Canvas

Canvas-level controls for ratio, crop, position, transforms, and background setup.

The canvas is where you set the final look of your image before export.

What you can change on the canvas

  • Aspect ratio and crop behavior
  • Position and scale
  • Tilt and perspective transforms
  • Orientation adjustments
  • Background and frame context

Main settings

Setting Range or options Default
Position X -20..120 50
Position Y -20..120 50
Scale 75..400 100
Tilt rotation -15..15 degrees 0
Perspective depth 300..2000 px 1000
Rotate X -35..35 degrees 0
Rotate Y -35..35 degrees 0
Quarter-turn rotation `0 90
Straighten -45..45 degrees 0

Aspect ratio presets and common uses

Ratio Common use
auto Keep the source screenshot ratio unchanged
1:1 Square social posts and compact thumbnails
5:4 Product cards and store visuals
4:3 Docs images and slide content
7:5 Editorial and blog card visuals
3:2 Landscape post graphics
16:9 Presentation and video-cover layouts
19.5:9 Full-screen iPhone screenshot framing
2:1 Wide banners and hero strips
21:9 Ultra-wide headers and cinematic crops
4:5 Vertical feed posts
3:4 Portrait cards and tutorial visuals
5:7 Poster-style compositions
2:3 Tall portrait and print-like layouts
9:16 Stories and short-form vertical content
9:19.5 Full-screen modern iPhone portrait output
1:2 Extra-tall poster compositions

What to know

  • The crop box stays inside valid bounds and cannot be shrunk below the app minimum (0.04 in app scale).
  • Ratio presets change how crop works:
    • freeform lets you crop to any shape.
    • original keeps the source image ratio.
  • If you enter a value outside an allowed range, Shotwell brings it back to the nearest valid value.
  • Rotating to 90 or 270 swaps export width and height.

Drill down

Common edge cases

  • Position values below 0 or above 100 are valid and useful when you want intentional bleed.
  • Strong perspective or tilt usually needs follow-up crop and position cleanup.
  • Very tiny crop areas are prevented by the minimum crop size rule.