Letterboxing vs Cropping: When to Use Each

The Problem: Your Video Doesn't Fit

You have a horizontal video and need a vertical one. Or a vertical video that needs to become square. The shapes don't match, so something has to change.

There's no magic way to turn a rectangle into a different rectangle without either adding space, removing content, or distorting the image. Letterboxing and cropping are the two practical solutions. Here's when to use each.

What Is Letterboxing?

Letterboxing means scaling your video to fit inside the target dimensions, then filling the remaining space with solid bars (usually black). Your entire video remains visible, just smaller within a larger frame.

When you put a 16:9 widescreen video into a 9:16 vertical frame, you get bars on top and bottom. When you put a vertical video into a widescreen frame, you get bars on the sides (sometimes called pillarboxing, but it's the same concept).

When to Use Letterboxing

• Text or graphics near the edges. Subtitles, lower thirds, logos, or any on-screen text that would get cut off by cropping.
• Wide shots where everything matters. Group photos, landscapes, or scenes where edge content is just as important as the center.
• You're not sure what's important. When in doubt, letterboxing is the safe choice. You can always crop later, but you can't uncrop.
• Professional or archival content. When preserving the original framing matters more than filling the screen.

Downsides of Letterboxing

• Black bars can look dated or lazy, especially on platforms dominated by full-frame content.
• Your actual video appears smaller, which can hurt visibility on small screens.
• Some platforms may deprioritize letterboxed content in their algorithms since it suggests the video wasn't created for that platform.

What Is Cropping?

Cropping means cutting off the parts of your video that don't fit the target dimensions. The resulting video fills the entire frame, but you lose content from the edges.

When you crop a 16:9 widescreen video to 9:16 vertical, you lose most of the left and right sides. When you crop to square, you lose a bit from both directions. The center of your original video becomes the entirety of your new video.

When to Use Cropping

• Your subject is centered. Talking heads, centered products, or content where the action happens in the middle of the frame.
• You want a native look. Full-frame video appears more intentional and professional on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.
• Edge content is expendable. Background elements, empty space, or anything that doesn't add to the story.
• You're repurposing content. Taking a YouTube video and creating clips for TikTok often works well with strategic cropping.

Downsides of Cropping

• You permanently lose part of your image. Important content near edges can get cut off.
• The composition changes. What looked balanced in the original might feel off-center after cropping.
• Text and graphics near borders will be partially or completely removed.

What About Stretching?

Stretching forces your video to fit new dimensions by distorting the image. People look squished or elongated. Circles become ovals. It almost always looks bad.

The only time stretching makes sense is when you're going for a deliberate stylistic effect, or when the change is so minor (like 1920×1080 to 1920×1088) that distortion is invisible.

For practical purposes, forget stretching exists. Use letterboxing or cropping.

Quick Decision Guide

Use Letterboxing When:

• Text or important elements sit near the edges
• You can't afford to lose any part of the frame
• The content is professional or archival
• You're unsure what might get cut

Use Cropping When:

• Your subject is centered in the frame
• You want a clean, full-screen result
• Edge content adds nothing to the story
• You're creating native content for vertical platforms

Practical Examples

YouTube Video to TikTok

Your 16:9 YouTube video needs to become 9:16 for TikTok. If it's a talking head centered in frame, crop works well. You lose the background on both sides but keep the speaker front and center. If there's important text overlays or multiple people spread across the frame, letterbox to keep everything visible.

Vertical Phone Video to YouTube

Your 9:16 phone video needs to become 16:9 for YouTube. Letterboxing with side bars is the classic approach. Alternatively, you could post it as a YouTube Short (which supports 9:16). Cropping a vertical video to horizontal rarely works because you lose too much height.

Any Video to Instagram Square

Converting to 1:1 square is moderate in either direction. A 16:9 video loses left and right edges when cropped. A 9:16 video loses top and bottom. In both cases, center your subject and choose based on whether you can afford to lose that content.

Pro Tips

Frame for multiple ratios when recording. Keep your subject in the center 60% of the frame. This gives you room to crop in any direction without losing the main content.

Record in high resolution. Starting with 4K means you can crop aggressively and still end up with sharp 1080p output.

Preview before committing. After resizing, watch the whole video. A thumbnail preview might look fine, but important moments could have content cut off.

Consider a hybrid approach. Some video editors let you keyframe the crop position, following your subject as they move around the frame. This is more work but gives better results than a static crop.

How to Do This in VidStudio

VidStudio's resize tool offers letterbox, crop, and stretch as options when your video doesn't match the target dimensions. Select a platform preset or enter custom dimensions, choose your method, and the tool handles the conversion. Everything processes in your browser with no file uploads.

For crop mode, you can adjust which part of the video to keep: center (default), top/left, or bottom/right. This helps when your subject isn't perfectly centered.