How to crop an image to the given rectangle using imagecrop() function using PHP?

imagecrop() is an inbuilt function in PHP that is used to crop an image to the given rectangle. It crops the image from the given rectangle area and returns the output image. The given image is not modified.

Syntax

resource imagecrop ($image, $rect)

Parameters

imagecrop() takes two parameters, $image and $rect.

• $image − It is the parameter returned by the image creation functions, such as imagecreatetruecolor(). It is used to create the size of an image.

• $rect − The cropping rectangle is an array with keys x, y, width, and height.

Return Values

imagecrop() returns the cropped image resource on success or it returns false on failure.

Example 1: Basic Image Cropping

The following example demonstrates how to crop an image to specific dimensions ?

<?php
    // Create an image from the given image
    $img = imagecreatefrompng('/path/to/input/image.png');
    
    // Set the size of the cropped image
    $img2 = imagecrop($img, ['x' => 0, 'y' => 0, 'width' => 500, 'height' => 320]);
    
    if($img2 !== FALSE) {
        imagepng($img2, '/path/to/output/cropped.png');
        imagedestroy($img2);
    }
    
    imagedestroy($img);
?>

Example 2: Dynamic Square Cropping

This example creates a square crop using the minimum dimension of the original image ?

<?php
    // Load an image from the local drive folder
    $filename = '/path/to/input/image.png';
    $img = imagecreatefrompng($filename);
    
    $ini_x_size = getimagesize($filename)[0];
    $ini_y_size = getimagesize($filename)[1];
    
    // The minimum of x length and y length to crop
    $crop_measure = min($ini_x_size, $ini_y_size);
    
    $crop_array = array(
        'x' => 0, 
        'y' => 0, 
        'width' => $crop_measure, 
        'height' => $crop_measure
    );
    
    $thumb_img = imagecrop($img, $crop_array);
    imagejpeg($thumb_img, '/path/to/output/thumb.jpg', 100);
    
    imagedestroy($thumb_img);
    imagedestroy($img);
?>

Installation: This function requires the GD extension to be enabled in PHP. Install via: sudo apt-get install php-gd (Ubuntu) or enable in php.ini: extension=gd

Key Points

• The original image remains unchanged after cropping

• Always check if the crop operation returns FALSE to handle failures

• Remember to call imagedestroy() to free up memory

• The crop rectangle coordinates start from the top-left corner (0,0)

Conclusion

The imagecrop() function provides an efficient way to extract specific portions of images in PHP. Use it for creating thumbnails, removing unwanted areas, or preparing images for specific display requirements.