Circular Profile Image Cropping (PixPix)

Many “round avatar generation tools” available on the market actually just apply CSS rounded corners to a square image. While the image looks round when displayed on the web, it remains square once downloaded. Once you try using it in a place where rounded corners are not applied, the original square shape of the image becomes immediately visible.

This creates a truly circular mask, with the areas outside the circle being transparent. When exported as a transparent PNG image, it will maintain a clean, round shape regardless of the background color—whether dark or light. This feature also applies to rounded squares, allowing you to adjust the radius from a slightly rounded edge all the way towards a nearly perfect circular shape.

For avatars on WeChat, Lark, and DingTalk, as well as forum user avatars, circular profiles on PPT team pages, and website author avatars, in most cases, the original images you upload are used directly without any rounding processing. Therefore, having a transparent background is absolutely necessary in these situations.

When using a circular shape instead of a square one for the composition, it will be particularly noticeable if the face is not centered after cutting off the four corners. It’s better to first cut the image into a shape that is close to a square so that the face is centered, and then proceed with cutting it into a circular shape – this will result in a more stable final outcome. This method can be applied to portraits, pets, logos, and product images alike.