Crop Picture into Circle in Photoshop

What menu does Photoshop document?

Adobe’s marquee guide says the Elliptical Marquee makes an ellipse, or a circle when you hold Shift while you drag. Add a layer mask to hide the pixels outside that selection. The Crop tool trims the whole canvas and is not the circle mask.

The marquee page is the selection. Adobe’s layer-crop page says to use that elliptical selection and then Add Layer Mask to hide the rest. The Crop tool trims the whole canvas, including every layer, so it is the wrong tool for a circle on one layer. Photoshop on iPad does not share this toolbar.

How do I crop the picture before Photoshop masks it?

Working on a square is the whole trick. The ellipse tool is not wrong when the canvas is wide. The canvas is wrong for a circle.

1. Open the image and crop or canvas-size it to a square. A wide canvas makes the ellipse look like an oval even when the tool is called an ellipse.
2. Add a mask that keeps an ellipse and hides the corners. Feather only if you want a soft edge. A profile picture usually wants a hard edge.
3. Move the image inside the mask. The mask stays put. That is the same idea as this website’s editor, which moves the photo under a fixed circle.
4. Check the result at a small zoom, around 32 pixels on screen, before you export.
5. Export PNG if you need transparency outside the ellipse. Export JPG if you want a flat background.
6. If the mask tools are unfamiliar, use the browser editor and place that PNG in Photoshop as a finished layer.

Why does the circle turn into an oval?

A circle mask stretched over a wide photo follows the photo’s rectangle, so the result is an oval. Photoshop is one of the places that happens. Export a square first, and only then apply the round mask. The mask cannot invent a square if the image is still 16:9.

You can see the same failure with a piece of paper. Draw a circle on a long rectangle and the circle is tall. Draw it on a square and it stays round. The software is doing the obvious thing. The fix is the square, not another slider with a hopeful name.

What about the phone or a changed interface?

Photoshop on iPad uses a different toolbar. The browser tool on this site does not depend on that layout.

Photoshop on iPad does not share the desktop toolbar. The steps stay at the level of the action for that reason. The fast way does not care which Photoshop you own.

What file should I bring back?

PNG with transparency is the usual handoff to a layout tool. A PSD can keep the mask editable, but that file is not what you upload as an avatar. Export a flattened circle at the pixel size the destination actually accepts. The size chart on this site separates official sizes from general recommendations.

How do I keep the Photoshop canvas honest?

Without a verified menu path, the safe description is the geometry. The canvas must be square before an elliptical marquee or a circle frame is applied. If the document is 1920 by 1080, an ellipse that touches the edges is an oval. Crop or canvas-size to a square first, or place a circle PNG from this page as a layer and hide the rest.

A layer mask is the editable version of the same idea. Fill a circular selection on a square document, and the mask stays round when you transform uniformly. Transforming width and height separately stretches the mask. That is the same failure as a slide, just with more precision available if you watch the percentage fields and keep them equal.

Export a flattened PNG for the avatar and keep the PSD only if you still need the mask. iPad Photoshop does not share the desktop toolbar, which is why this page refuses to list a toolbar name. The browser crop is the path that does not depend on which Photoshop you opened.

What is the reliable order?

To crop picture into circle in Photoshop, hold Shift with the Elliptical Marquee so the selection is a circle, then add a layer mask. Adobe documents both steps. If you crop picture into circle in Photoshop on a wide canvas, Shift still makes a circle selection, but the picture around it is the wrong shape for an avatar.

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