What is the Aspect Ratio?

Aspect Ratio is a proportional relationship between the width and height of an image and thus determines the shape of an image.

What is an Aspect Ratio?

Aspect Ratio controls the proportional ratio of an image. The ratio is between the width and the height and is expressed by two numbers separated by a colon, such as 16:9, sixteen to nine. These numbers represent the x:y aspect ratio, where the x units represent the width of the image and the y units represent the height of the image. The most common aspect ratios or aspect ratios are:

• 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 in cinematography;
• 4:3 and 16:9 in television photography;
• 3:2 within the still photography.

In other words, an Aspect Ratio is a proportional relationship between the width and height of an image. In general, the Aspect Ratio actually describes what the shape of an image is. And all aspect ratios are therefore also written as a formula of the width and height of an image. For example, a square image has an Aspect Ratio of 1:1; since the height and width are the same. So the image itself could be 500px by 500px or 1500px by 1500px, while the aspect ratio remains unchanged at 1:1.

Another ratio is that an image is not square but has a portrait style. A portrait style can have a ratio of 2:3. This aspect ratio makes the image height 1.5 times longer than its width. This means that the image can be 500px by 750px or 1500px by 2250px.

What is the best way to crop an image to the correct Aspect Ratio?

Programs may have certain built-in style options. A good example of this is Instagram. Instagram can offer a lot of different filters for your photo. But an app or a social media platform like Instagram first expects a certain size of your photo. Instagram can of course enter this automatically when you upload the photo, but you may prefer to do this yourself. You can also manually crop an image to a certain aspect ratio. For example, if you use product images that all have the same aspect ratio, they will all be cropped in the same way on your website. In addition, there are several options for cropping a photo to the correct aspect ratio.

Option 1: Crop it to a preset shape

You can do this with ease by using a built-in image editor for your website. Allows you to crop images to a specific shape. Some editors allow you to choose a preset aspect ratio during use. The cropping to the Aspect Ratio is then fully automatic. If you’re not a big fan of cropping after you upload the photo, some third-party tools also have preset aspect ratio options to crop your photo to the correct Aspect Ratio.

Option 2: Applying custom dimensions

So you can also use an external editor to crop images to a custom aspect ratio. It’s just not offered by every built-in image editor like Squarespace, for example. In addition, it is also better to take into account the fact that images do not have to have the same dimensions. That’s why it’s better to crop a photo to a specific ratio rather than trying to match the exact dimensions of different photos. For best results, crop the short side of the photo based on the long side. For example, the best way to do this is:

• For example, if you have a 1500px by 1200px image and you want an aspect ratio of 3:1, you crop the shorter side to give the image a size of 1500px by 500px;
• You cannot scale the long side here, because this can cause you to have a blurry image.

Calculating the ratio

To calculate the ratios to find out how long the shorter side should be, it is best to use a calculator. This is of course a tool that you use in addition to your built-in editor or other program that you use. In general, the best way to do this is as follows:

1. First, try to find the dimensions of the image on your computer.
2. In the aspect ratio calculator enter the width (W1) and height (H1) of the image so you can identify the current aspect ratio.
3. This way you can adjust the shorter side until you get the desired aspect ratio that you need.

For example, you can find a good Aspect Ratio Calculator via this website. Want to learn more about formatting images? Please feel free to read more about this page from Squarespace.

What are page banners and what effect does an Aspect Ratio have on page banners?

A page banner is a homepage on a website that serves as a launch pad for other products and services. These page banners do not have preset aspect ratios or sizes. This is because page banners stretch and change shape so that they would fit in different browsers. You should also remember that:

• When uploading images to your page banners, you should first follow general formatting tips for banner images;
• When you use a built-in image editor like Squarspace to crop an image. Then you can also use this image editor to crop banners in the right way, even if problems occur, you can solve them with the tool;
• Most of the templates offered can also give you the option to change your banner size, including page banner height;
• For page banner templates that have a fixed height, it must be ensured that all images used for the page banner have the same aspect ratio. This ensures that the page banner has a uniform look and does not look sloppy.

How do Aspect Ratios for product images work?

When you sell products through your website, Google Shopping, Facebook Marketplace or Instagram Shopping, it is important that the photos of the products are attractive to your potential customers. A big help with this can be to set the Aspect Ratio of your product images on the store pages and product details pages.

How do Aspect Ratios for videos work?

The aspect ratio of your video is determined by the thumbnail image displayed by the video hosting service you are using. When you place video blocks in the program in rows or when you use grid galleries, these rows may be uneven. It is impossible to resize these video blocks. However, if you are using gallery blocks and gallery pages where the videos do not display correctly, then you need to change the website styles. At the gallery blocks you can then crop the images, or “stills”, in the videos so that the aspect ratio remains completely the same for the duration of the full video.

Aspect Ratios can also be represented as percentages.

With some programs, aspect ratios are also sometimes displayed on the basis of percentages. These percentages can then be easily adjusted by, for example, a “slider”.

For example, a slider can show values ​​from 0-160. When you set this to a value of 100, the images will have a square aspect ratio or in other words 1:1. Values ​​below 100 tend to be more landscape-oriented. While an image that gets a value above 100 is a portrait image.

To create an exact Aspect Ratio or aspect ratio, it is best to divide the height by the width. Examples of this are then:

• An Aspect Ratio of 2:3 then becomes 3 / 2 = 1.5, with the result that you have to move the slider to a scale of 150;
• An Aspect Ratio or aspect ratio of 3:2, on the other hand, becomes the reverse because you enter 2 / 3 = 0.667, so that you have to type the scale 66.7 in the slider to obtain the correct aspect ratio.