aspect ratio Archives - The PowerPoint Blog

Crop to Aspect Ratio & Shape in PowerPoint

When PowerPoint added image crop capabilities, the need to rely on Photoshop (or other external image editing programs) was amazingly reduced. The Image Crop tool has some great advanced options that are not well known, or used nearly enough. So, here is a demo of two great tools hidden in PowerPoint’s Image Crop tool.

Here is our sample slide and original image, a tall rectangle:

IMAGE CROP Page_1

If the goal is to use a perfect square image, it is only 3 clicks away:

Select the image
Go to FORMAT > CROP > ASPECT RATIO
Select 1:1 and the image is cropped to a perfect square (1:1 aspect ratio) – without the image being distorted
The bonus click would be moving the image within the crop to adjust what is visible

IMAGE CROP Page_6

3 clicks and our test slide image now looks like this:

IMAGE CROP Page_2

The same can be used for the common 4×3 and 16×9 aspect ratios and several other options!

Another great, but not well known, option of the Image Crop tool is changing the shape of any image. All of the shapes dialog, used to add a PowerPoint shape (rectangle, circle, trapezoid, etc.) are available to images too.

Select the image
Go to FORMAT > CROP > CROP TO SHAPE
Select any available PowerPoint shape

image crop 10

3 clicks and the image can be an oval or trapezoid:

IMAGE CROP Page_4

IMAGE CROP Page_5

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T08:23:47-07:00April 15th, 2016|Tutorial|

16×9 in a 4×3 world

If you have a 16×9 aspect ratio presentation like this:

This is what it looks like when projected on to a 4×3 screen:

The presentation is vertically centered and goes left to right. The top and bottom are not used (but the projector will show black in these areas). This is called Letter boxing.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:36:37-07:00June 4th, 2014|Tutorial|

4×3 in a 16×9 world

If you have a 4×3 aspect ratio presentation – like this:

This is what it looks like when projected on to a 16×9 screen:

The presentation is vertically centered and goes top to bottom. The left and right sides are not used (but the projector will show black in these areas). This is called Pillar boxing.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:36:55-07:00June 2nd, 2014|Tutorial|

Widescreen Presentations – Size Matters

PowerPoint 2013 has updated itself to use widescreen presentations as its default (which I believe is good). And the PAGE SETUP has changed as well. The aspect ratio is the same (16:9). My friend, and Microsoft PowerPoint MVP, Echo Swinford has a great description of the page setup change here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T10:44:08-07:00March 20th, 2013|Tutorial|

Sample Video of 4×3 and 16×9 Aspect Ratios

“What is the aspect ratio?” It has become one of the first questions for presentation and video projects. It is still a very confusing concept for many people. We use a simple video of each aspect ratio for clients to see the difference. It is the same video footage, which makes it easier to see the 4×3 aspect ratio is taller and the 16×9 aspect ratio is wider.

4×3 aspect ratio
[youtube src=”https://youtube.com/embed/gQaXbSPQoDQ?rel=0″]

16×9 aspect ratio
[youtube src=”https://youtube.com/embed/NTRV8ISqE1A?rel=0″]

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T08:55:56-07:00December 3rd, 2012|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Resize and Keep Aspect Ratio: PPT vs. Photoshop

Another great feature is resizing (enlarging or shrinking) images and autoshapes from any corner and have it maintain the same aspect ratio.

This feature is available in PowerPoint and Photoshop, using the SAME key combination.

PowerPoint: SHIFT + adjust with mouse

Photoshop: SHIFT + adjust with mouse

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T11:10:07-07:00January 25th, 2009|Tutorial|