Round Image Corners Online

How to Round Image Corners

Rounding image corners adds a polished, modern look by replacing sharp 90-degree edges with smooth curves of any radius you choose.

Rounded corners have become a defining visual pattern of modern interface design. From app icons and profile pictures to product thumbnails and social media graphics, curved edges signal a contemporary, approachable aesthetic. The human eye naturally follows curves more comfortably than sharp angles, which is why rounded rectangles feel friendlier and more inviting than their sharp-cornered counterparts. Apple popularized the rounded rectangle as a core design element, and it has since become the default shape language across iOS, Android, and web design.

The corner radius determines how much curvature is applied. A small radius (5-10% of the image's smallest dimension) produces subtle softening that removes the harshness of sharp corners without dramatically changing the shape. A medium radius (15-20%) creates the familiar rounded rectangle seen in app cards and thumbnails. A large radius (30-40%) produces a "squircle" or superellipse shape popular for app icons. At 50%, the corners meet and the image becomes a perfect circle (for square images) or a full oval (for rectangular images).

Understanding Corner Radius

Corner radius is measured as a percentage of the image's smallest dimension. This percentage-based approach ensures consistent results regardless of image size. A 10% radius on a 1000x800 image produces 80px corners (10% of 800, the smaller dimension). The same 10% on a 500x500 image produces 50px corners. This way, the visual proportion of rounding stays consistent whether you're working with thumbnails or high-resolution images.

PNG vs JPG: Choosing the Right Format

When you round corners, the clipped areas become transparent. PNG supports transparency, so downloading as PNG preserves these transparent corners — perfect for layering the image over any background. JPG does not support transparency, so clipped areas are filled with white. Choose PNG when the image will be placed on a colored or patterned background, and JPG when file size matters or the image will always appear on a white background.

Circle Crop

Setting the radius to 50% creates a full circle (or oval for non-square images). This is the standard shape for profile pictures across nearly every platform — LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, Discord, and GitHub all display avatars as circles. Creating a circular crop ensures your photo looks exactly as intended when uploaded to these platforms, rather than relying on automatic cropping that might cut off important parts of the image.

Rounded Corners Image Use Cases

Round Image Corners Tool Features

Frequently Asked Questions

Rounded Corners for App Icons and UI Design

App icons, UI components, and design system elements all rely on precisely rounded corners to create a polished, platform-native appearance.

iOS App Icon Corner Radius

Apple uses a continuous curvature shape called a superellipse (often called a "squircle") for all iOS app icons. The effective radius is approximately 22% of the icon dimension. If you're designing an iOS app icon, export your artwork as a square image and round the corners to 22% using this tool. This previews exactly how your icon will appear on the home screen, App Store listing, and in Spotlight search results.

Android App Icons

Android's adaptive icons use a variety of shapes depending on the device manufacturer and launcher. Common shapes include circles, rounded squares, and squircles. The standard adaptive icon format expects a full-bleed square image that the launcher masks into shape. To preview how your icon looks with rounded corners on Samsung (rounded square), Pixel (circle), or other launchers, use this tool to test different radius values.

UI Component Design

Modern design systems like Material Design (Google), Human Interface Guidelines (Apple), and Fluent Design (Microsoft) all use specific corner radii for buttons, cards, dialogs, and input fields. Material Design 3 uses 8px, 12px, 16px, and 28px radii for small, medium, large, and extra-large components respectively. When creating design mockups or marketing screenshots, pre-rounding images to match these system-level radii creates a native, professional appearance.

Favicon and Touch Icons

Browsers display favicons as squares, but some contexts (bookmarks bar, new tab page, mobile home screen) apply rounding. Safari on macOS rounds bookmark favicons with a subtle ~12% radius. Pre-rounding your favicon ensures it looks intentional rather than awkwardly clipped. For Apple Touch Icons (used when users add your website to their iOS home screen), the system applies its own superellipse mask, so provide a full-bleed square image.

Profile Pictures and Social Media Image Rounding

Nearly every social platform displays profile pictures as circles. Pre-rounding your profile photo gives you control over exactly what appears.

Why Pre-Crop to a Circle?

When you upload a rectangular photo as your profile picture, each platform applies its own circular crop — often centered on the image, which may cut off your face, hair, or important details. By pre-cropping to a circle yourself (50% radius on a square image), you control exactly what appears. Position your face where you want it, add appropriate headroom, and ensure nothing important gets clipped by automatic cropping.

Platform Profile Picture Sizes

For the sharpest profile picture across platforms, start with a square image of at least 400x400 pixels. LinkedIn recommends 400x400, Twitter/X uses 400x400, Instagram stores at 320x320, Facebook uses 170x170 on desktop but stores at higher resolution, and Slack displays at various sizes depending on context. A 500x500 or 1000x1000 square image rounded to 50% will look crisp on every platform.

Team Pages and About Sections

Corporate websites, agency portfolios, and team pages commonly display headshots with rounded corners or circular crops for a uniform, professional look. Rather than relying on CSS (which can break in older browsers or when images are shared), pre-rounding team photos with a consistent radius ensures every headshot looks identical. Use 50% for circles or 15-20% for rounded squares, and download as PNG to preserve the transparent corners.

Email Signature Photos

Email signatures with rounded or circular profile photos look more polished and modern. Since email clients (especially Outlook) have unreliable CSS support, pre-rounding your signature photo is the only reliable way to achieve rounded corners. Download as PNG, resize to approximately 80-120px wide, and embed in your email signature template. The transparent corners ensure the rounded shape displays correctly across Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and every other client.

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