How to Stop Automatic Photo Cropping in Facebook

By Randall Blackburn

Size your images to Facebook's specifications before uploading.
i Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Facebook’s automatic cropping feature reduces the size of images that are too large for display. The only way to stop automatic cropping while retaining the original image is to resize the image to Facebook’s exact specifications. You do not need to purchase an image editing application for this, because you can use a freely available image editor, such as Microsoft Paint or GIMP, to resize the graphic element before uploading the image to your Facebook account.

Paint

Step 1

Open the image to resize in Microsoft Paint, and then click the “Home” tab on the top navigation ribbon.

Step 2

Click the “Resize” option in the Image group to open the "Resize and Skew" dialog box.

Step 3

Click the “Maintain Aspect Ratio” check box, and then click “Pixels.”

Step 4

Type “180“ in both the Horizontal and Vertical boxes if the image is for your Facebook profile. If the image is for use as your timeline cover photo, type “351“ as the Vertical dimension and “851“ as the Horizontal measure. For a Facebook ad image, enter “72 for the Vertical and “100“ for the Horizontal dimension. Click “OK” to resize the image.

Step 5

Click “File,” select “Save As,” type a new name for the resized image, click “Save,” and then upload the resized image to Facebook.

GIMP

Step 1

Open the image to resize in GIMP. If the Convert dialog box opens, click the “Convert” button to load the image.

Step 2

Click the “Image” option in the top menu, and then click “Scale Image.” The Scale Image dialog box opens.

Step 3

Type the desired horizontal dimension in the Width box; the vertical dimension in the Height box automatically adjusts to retain aspect ratio. If need be, click the chain-shaped icon to unlock the aspect ratio to enter height and width dimensions independently of one another.

Step 4

Click the “Scale” button. The image is resized according to your specifications.

Step 5

Click “File,” select “Save As,” type a new name for the resized image in the File Name field, click “Save,” and then upload the resized image to Facebook.

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