How to crop photos on iPhone or iPad in iOS 17

Cropping photos on an iPhone is easy, thanks to the built-in editing tools in the Photos app. Not only can you easily crop photos on your iPhone with these tools, but you can also undo the changes and revert the photos to their original state if you cropped them incorrectly.

This guide details how to use the Photos app to crop photos on your iPhone.

How to crop photos on iPhone or iPad

The Photos app offers two ways to crop photos on an iPhone or iPad. You can use the app’s built-in Crop tool or the Quick Crop feature (available in iOS 17). Here’s how to do it!

Crop photos on iPhone using iOS 17’s Quick Crop feature

1. Open the Photos app and head to the image you want to crop.
2. With the image opened, pinch out to zoom in to a desired level.
3. Tap the Crop button in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Hit Done to save the image.
   
   

By default, the Quick Crop feature crops the image in the same aspect ratio shown on the screen. However, you can change the default setting if you want to maintain the image’s original aspect ratio or crop it in a different aspect ratio.

1. With the image zoomed in, long press the Crop button.
2. Choose among the four available aspect ratio options: Full Screen, Original, Widescreen, and Square.
3. Hit Crop to crop the image and save it by tapping Done.
   
   

Crop photos on iPhone using the built-in Crop tool in Photos app

If you’re using an older version of iOS on your iPhone or want more control over cropping, you can use the built-in Crop tool in the Photos app to crop your photos. Here’s how:

1. Open the image you want to crop in the Photos app.
2. Tap the Edit button.
3. Here, select the Crop tool in the bottom toolbar, and a rectangular box will appear around the image.
4. Drag the rectangle corners to enclose the area you want to keep in the photo.
5. Tap Done in the top right corner to crop and save the image.
   
   

Crop photos to a standard preset ratio on iPhone or iPad

For times when you want to resize an image to specific dimensions after cropping it, you can select a preset ratio accordingly in the Photos app like this:

1. Repeat the first two steps of the previous section.
2. Tap the Crop tool again and choose an Aspect Ratio from the options that appear: Original, Freeform, Square, or Wallpaper.
3. Once done, use the rectangular corners to enclose the desired area in the image.
4. Tap the Done button.
   
   

Besides cropping photos, the built-in editing tools in the Photos app also allow you to rotate or flip photos to your desired orientation on the iPhone.

How to revert a cropped photo on iPhone

At any point, if you want to revert a cropped photo to its original state, you can undo the crop using these steps:

1. Open the cropped image.
2. Hit the Edit button in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Tap on Revert and hit Revert to Original on the confirmation prompt that appears.
   
   

Signing off

And that’s it. With just a few taps, you can crop photos on your iPhone to remove unwanted elements or empty spaces and draw attention to the main subject. While the built-in Crop tool in the Photos app can do the job just fine, if you want additional cropping or editing features, you can check out third-party photo editing apps.

Read more:

• How to rotate multiple iPhone images at once
• How to use People Album in Photos App on iPhone or iPad
• How to reduce photo file size on iPhone and iPad