How to crop widescreen video to square with no reframing
- Step 1Drop your video — Drop your video and enter the crop rectangle
- Step 2Set crop dimensions and position — JAD applies the crop filter and re-encodes
- Step 3Download the cropped video — Download the cropped video
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove letterbox black bars from a video?+
Letterbox black bars appear when a 4:3 or non-standard aspect ratio video is enclosed in a 16:9 container. JAD's auto-detect mode measures the active image area by detecting rows and columns that are below a brightness threshold and automatically suggests a crop region. Alternatively, set the crop manually: for a 16:9 source with 4:3 content (pillarboxed), typical offsets are x=240 (for 1920-wide) with width=1440.
Does cropping change the file size?+
Yes — cropping removes pixels and reduces the total frame area, which generally reduces the output file size proportionally. A 50% crop (half the pixel area) will approximately halve the file size at equivalent quality settings. The exact size depends on the content's compressibility, but significant crops consistently produce smaller output files.
Can I crop to a specific social media aspect ratio?+
JAD includes aspect ratio presets: 1:1 (square), 9:16 (vertical), 4:3 (legacy), and 16:9 (widescreen). These auto-calculate the crop region centred on the frame for the selected aspect ratio. For social-specific reframing with subject tracking (rather than centre crop), use the auto-reframe or Instagram formatter tools.
Privacy first
All video processing runs locally in your browser using WebAssembly and FFmpeg. No file is ever uploaded — only metadata counters are saved for signed-in dashboard stats.