Crop photo in circle form on an iPad Pro

I would like to crop photos with a circle shape on an iPad Pro. However, I just can find the rectangular or square crop options in "markup".

Does anybody know how to crop photos in circle in iPad without using an app? If an app is necessary what would be the best free app?


A quick Web search reveals an app that offers exactly this feature:

  • Krop Circle

The app is a free download with In-App purchase. This is an iPhone only app, but can run on iPad in compatibility (letterbox) mode.

No affiliation whatsoever with the developer.


There isn’t a native circle crop on iOS or iPad OS so you’ll need a third party too to assist with this.

My favorites are Pixelmator and Pixelmator Photo. The photo version doesn’t have this crop, but Pixelmator for iOS can crop easily as follows:

  1. Use the elliptical select feature to draw a circle (the pixel guides let you make it a perfect circle when you match the height / width)
  2. Tap invert to invert the selection - selecting everything outside the circle.
  3. Tap done to end the selection.
  4. Tap the area you wish to delete - then tap delete

Save the image back to your files / share it as needed.

You can do an overlay for free with Keynote as well:

  1. pick the black or white template as you wish)
  2. Import the image as the entire slide
  3. Overlay the gear shape (circle with gear teeth outside) ⚙️
    • Same as the ellipse in Pixelmator, you need to grow the shape to be an ellipse or circle.
    • Then make the gear shape black/white and save out or make a screen snap.

dog with black circle crop Since keynote is free and you can save out your presentation, swap in new images quite easily, I can’t imagine you’ll spend so much time learning keynote that a free app that may or may not sell out your privacy is better than learning to edit photos. I also really like Pixelmator so try that if you think it will be a great tool for things other than this one circle crop function.