Blurred border for a photo

Posting a landscape photo to a square or portrait slot without cropping leaves empty space above and below it. The usual fill is white; the better-looking one is the photo itself, enlarged and blurred so it becomes a soft field of the picture’s own colours. This page opens the studio on exactly that: Fit is set to Instagram square, 1080 × 1080, and the frame is Blurred fill. The sharp photo sits centred and whole on top.

Three controls shape the background. Blur sets how soft it is, as a share of the picture; Brightness darkens or lightens it so the sharp photo stands forward; Saturation calms a loud background or brings up a dull one. A thin rule between the sharp picture and the blur is there for when the two run into each other. Change Fit to 4:5, 3:4, Story or a custom size and the blur follows.

1. 1Open the photograph. It is fitted to a 1080 × 1080 square with a blurred copy behind it.
2. 2Pick another size under Fit — 4:5 shows larger in the feed.
3. 3Adjust Blur, Brightness and Saturation until the photo stands forward.
4. 4Save. The Save button shows the exact size the file will be.

• A photo whose edges are a flat colour gives a flat blur. Raise Saturation, or lower Brightness to separate the picture from its background.
• The blur is canvas pixels, so there is no SVG version of this frame; PNG, JPG and WebP all carry it.

Is the photo cropped to fit the square?

No. The whole photo is placed on the canvas, scaled down only if it is larger than the target and never enlarged. Only the blurred copy behind it is enlarged and cropped, which is what fills the space without bars.

Why not just use white bars?

White bars work on a white feed and look like a mistake on a dark one. A blurred copy takes its colours from the photo, so the post reads as one picture at any size. If you want bars, the white border for Instagram page does exactly that.

Can I keep every pixel of a large photo?

Turn on Keep original pixels under Fit. The canvas then grows to the target’s shape at the photo’s own resolution — a 6000 × 4000 photo becomes 6000 × 6000 for a square — instead of the photo being scaled down to 1080.

How is the blur made?

The photo is drawn small, about 64 pixels on its long edge, its brightness and saturation adjusted, and then blurred with three box passes before it is scaled up under the sharp picture. It is the same in every browser because it does not depend on a canvas blur filter.

• Instagram white borderThe whole photo on an exact Instagram 4:5, 1:1, 3:4 or Story canvas, nothing cropped.
• Add white borderAn exact white border in pixels, percent, millimetres or inches, on every side or each side.
• Rounded cornersRound a photo's corners and its frame's corners separately, in pixels or percent, clear in PNG.