Summary: The default Microsoft video editor on Windows doesn't support the cropping feature. Video cropping involves image processing algorithms complicated than trimming. After testing more than 30 tools on the market, we round up 6 best ways to crop a video on Windows 10 (and Windows 11/8/7).
Cropping a video on Windows sounds like an easy task: we want to be able to use the cropping box, crop the video area to remove unwanted parts, save the video and the screen size get changed.
However, when starting to find a free video cropper tool, you might be surprised that such a basic function is missing in many tools, including native apps such as Windows Video Editor (Photos app) and Windows Movie Maker. In this post, we will show you how to crop a video on Windows 10 in 6 easy ways.
There are various scenarios where you would like to crop a video and the following methods will cater to all your needs.
- Crop an unwanted area of a video clip without changing the format or damaging quality
- Crop a landscape video to horizontal (vice versa), or 16:9/4:3 to 1:1 square footage
- Keep the same resolution: cropping to fit the screen (zoom in)
- Keep or change the aspect ratio after cropping
If you also have a Mac device, you can read tutorials on how to crop a video on Mac using iMovie, FCP, and QuickTime flexibly without distortion.
How to Crop a Video on Windows 10/11 in the Easiest Way
If you want to crop a video clip as easy as cropping a picture, with a cropping frame that allows you to adjust the size, this method is a life-saver. You can indicate areas to keep or crop, so as to easily change the screen size and dimensions of the video.
- Tool to use: VideoProc (Now renamed as VideoProc Converter), a lightweight and powerful video processing tool for video editing, converting, recording and downloading.
- System requirement: Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 or macOS.
- Can an old computer/low spec computer run the program?
Yes. VideoProc only requires the minimum 1GB RAM and 200MB hard disk space. Even an old notebook can effortlessly run it without a glitch.
To get started, download VideoProc by clicking the green button below.
Step 1. Load the footage into the cropping tool.
From the main screen, click Video icon, and hit the + Video icon to add a video. Choose an output format, such as MP4.
VideoProc supports 370+ input formats, you can crop MP4 video, MKV, MOV, AVI, rare formats and demanding codec such as HEVC videos.
Step 2. Crop the video.
Click the Crop icon to call out the editing window and tick the Enable Crop box to crop videos. Now you can drag the selection box flexibly to crop videos on Windows.
You can also click the Preset icon and crop video by changing the aspect ratio like 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, etc.
Step 3. Export the video to the local drive.
Tick Auto Copy to remain 1:1 quality without re-encoding, and hit the Run button to export the footage.
FAQs
Q1. Can I crop 16:9 video to 1:1 square footage?
Yes. After enabling crop in VideoProc, click the preset to select 1:1 from the dropdown menu.
Q2. Will there be black bars after the cropping?
It's up to you. If you think black bars are unsightly, make sure not to tick Expand Video, which will add black bars to two sides of your clip.
A little more explanation: Let's say you have a 1920*1080 video (aspect ratio 16:9), and you crop it to a square video (resolution 1080*1080, aspect ratio 1:1), then:
- If you uncheck Expand Video: the exported video will be 1080*1080;
- If you check Expand Video: the exported video will be 1920*1080, but the video content is square-shaped, with black bars on the left and right side.
How to Crop a Video in Windows Video Editor
Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a native video editor that comes along with the system. You can find it in the Windows Start menu, or launch it from the Photos App > Video Editor.
This Microsoft Video Editor can crop video by removing black bars, converting 16:9 to 4:3, and changing horizontal video to vertical 9:16 or 3:4. However, it doesn't allow you to freely adjust a cropping box to crop the video frame on Windows 10, nor does it enables you to decide the area to be shown by changing the position of the footage.
Step 1. Click the Windows Start menu, and type in Video Editor to launch it.
Alternatively, you can open the Windows Photos App, go to more, and click Video Editor.
Step 2. Create a New Project, and import video clips that you want to crop.
Step 3. Drag the newly added clips to the storyboard at the bottom.
- If you only want to crop one video, drag it to the first storyboard.
- If you add multiple clips to the storyboard (the cards at the bottom), these videos will be merged into one upon exporting.
Step 4. Crop the video in Microsoft Windows Video Editor.
- If you want to crop the black bars, click the frame-shaped icon on the right side of the speed icon.
- If you want to crop the video to a different aspect ratio, click the three-dot icon at the top right corner, and change 16:9 to 4:3. Under the same menu, you can also make a landscape video vertical.
Step 5. Click the Share icon to save the video.
Note: Based on our tests, videos processed by the Windows Video Editor will end up large in file size. This is probably because this default editor doesn't apply an efficient compression algorithm to reduce unnecessary data. Plus, if you want to crop videos in bulk, you need to create a project for each video manually.
How to Crop a Video on Windows 10 with VLC (Windows 11/8/7)
Cropping a video on Windows 11/10 using VLC media player is complex. If you are expecting a simple workflow, then VLC is not the tool you are looking for.
For one thing, you need to manually set how many pixels you want to crop from four sides. But the problem is, most of us won't know the exact number to set. Plus, there is no visualized way to adjust a frame to crop a video in VLC, meaning you cannot preview the cropped content in VLC media player.
