How to Create a Circular Profile Picture
Nearly every platform displays a profile picture as a circle, but almost all of them ask you to upload a square. Whatever sits in the corners of your square is thrown away, and that is usually where the top of someone's head goes. The Image Editor can crop to a circle so you see exactly what will survive.
Crop for the circle, not the square
A circle inscribed in a square covers about seventy-nine per cent of it. The missing fifth is the four corners, and the top two are the problem: a portrait framed to look right as a square often loses the crown of the head once the circle is applied.
The fix is to frame tighter and more centred than feels natural. Put the eyes slightly above the middle, keep the face well inside the middle of the square, and accept that the result looks a little cramped as a square - because nobody is going to see it as a square.
Make it big enough
Avatars are displayed small, which tempts people into uploading small files. Platforms also use them at larger sizes in profile headers and hover cards, and they enlarge whatever you gave them. Upload at least 400 by 400 pixels, and 800 by 800 is better. Scaling down looks fine; scaling up never does.
If you want a clean subject with no background at all, the Background Remover will cut you out and hand back a transparent PNG, which looks far better than a face in front of a cluttered room.
Save as PNG when you want real transparency
A true circular image has transparent corners, and only PNG and WebP can carry transparency. Save a circular crop as a JPEG and the corners come back as white, which shows as white triangles anywhere the background is not white. If you are uploading to a platform that applies its own circular mask, a square JPEG is fine - the mask does the work. If you want a circle you can place anywhere yourself, you need the PNG.
Common questions
What size should a profile picture be?
Square, at least 400 pixels on a side. Most platforms accept far larger and resize it themselves.
Why does my avatar look blurry?
Usually because it was uploaded small and is being displayed larger, or because it was cropped from a small part of a bigger photo. Start from the largest original you have.
Should my face fill the whole circle?
Nearly. At the size an avatar is actually shown, a head and shoulders shot reads as a smudge. A tight crop on the face is much more recognisable.
Can I use a photo with a busy background?
You can, but at thirty pixels across it becomes visual noise. A plain or removed background is the single biggest improvement available to a small avatar.
Is my photo uploaded while I crop it?
No. The crop happens in your browser and the file never leaves your device.
Ready to get your avatar right?