Got something round to crop in a picture? Not satisfied with rectangular crops? Find out here how to crop a picture into a circle in Paint 3D (as well as into other non-rectangular shapes).
First, Wheat Considerably Knocked About
If you opened your copy of the journal Nature published on July 29, 1880, you got to read about a curious discovery made on a farm in Surrey, a county filled with picturesque hills south of London.
The wheat in a field had been “knocked about” not at random but showing a distinct pattern: “a few standing stalks as a centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle.”
So, let’s talk about cropping circles:
How to Crop a Picture in a Circle with Paint 3D
This is an archived article.
Time needed: 7 minutes
To imitate cropping an image in the shape of a circle with Paint 3D:
- Select 2D Shapes in the Paint 3D toolbar.
- Now select Circle under 2D shapes in the Paint 3D sidebar.
Other shapes: You can “crop” with any of the other shapes as well, of course.
- Click in the image, then keep the left mouse button pressed and hold down the Shift key while drawing a circle with the mouse pointer.
- Release the mouse button.
- Select None under Fill in the Circle sidebar.
- Now choose Solid under Line type and, typically, make the circle white under Choose a color.
Note: Select the desired background color for your image.
- Increase the circle outline’s width under Thickness.
- Adjust the circle’s size using the outline’s handles so just the part of the image you want to crop is visible inside it.
- Click the Commit checkmark.
- Crop the image in a square so that the new edges are wholly outside the image inside the circle.
- Select Brushes in the toolbar.
- Choose Eraser.
- Increase the eraser’s thickness.
- Delete the image remaining in the crop’s edges.
Apply magic: As an alternative, you can also select the image remains in the edges using paint 3D magic selection.
- Optionally, crop the picture anew in square shape to remove as much of the white background as possible.
How to Crop a Picture in a Circle with Paint 3D: FAQ
Can I make the background transparent?
While transparent backgrounds in Paint 3D are not well suited to circular crops, you can make the background transparent with a quick trip to the web.
After “cropping” with the white background in Paint 3D, you can go ahead and make the background transparent:
- Save the image using the PNG format in Paint 3D.
- Make the background color transparent in a tool like Lunapic.
Different strokes: For this to work most easily, choose a background color that does not otherwise occur in the picture.
Can I crop a circle in MS Paint?
Yes.
You can, in very similar a manner, also crop an image to a circle in Paint for Windows.
(How to crop a picture into a circle tested with Paint 3D 6.2004–6.2408; first published January 2019, last updated September 2024)