16:9 in pixels
To get the height, multiply the width by 0.5625 (that's 9 ÷ 16). To get the width, multiply the height by 1.778. So 1280 wide is 720 tall, 3840 wide is 2160 tall, and a 1440 px tall image needs to be 2560 wide. The calculator under the tool works it out for any number.
Video names describe the height: 720p is 1280 × 720, 1080p is 1920 × 1080, 1440p is 2560 × 1440, and 4K UHD is 3840 × 2160, exactly four times the pixels of 1080p. All of them are 16:9. Widths that divide by 16 give a whole-number height; any other width rounds by a fraction of a pixel.
Where 16:9 is the right shape
16:9 is the shape of almost every TV, most monitors, YouTube's player and the default slide in PowerPoint and Google Slides. Several platform images use it too, which helps when one design has to serve more than one place:
- YouTube thumbnails: 3840 × 2160 recommended (1280 × 720 under 2 MB for phone uploads)
- Twitch offline screen and Discord invite background: 1920 × 1080
- Discord server banner: 960 × 540
- YouTube channel art: 2560 × 1440, though only a thin strip of it shows on most screens (see YouTube banner size)
Vertical 9:16
Switch the orientation to portrait and the tool crops to 9:16, the full-screen phone shape used by TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The standard size is 1080 × 1920. Each platform covers part of that frame with buttons and captions, and the TikTok video size page draws those zones over your image.
Cropping phone photos to 16:9
A phone photo is 4:3, so turning it into 16:9 removes a quarter of the height: 4032 × 3024 becomes 4032 × 2268. Before you crop, decide which matters more, the sky or the ground. Turn on the rule-of-thirds grid and put the horizon on the upper or lower line rather than through the middle.
Portrait photos are harder. A 3:4 shot cropped to 16:9 keeps less than half of its height. Use Fit whole image instead: the full photo sits in the middle of the wide frame and the sides are filled with a blurred copy of the same picture, the familiar look of vertical clips on a TV. White, black, a custom color or transparency (PNG and WebP) are there if blur doesn't suit.
How to crop to 16:9
- Drop an image, paste it with Cmd/Ctrl+V, or try the sample.
- Keep landscape for 16:9 or switch to portrait for 9:16. Drag to frame, pinch or scroll to zoom, and nudge with the arrow keys. Rotate or flip if you need to.
- Choose full resolution, or a standard size from 360p up to 8K. The tool warns you when an export would be upscaled, which matters most at 4K and 8K.
- Choose a format, check the exact file size, and download or copy to the clipboard.
Which format to export
For photos and thumbnails, use JPG at a high quality setting; a 1280 × 720 thumbnail stays well under the 2 MB limit for uploads from the YouTube app, and desktop uploads can be up to 50 MB. For slides, screenshots and anything with small text, use PNG, which keeps edges clean. WebP makes smaller files for your own website, but check that the site you're uploading to accepts it.
16:9 next to other ratios
16:10 (1.6:1), common on laptops, is a little taller, so a 16:9 image shows thin bars on those screens. 21:9 ultrawide is much wider. If you're choosing between widescreen and the boxier 4:3, this comparison shows what each one keeps.