If you are still curious, or maybe you are a VLC hacker, then here are the steps to crop video frame on Windows 10:
Part 1. Manage cropping settings before importing the video (Step 1 to Step 7)
- Step 1. Open up VLC media player, go to Menu > Tools > Preferences (Ctrl+P)
- Step 2. Go to the bottom left to tick show settings > All, so that you can find all the settings in the tree structure.
- Step 3. On the left panel, scrolling down to find Video > Filters > Croppadd.
- Step 4. Click on Croppadd, and you shall see the boxes that allow you to set numbers. The numbers indicate how many pixels you want to crop from top, bottom, left and right.
- Step 5. When you finish setting the number, scroll back and click on Video > Filter.
- Step 6. Tick the box Video Cropping Filter (or termed as Video Scaling Filter in other VLC versions). Click Save.
Part 2. Import the file to crop video in VLC media player (Step 8 - Step 10)
- Step 8. Add video you want to crop by dragging it into the working area, or go to menu > Media > Open file.
- Step 9. Click the fixer icon next to the red cross. Go to Video codec > Filters, and tick Video cropper filter (or Video scaling filter in other VLC versions). Click Save.
- Step 10. Click browse to select the output format and destination folder, and hit Start.
Due to limited space in this article, we won't expand this VLC method with pictures for each step. If you are willing to try out the 10 steps for good, read how to crop a video in VLC with pictorial instructions instead.
How to Crop a Video with Windows Movie Maker
Many tutorials claim that Windows Movie Maker can help you to crop a video on Windows 10, but when you follow the guide step by step, you will find that they are actually talking about trimming, or, cutting out a section to shorten the video.
In fact, Windows Movie Maker does not have a cropping tool, but you can circumvent it. The workaround is to zoom in on the clip. The result? A video zoomed in. In this sense, even if you didn't actually crop and remove the unwanted area, the output file still fulfills your needs.
Step 1. Launch Windows Movie Maker.
Step 2. Drag your footage into the working area, and click Animations tab from the menu bar.
Step 3. Crop video frame by selecting the first effects from the section featuring "Zoom in" effects.
Step 4. Set the Duration time. Make sure it lasts long enough to cover the entire footage.
Step 5. Playback and check if the unwanted areas are cropped by zooming in.
Tips: Since the zoom-in is a process, the beginning part of the video will still stay not cropped, you can then trim off the beginning part, so that the rest of the content is zoomed in.
How to Crop a Video on Windows 10 Using VSDC Video Editor
Most Windows video editors have the cropping function. The only question is, is it worth the time and effort to launch up the program and create a project before you can crop video area?
VSDC can do much more than cropping, and that might be overkill if you need a simple cropping tool, and less capable for batch cropping tasks. Check the following steps to see if VSDC is what you are looking for.
To get started, visit the developer's page to download VSDC.
Step 1. Open VSDC Video Editor, and click Create blank project. It helps VSDC to automatically save your draft editing.
Step 2. Import your clip. You can either drag and drop the footage onto the timeline, or click import content before creating the project.
Step 3. Click the cropping tool on the top left, and you shall see the cropper window pop up.
Step 4. You can adjust the border freely by dragging your mouse.
Tips: If you want to keep the same aspect ratio, press down shift and dragging the mouse at the same time.
What is auto cropping in VSDC?
This function helps you to remove black bars automatically. One thing to notice is, it also crops some content area. Why? Because this auto-cropping function is design to crop and fill the edited footage to full screen. If you only want to remove black borders without cropping the video content, free mode is more preferable.
How to Crop a Video on Windows 10 with Olive Video Editor
Olive Video Editor is an open source video editor in its alpha stage. It's young but quite promising, and it constantly updates. If you are familiar with Premiere Pro, you could instantly pick up Olive to crop your clips and photos.
If you don't have an adventurous soul to use an alpha version, there are other free video editing software that works nicely.
Before we get started, one thing to notice is the difference between using a simple utility and using a video editing software to crop a video clip.
Let's say you shot a 1920x1080 vlog, and there are something in the background you prefer removing. With a simple video cropper, you might just randomly crop some area from the left part and export, resulting in something like 1769x1080. While in non-linear video editing software, the underlining logic is different. If you don't care there are black bars after cropping and exporting, you can go ahead without bothering changing resolution in sequence settings.
Step 1. Launch Olive Video Editor and create a new project (Ctrl+N).
Step 2 . Go to New > sequence to create a new sequence (Ctrl + Shift + N)
Step 3 . Import your file into the resource bin at the top left section, and then drag the clip into the timeline.
Note: Though you can directly drag the footage to the timeline, it is a good habit to first import it into the resource bin. You would know the benefits when you have multiple clips to edit.
Step 4. Click the effects icon, and go to Distort > Crop.
Step 5. Within the effects control panel, scrolling down to find the "crop" control, and make sure the box is ticked. Now you can set the value to crop from left, top, right and bottom.
Notes: if you directly export video after step 5, you will find there are black bars surrounding your movie. Because the resolution is still 1920x1080, and some parts are cropped without zooming in to fill the screen. If you prefer not to have those black bars, you shall scale up the video.
This method is less flexible comparing Adobe Premiere, especially as Premiere now supports auto-reframe to crop motion objects intelligently. But you cannot ask for more as the editing program is free to use.
Which tool is your favorite? Do you have any special needs to crop a video? None of the above methods fulfills your needs? Share with us your ideas.
