How to make a Mac screen recording vertical or square, and crop out what you don’t need

Step by step

1. 01

   Record as usual

   Click Display, Window or Area, choose what to record and click Start Recording. There’s no need to settle the shape first: you can change it in the editor at any time.

2. 02

   Choose a shape

   Open the aspect ratio menu in the toolbar above the editor’s preview and choose Wide (16:9), Vertical (9:16), Square (1:1), Classic (4:3), Tall (3:4) or Portrait (4:5); Auto follows the recording’s own proportions. You can also switch it under Aspect Ratio at the bottom of the Background tool.

3. 03

   See how the picture rearranges

   The recording is scaled into the canvas whole and centred: nothing is stretched and nothing is cut off. The background fills whatever space is left, and the webcam takes a new position on the canvas, its size adjusted to match. One shape applies to the whole recording, and you can switch back whenever you like.

4. 04

   Crop out what you don’t need

   Click Crop in the toolbar to open the Crop Video window. Drag the handles on the corners and edges to set the area, or drag inside it to move it; the size of the cropped picture, in pixels, shows above.

   To keep a fixed ratio, choose 16:9, 1:1, 4:3 or 9:16 and the ratio holds as you drag; Custom lets you drag freely. Click Apply (or press Return) to finish, or Reset to go back to the full picture.

5. 05

   Export

   The resolution you choose on export refers to the short side: at 1080p a vertical video comes out at 1080×1920 and a square one at 1080×1080; at 4K a vertical video is 2160×3840, so switching to vertical costs no sharpness. Original shows the exact pixel size it will export at, right in the menu.

Cropping and aspect ratio: what’s the difference?

Cropping decides which part of the recording stays. It applies to the screen recording only, and leaves the webcam untouched. The aspect ratio decides the shape of the finished video, and the cropped picture is then fitted into that canvas whole.

Crop first, then choose the shape, and the picture fills the frame better: cut a narrow window out of the screen, for example, and it sits in a vertical frame without large empty margins.

Camera moves and the cursor keep working

After cropping, the camera still zooms in on the spot you clicked. When the cursor moves outside the cropped area, the cursor and its click effects are hidden for the moment, and the editor tells you The cursor is outside the crop area.