Edit an image

Crop or touch up an image after you add it to a post, without leaving the composer.

Before you start

• Add the image to your post first. You edit images from the composer, not from Media Library.
• Keep a copy of the original if you need its transparency. Edited images are saved as JPEG.

Open the feature

Choose Publish in the left sidebar to open the Publish Content composer. Add an image with Image or video, wait for it to finish uploading, then click Edit Media under its thumbnail.

Steps

1. Click Edit Media under the image thumbnail.
2. Under Edit in Social Champ, choose Crop and adjust. The image editor opens.
3. Open Crop in the toolbar at the bottom of the editor and pick a size, such as Social 1:1, IG 4:5, IG Story, X 16:9 or YT Thumbnail.
4. Drag the crop area until it covers the part of the image you want, then click Apply.
5. Use the other tools in the bottom toolbar if you need them, such as rotating the image or adding text.
6. Click Save. To leave without changes, click Cancel.

Where the newer editor is turned on

Crop and adjust opens the same editor as Design with templates, at the size of your photo and straight into Crop:

1. Pick a shape, such as Square 1:1, Portrait 4:5, Story 9:16 or X post, or Free. Drag the box or its handles, then click Apply. The photo becomes that part, at its own size. Cancel keeps the whole photo.
2. In Background, use Crop, Replace photo (to swap in another photo and keep the looks you set), Rotate left, Rotate right, Flip horizontally or Flip vertically to change the photo, and Adjust, Effects or Make colour transparent to touch it up. Text, elements and the other sizes along the top are there too.
3. Click Save to post. If you don't change anything, the photo keeps its exact size.

A photo larger than 4096 pixels on a side (or 16.8 megapixels) is saved at the largest size the editor saves, and the editor tells you when it opens.

Remove a photo's background

Where background removal is turned on, the newer editor (Crop and adjust or Design with templates) can lift the subject of a photo off its background:

1. Select the photo (or open Background for the background photo) and click Remove background.
2. Click Refine cutout to touch up the edges.
3. To keep the subject in frame in every size, open Background and click Find the subject.

It keeps the people in a photo with their hair, or the whole subject when there is no one in it, such as a pet or a product. It runs on your device, so your photo isn't uploaded. The first time you use Remove background or Find the subject in a session, it can take a moment to get ready. If the editor says the device doesn't have enough free memory, close other tabs or apps and try again, or use a computer. Phones and older tablets often can't spare the memory it needs.

Add alternative text

Open the image's alternative-text action in the composer, describe the important visual information, and save. Reopen it to check the saved description. Alternative text is separate from text drawn onto the image; availability and limits depend on the destination network.

Expected result

The edited image replaces the original in your post. Check the preview for each network before you schedule. Saving an edit doesn't publish anything.

Example

You've added a landscape photo to a post for your Instagram account. Click Edit Media, choose Crop and adjust, open Crop and pick IG 4:5. Move the crop area over the product, click Apply, then click Save. The preview now shows a portrait image.

Limits and permissions

• You can't edit videos or GIFs in the image editor. For videos, see Prepare a video.
• Images saved from the older editor are JPEG, so transparent areas become solid. The newer editor keeps transparency as PNG when every network on your post takes PNG.
• GIFs and screens narrower than 1024 pixels always use the older editor.
• Edit Media doesn't appear while the image is still uploading or if it failed to load.
• To edit in Canva instead, choose Image, Video or GIF under Edit in Canva as…. These options are greyed out until the image has finished uploading.
• Where it's turned on, Edit Media also shows Design with templates: a newer editor with templates, text, elements and the common post sizes, such as square, portrait, story and landscape. It replaces the image with your design when you click Save to post. It can also make one colour of the photo see-through with Make colour transparent, kept as transparency when your networks take PNG, and add free photos, recent media or Media Library photos from Photos > Find photos. Its Write with AI tools can rewrite, shorten or translate selected text, using one AI credit each. Design from my post (in Templates) builds designs from your post's text for 2 AI credits, and Save to post can also write a caption and, when the image has no alt text yet, alt text for 1 AI credit (both off until you turn them on); the image keeps any alt text you wrote. Where Retouch is turned on, select the photo (or open Background) and click Retouch to touch up a portrait; the edit is saved to your post as one flattened image, so opening it again starts from the retouched picture (see Retouch a portrait). It doesn't appear on screens narrower than 1024 pixels; Crop and adjust is always there. To design from a blank canvas, see Design an image from scratch.

Troubleshooting

• Edit Media doesn't show under the image: wait for the upload to finish. If the thumbnail shows an error, remove the image and add it again.
• An image doesn't fit a network's size rules: click Fix for me (or Fix all) next to the size error below the text box. The editor opens with the right crop already set. Click Save to apply it. Where the newer editor is turned on, it opens in Crop with the shape your networks need locked in, and Fix all shows which photo you're on, such as Photo 2 of 5. Move the box and click Apply; if you click Cancel instead, the largest centred crop of that shape is used. Click Save to post to fix that photo and open the next one. Closing the editor without saving stops the remaining fixes.
• The crop looks wrong after saving: remove the image, add the original again and redo the edit.

Facebook portrait crop

FB 9:16 crops to a width-to-height ratio of 9:16. Inspect the crop before applying it; it is a portrait ratio, not the older 940 × 788 landscape shape. Cropping an image does not change a network's other publishing requirements.