How to crop, brighten and shrink a photo in one go, in your browser

Open the Photo editor, use Crop to frame the picture, Adjust to lift the light, and under Save as choose File size and tap a limit such as 200 KB. Every step works on the same picture and is redrawn from your original, so you can go back and change any of them before you press Download.

Steps

1. Open the Photo editor and drop in your photo. A sideways phone photo opens upright.
2. Open Crop. Drag the box, or tap a ratio such as 1:1, 4:5 or 16:9.
3. Open Adjust and move Exposure or Brightness up for a dark photo, then Contrast if it looks flat. Warmth fixes a blue or orange cast. Double-click a slider to set it back to zero.
4. Optional: Filters for a look, Text for a caption, Blur to hide something, Frame for a border.
5. Open Save as. Choose a format (JPG, PNG or WebP), then under Save by choose File size and tap 50 KB, 100 KB, 200 KB or 500 KB, or type your own.
6. Check the final pixel size and file size under the preview, then press Download.

Why one editor instead of three tools

Each time a JPG is opened and saved again, it loses a little detail. Cropping in one app, brightening in another and compressing in a third means three saves. Here the editor keeps a list of your edits and draws the picture from your original each time, so there is only one save: the download.

That also means nothing is final until then. You can brighten after adding text, move a caption after cropping, or turn a filter off at the end. Undo and Redo step through the list (Ctrl or Cmd + Z, add Shift to redo), one slider drag counts as one step, and Reset edits clears everything, which can itself be undone.

A good order for a quick fix

Fixing common phone-photo problems

• Too dark. Raise Exposure before Brightness. Exposure scales the light, so blacks stay black while the picture brightens; brightness adds the same amount to every pixel, which can turn blacks grey.
• Washed out. Add Contrast and a touch of Saturation.
• Yellow indoor light. Move Warmth down until white things look white.
• Text on a busy background. In Text, turn the outline on, or add a dark Gradient behind the words.
• Too big for an upload form. In Save as, use File size. The editor finds the highest quality that fits under your limit.

Saving: quality or file size

Save by Quality sets the JPG or WebP quality directly, from 5 to 100. Use it when there is no size limit. Save by File size works the other way round: you give the limit, and the editor searches for the highest quality that fits. PNG has no quality setting because it keeps every pixel; choose it for screenshots, or when you used rounded corners and want them see-through.

For a single job, the separate tools can be quicker: Compress image handles a batch to one size, and the compress to 50 KB guide covers tight limits in detail.

Questions

Is the photo editor free?

Yes. There is no sign-up and no watermark on what you save. A small "Made with" credit starts in the corner; switch it off under Credit in Filters.

Are my photos uploaded?

No. Editing happens in your browser and the photo stays on your device. Saving also drops most hidden metadata, such as GPS location.

Which formats can I open?

JPG, PNG, WebP and most other images your browser can show. You can save as JPG, PNG or WebP.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. Drag with a finger to move text and the crop box. Very large photos can be slower on older phones.