MacPipAnswer
How do I crop a screen recording on a Mac?
QuickTime Player can trim, rotate and flip a video but not crop it, so use iMovie, which is free: select the clip, click the Cropping button above the viewer, choose Crop to Fill and drag the frame around the part to keep.
The easiest crop is the one you don’t need: next time, press Shift-Command-5 and choose Record Selected Portion, so only that area is recorded.
Crop in iMovie
iMovie keeps the project shape (usually 16:9), so a narrow crop is enlarged to fill it. Crop close to that shape, or the picture gets soft.
- Create a project in iMovie and drag your recording into the timeline.
- Select the clip and click the Cropping button above the viewer.
- Choose Crop to Fill. A frame appears over the video.
- Drag and resize the frame around the part you want, then click Apply.
- Choose File → Share → File to export.
Record only the part you need
On macOS 26 the toolbar can also record one window. Smaller recordings are lighter files too: see how big a screen recording is.
- Press Shift-Command-5 and click Record Selected Portion.
- Drag the box around the app or area. Under Options, turn on Remember Last Selection to reuse it.
- Click Record, and stop with the Stop button in the menu bar or Command-Control-Esc.
With Clacky Studio
Open the recording with Edit in Studio (or any video with Edit a Video) and click Crop… under Crop recording. Pick No menu bar or Dock to hide both in one click, Around your clicks to frame where you worked, or Free to drag the corners. Reset puts it back. Zooms and captions work inside the crop.
Need another shape? Studio also makes 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1 from the same take, with the camera following your pointer. See vertical video from a screen recording.
Where these facts come from
Checked on 5 November 2026.
- Apple: Ken Burns and cropping in iMovie on Mac
- Apple: Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac (Record Selected Portion, Remember Last Selection, Record a window on macOS 26)
- Apple: Trim a movie or clip in QuickTime Player
Questions
Can I crop a video in the Photos app on a Mac?
Does cropping lower the quality?
Can I crop to a vertical video for TikTok?
Facts checked on 5 November 2026.
Related
- Hide the menu bar and Dock in a screen recordingTurn on Automatically hide and show for the menu bar and the Dock in System Settings, record a selected area, or crop them out later in an editor.
- Trim a screen recording on a MacOpen it in QuickTime Player, choose Edit → Trim, drag the yellow handles and click Trim. To cut a part from the middle, split the clip first.
- CropHide the menu bar and the Dock in one click, crop to where you clicked, or drag the corners. Zooms and captions work inside the crop.
- Vertical video from a screen recordingMake a 9:16 clip for TikTok, Reels and Shorts from a Mac screen recording, with the camera following your pointer. Also 4:5, 16:9 and 1:1.
- How big is a screen recording on a Mac? I measured itI saved four test recordings seven ways. A minute of typing was 2.5 MB, scrolling 49 MB, ProRes almost 1 GB. What decides the size, and how to shrink it.
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