How to crop a picture to fit a shape
Instead of inserting a picture with a regular rectangle, you can:
- Crop away parts of the image that you don't want to show on the slide:
- Crop the image to a circle, triangle, arrow, or even a thought bubble:
- Create a shape and fill it with a picture:
or
See how to fill shapes for more details.
Crop a picture by handles
To use the simplest way to crop a picture by using the cropping handles, do the following:
1. Click on the picture to select it.
Note: You can't crop multiple pictures at once.
2. On the Picture Format tab, in the Size group, click the Crop button:
![Cropped button in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop button in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/crop.png)
Note: You can also open the Crop dropdown list and choose the Crop command:
![Cropped button 2 in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop button 2 in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/crop_crop.png)
3. Drag the black handles that appear in corners and on the sides of the image to crop unneeded areas:
![Crop black handles in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop black handles in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/5.png)
Areas that will be excluded from the cropped picture are shaded:
![Crop picture handles in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop picture handles in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/1.png)
Note: You can drag the black handles outside the picture; sometimes, it makes sense. You simply add a transparent space to the image:
![Crop picture process in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop picture process in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/6.png)
4. Repeat until all unnecessary areas of the image have been removed. When you finish, click outside the picture boundaries or click the Crop button again to apply the crop effect.
Note: You can crop the picture again if necessary. PowerPoint stores the original picture in its original size until you compress pictures.
Crop a picture "by the numbers"
To crop a picture "by the numbers" by using the Crop settings on the Format Picture pane, do the following:
1. Right-click the picture and choose Format Picture... in the popup menu:
![Format Picture in popu menu PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Format Picture in popup menu PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/powerpoint_button365/format_picture.png)
Note: You can't crop multiple pictures at once.
2. On the Format Picture pane, in the Picture group, in the Crop section:
![Crop options in Format Picture pane PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop options in Format Picture pane PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/7.png)
- Under Picture position:
- Select or enter values in the Width and Height fields to resize the picture and keep the frame dimensions,
- Select or enter desired values in the Offset X and Offset Y fields:
![Picture position in Format Picture pane PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Picture position in Format Picture pane PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/8.png)
- Under Crop positions:
- Decrease the value in the Width field to crop the picture from the right,
- Decrease the value in the Height field to crop the picture from the bottom,
- Choose or type values in the Left and Top fields to crop the picture from those sides, respectively:
![Crop position in Format Picture pane PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop position in Format Picture pane PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/9.png)
Crop a picture to a shape
To crop a picture to a shape, do the following:
1. Click on the picture to select it.
Note: You can select multiple pictures to crop them to the same shape at once.
2. On the Picture Format tab, in the Size group, click the Crop button and then choose Crop to Shape from the dropdown list:
![Crop to Shape in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop to Shape in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/crop_shape.png)
3. Select the shape from the gallery that opens:
![Crop to shapes gallery in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Crop to shapes gallery in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/shapes.png)
Fill or fit an image in the shape
PowerPoint offers two features for images that can help to position them in shape:
![Fill or Fit Crop in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Fill or fit Crop in PowerPoint 365](/images/tips/805_365/fill_fit.png)
- The Fill option adjusts the image size to match the shape's height or width, whichever is bigger:
- The Fit option adjusts the image size so that both the height and width match the shape: