After making a screen recording you may want your audience to focus on a specific area of the screen. Cropping a screen recording is a great way to direct the viewer to the key aspects of your recording.
Here are some easy ways to crop a screen recording.
How To Crop While Making A Screen Recording Video
The easiest way to achieve a cropped screen recording is to avoid having to crop at all in the first place. Instead of recording your entire screen and then having to crop it, select a portion to record. In effect, you’re cropping while making your screen recording.
RecordJoy is an online screen recorder that makes it easy to do this. Here’s how to use this great tool:
- Go to the RecordJoy website and sign up for their free trial.
- Adjust the three simple settings for your screen recording.
Depending on whether you’ll narrate during the recording, these allow you to have your microphone on or off.
You can select to make a screen recording while using your webcam simultaneously. This option will have your webcam embedded in the corner of the screen.
You can also choose only to record your webcam. You’ll normally leave this on the default “off” selection for a screen recording. - Click “Start Screen Recording” for screen selection options. You’ll be presented with options to record the entire screen, an application window or a single tab in your internet browser.
By selecting a specific application window or browser tab, you are, in effect, making a cropped screen recording while recording the video. - Once you’ve made your selection, click on “share” and your recording will start after a 3-second countdown. When you’re done with your recording, simply click “Stop Recording” on the RecordJoy screen.
- Use the basic editing options to trim the video by adjusting the start and end times.
- RecordJoy has a few great ways to share your screen recording. You can download or store the video file on their servers to free up space on your hard drive.
You can turn the video into a link and then send the video link to the person that needs to see the video. If the video needs to be private then you can use the option to add a password to it.
You can also copy the embed code and display the video in an iFrame on your website or social media.
How To Crop A Screen Recording On A PC
If you already have a screen recording that needs to be cropped, then some free tools on a PC running Windows 10 will help.
The easiest way to crop a screen-recorded video on a PC is to use the basic video editor in VLC. It’s a bit of a laborious process but it works if you get the settings just right.
Open VLC and then select and open the screen recording file using the Media – Open File menu option.
On the menu select Tools > Effects and Filters > Video Effects > Crop.
Now you need to enter the limits of the screen’s top, bottom, left and right parts that you want to crop. It’ll take some trial and error to get it right because you can’t drag a window. Once you’ve entered the pixel values, press enter.
Does the cropped section look right? If so, take note of the values you entered, as you’ll need to enter them elsewhere on VLC in a minute.
On the VLC menu, go to Tools > Preferences, look for the Show settings section, and select “All”.
Under the expanded settings options, go to Video > Filters > Croppadd and enter the pixel values you noted earlier into the crop settings section.
Under the Filters submenu, look for the Video Scaling Filter checkbox and check it.
Now you can enter a filename for your cropped screen recording and save the file.
How To Crop A Screen Recording On Mac
You can also use VLC to crop a screen recording on a Mac by following the same process but some of the menu options are slightly different.
It’s much easier to use iMovie to crop screen recorded videos on your Mac. Open iMovie, add your screen recording to the media for the project, and then select your screen recording in the timeline.
Click the Cropping button and then adjust the frame to isolate the area you want to crop. The cropped area will be forced to maintain the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Once you’re happy with the screen selection, click the Apply button and save the file.
How To Crop A Screen Recording On Android Or iPhone
You can crop a screen recording on an iPhone or Android device too.
On an iPhone, open the Photos app and select your recording. Then tap “Edit” and use the options to crop, rotate or trim the video.
On Android, you could use the standard Google Photos to crop the screen recording. Open the video using the app and then tap the Edit option below the video progress bar.
Select the area to crop either with a circle, polygon or with a preset aspect ratio. Tap “Save a Copy” when you’re done.
Screen Recording Videos Cropping – FAQ
What Aspect Ratio Should I Use To Crop A Screen Recording?
For optimal viewing, use a standard 16:9 aspect ratio when you crop a video.
What Is The Best File Format For My Cropped Screen Recording?
MP4 is probably your best option. It retains high video quality while keeping file sizes smaller. A lot of different devices also supports it.
How Do You Trim A Screen Recording?
After using RecordJoy to make your recording, you can edit the start and end times of the video before saving the recording.
Can You Edit A Screen Recording?
Yes. You can use the options in RecordJoy to make basic edits, like trimming the screen recording. Clipchamp is built into Windows 11, and iMovie comes standard on Mac. Both of these are useful for editing a recording.