How to Crop an Image Into a Circle

Round profile pictures are everywhere: email signatures, team pages, slide decks, community profiles. Making one sounds simple, but there is a catch. An ordinary crop always gives you a rectangle. To get a real circle, the area outside it has to be transparent, and that means saving in a format that supports transparency, such as PNG.

This guide shows how to do it with Microsoft Office, which many people already have, and with Filo's free browser tool.

Why a circle crop needs a transparent PNG

Every image file is a rectangle of pixels. A "circle" picture is a square where the pixels outside the circle are transparent, so whatever background it sits on (a white web page, a dark slide, a coloured banner) shows through around it.

• PNG supports transparency and is the safe choice.
• WebP supports transparency too, and is smaller, but a few older apps cannot open it.
• JPG does not support transparency. If you save a circle crop as JPG, the corners come out as a solid colour, usually white or black.

Also keep in mind that many sites (social networks, messaging apps, video call tools) already show your profile picture inside a circle. For those, a plain square photo is often enough; check how it looks before you go further.

Method 1: Crop to a circle in PowerPoint, Word or Excel

Microsoft Office can crop a picture to a shape. Microsoft lists the feature for Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook in Microsoft 365 (Windows and Mac) and recent versions, and says PowerPoint for the web has it, while Word for the web does not.

Step 1: Insert and crop to a shape

1. Insert the picture with Insert > Pictures.
2. Select it, then on the Picture Format tab, select the arrow next to Crop.
3. Go to Crop to Shape and choose the oval from the shapes.
4. Adjust the shape using the cropping handles.

Step 2: Make it round, not oval

On a rectangular photo, the oval usually comes out stretched rather than round. Office also has Crop > Aspect Ratio, which crops the picture to a ratio you choose. If your oval is not round, crop the picture to a square ratio first, then apply the oval shape again, and check the result.

Step 3: Save the circle as an image file

Right-click the picture (Control-click on a Mac) and choose Save as Picture. In Save as type, choose PNG, name the file, pick a folder and click Save.

Open the saved file to check it. Microsoft's guide does not say whether the area outside the shape is stored as transparent, so look at the corners in an image viewer, or place the file on a coloured background, before you use it.

Method 2: Crop to a circle with Filo in your browser

Filo's Crop Image works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on a computer or phone. Cropping happens in your browser, so the photo is not uploaded.

Step 1: Add your photo

Open Crop Image and drop in the photo, or pick it from your files. It accepts JPG, PNG and WebP. For an iPhone HEIC photo, convert it first with HEIC to PNG.

Step 2: Choose Circle

Under Shape, pick Circle. The crop box becomes a square around its current centre, and the preview shows the circle on the photo.

Step 3: Frame the face or logo

Drag the box to move it, and drag a corner to make it bigger or smaller; it stays square, so the result is always a true circle. For a profile photo, leave a little space above the head and centre the eyes slightly above the middle.

Step 4: Download the transparent PNG

Save the result. Everything outside the circle is transparent:

• A JPG (or any other format without transparency) is saved as PNG, so the corners can be transparent.
• A PNG or WebP source keeps its own format, with transparency.

Your original file is not changed; you download a new copy.

Rounded corners instead of a circle

Want a softer rectangle, for example for an app icon or a thumbnail? Choose Rounded corners and pick a Corner size (Small, Medium or Large). You can still use the aspect ratio presets (Square, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 9:16 or Free) for the box. The corners are transparent, saved the same way as the circle.

A few honest details:

• On the web you get 3 free conversions in total, and each cropped image uses one. Files made with a free conversion carry a small Filo mark, placed inside the visible circle.
• Very large photos can be scaled down to fit your browser's limit of about 16.7 megapixels; the tool tells you when that happens.
• The Filo app for iPhone and Android is free for life, with no daily limit.

Tips for a good circular profile picture

• Start big. Crop from the original photo, not a small thumbnail, so the circle stays sharp when shown large.
• Size it afterwards. If a site asks for an exact size, such as 400 x 400 pixels, crop first, then use Resize Image with the aspect ratio locked.
• Keep the file small. For email signatures or slow upload forms, run the PNG through Image Compress and choose to keep the format, or WebP, so the transparency survives. Converting to JPG would fill the corners.
• Check on dark and light backgrounds. A soft halo of the old background around hair or edges is easier to spot on a contrasting colour.

FAQ

Sources checked

• Microsoft Support, "Crop a picture to fit in a shape": https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/graphics-visuals/crop-a-picture-to-fit-in-a-shape (checked 2026-11-12)
• Microsoft Support, "Crop a picture in Office" (Aspect Ratio): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/graphics-visuals/crop-a-picture-in-office (checked 2026-11-12)
• Microsoft Support, "Save a picture or other graphic as a separate file": https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/graphics-visuals/save-a-picture-or-other-graphic-as-a-separate-file (checked 2026-11-12)