button to add an image from your computer to the upload library.

After the image is uploaded on Canva, you can then drag and drop it onto the canvas in front of you.

upload your photo

Or if you want to work on Canva’s pre-existing photo collection, then click on the ‘Apps’ button from the left sidebar and then scroll down to click on the ‘Photos’ button.

click on the apps button

As a result of which Canva’s library of stock photos will open in front of you. You can then scroll through the pre-existing photos or use the top search bar to search for a specific photo.

Once you find a photo that you want to work on, click on it to add it to your design.

After adding an image to your design, it’s time to learn how to crop an image.

Click on the image twice, as a result of which a purple boundary box will appear around it.

While pressing the left button of the mouse, drag one corner handle of the boundary box closer to the image to remove any unwanted part of the picture.

crop an image

Note: by following the same process, adjust all four corners in a way that only the wanted part of an image is visible.

result of cropping an image

After cropping the image, single-click anywhere on the design and the screen will return back to the normal leaving a cropped image in front of you.

b) Crop a Video In Canva

Again, to crop a video in Canva, we will first have to add the video to the canvas.

I am using Canva stock video for demonstration purpose, you can upload your own videos if you want.

Click on the ‘Apps’ button from the left sidebar and then scroll down to click on the ‘Videos’ button.

Click On The Video Button

As a result of which Canva library of stock videos will open in front of you.

Click on the video that you like to crop, either by scrolling through the available options.

Or by using the top search bar to search for your desired Video.

After clicking on the video of your liking, it will appear on the canvas in front of you.

Click On Your Desired Video

If you don’t want to use Canva stock videos and want to upload your own. Then you can do that by clicking on the ‘Uploads’ button from the left sidebar.

Note: the process of uploading videos and uploading photos in Canva is the same.

So, I’m not going to explain to you the process of uploading the video as I have already mentioned (how to upload an image on Canva) with the necessary screenshot.

After adding a video to your design, double-click on the video. As a result of which a boundary box will appear around it indicating that it is selected.

drag the corners of crop the video

Again, drag the corner handles of the boundary box closer to the part of the video that you want others to see.

Drag and align all four corners handles so that the unwanted elements of the video are out of the boundary line.

result of cropping the video

then single-click anywhere on the design to finalize the cropping of the video. Now you will see a cropped video in front of you.

c) How To Crop Image And Video In a Shape

For cropping the image and the video into a shape, first, we will have to add them to our design.

That can be done, either by using the Canva stock photos or videos or by uploading your own photo or video to Canva.

Note: the process of adding images and videos to your design is already discussed above separately in detail.

Once we have the desired image or video on the canvas, click on the ‘Elements’ button from the left sidebar, and the new menu with various element categories will appear in front of you.

From the top search bar search for ‘Frames’ and then Canva will display a variety of frames for you to choose from.

add frame to your design

Click on the frame that you like the most to add it to your design.

Note: just make sure to click on that frame whose shape you want your image or video to have.

For example, I want to crop the image or video into a circular shape. So, in this step, I will click on a circular frame to add it to my design.

Once you have your image or video and the frame in your design, while pressing the left button of your mouse, drag the image or video onto the frame.

drag the video onto the frame

As a result of which, now you will be able to see the image or video cropped in the shape of the frame which you choose earlier.

Note: in my screenshots, I have cropped the video into a shape but the process of cropping the image to a frame is also the same.

4. Save Your Design

Once you get satisfied with the results on your canvas, you can now proceed to save your design on your desktop.

Click on the ‘Share’ button from the top right corner of the screen and a new menu will open on the right-hand side.

save your design

Click on the ‘Download’ button from the new menu and then download settings will open.

Now set your file type to your preference and lastly, click on the ‘Download’ button at the end.

download your design

Canva will then start processing your design for downloading.

FAQ- How To Crop In Canva

Below are a few frequently asked questions for your help:

How Do I Resize An Image In Canva Without Cropping?

To resize an image in Canva, open a design type and click on the Canva stock image to add it to your blank canvas. Then click on the ‘Resize’ button from the top of the screen.

Now a new menu will open in front of you, either enter the custom dimensions or under the ‘All’ category, click on the design type. At last click on ‘Copy And Resize Button’ at the end of the menu.

How Do I Crop An Element?

To crop an element in Canva, double-click on the element. As a result, a boundary box will appear around the element.

While pressing the left button of the mouse, drag the one corner handle of the boundary box closer to the element to remove any unwanted part of the element.

Before you leave

I hope you found our blog ‘How To Crop In Canva’ informative.

Basic photo or video editing tools like this can elevate your design in just a few clicks.

Not only that, but you can also use these cropped images or videos for your social media, presentation, etc.

Let me know in the comment section if you have any questions. I would love to answer them for you.

Thank You

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