Shorts, TikTok and Reels want a tall frame, and almost everything is filmed wide. Simply squeezing a 16:9 video into 9:16 makes everyone look stretched; the honest fix is to take a tall slice out of the wide frame and accept that you lose the sides.
What the Vertical Reframe 9:16 does
Centre-crops the source to the target shape, then scales the result — the filter is crop followed by scale with lanczos. Nothing is stretched: the aspect ratio of everything inside the frame is preserved exactly.
The crop is from the centre, and it is not smart. There is no subject tracking here. If your subject sits to one side of the frame, they will be cut off, and no setting will change that.
Open the Vertical Reframe 9:16 and follow the settings and checks below.
Target shapes
| Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
| 9:16 (default) | Shorts, TikTok, Reels, Stories |
| 1:1 | Square — feed posts |
| 4:5 | Portrait feed — the tallest most feeds allow |
| Method | Centre crop, then lanczos scale |
| Distortion | None — proportions preserved |
| Audio | Copied unchanged |
| Output | MP4 (H.264) |
| Maximum input | 2 GB |
How to use it
- Add a landscape clip.
- Choose the Target shape for wherever it is going.
- Reframe, then watch the result before posting — the centre crop is decided for you.
A practical quality check
Going from 16:9 to 9:16 keeps only about a third of the width. That is a severe cut, so it works on a talking head near the middle of frame and fails on a wide shot or a two-person interview. If the subject is off-centre, crop manually in an editor instead — this tool cannot follow them.
Common questions
Will people look stretched?
No. The frame is cropped rather than squashed, so proportions are exactly as filmed. Stretching is what happens when software forces a wide frame into a tall one without cropping, and this deliberately does not do that.
Can it follow my subject?
No, and it is better to say so plainly than to imply otherwise. The crop is fixed at the centre for the whole clip. Subject-tracking reframes need a full editor.
How much of the picture do I lose?
Going 16:9 to 9:16 keeps roughly 32% of the width — the outer two-thirds are gone. 4:5 keeps about 56%, and 1:1 about 56% as well, so both are much gentler crops if the platform allows them.
Does the resolution drop?
The frame is cropped and then scaled to the target, so vertical detail is preserved and the pixel count falls with the narrower frame. Reframing from a 1080p source gives plenty of resolution for any vertical feed.
Useful next tools
- Resize Video — Resize a video to 1080p, 720p, 480p or 360p, keeping aspect.
- Trim Video — Cut the segment you want and save it.
- Compress Video — Shrink any video in your browser — pick a quality level or a size to fit.
- Social Media Image — Crop images to Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn sizes.
Vootkit provides a browser tool and educational guidance, not a guarantee that every browser, device or third-party platform will accept every file. Platform specifications can change, so verify important publishing requirements with the destination service.
Try the tools from this guide
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