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Crop a screen recording from Crop → Adjust screen in the toolbar below the video, or open Layout → Adjust (press A) and click the Screen crop thumbnail. Drag the purple frame around what you want to keep, then choose whether it applies to one layout, every layout in the clip, or every clip.
Cropping hides distractions such as browser tabs, the menu bar, or your dock without changing the original recording. Everything outside the crop frame is hidden from view.

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How to crop a screen recording

  1. Select the clip you want to crop
    • Click on your screen recording in the timeline.
  2. Open the crop tool
    • Click Crop in the toolbar below the video, then choose Adjust screen. The option is disabled if the Screen slot is empty or hidden.
    • Alternatively, open Layout → Adjust (or press A) and click the thumbnail beside Screen crop. The row is called Media crop when the current layout shows B-roll media.
    • You’ll see:
      1. A purple crop frame that you can drag and resize.
      2. Crop settings for position, size, and aspect ratio (like 16:9 or 1:1).
      3. A live preview of what your viewers will see.
  3. Check the crop across the clip
    • Use the timeline below the preview to check other moments without closing the crop tool. Click the play button to preview the clip, and click it again to pause. Playback stops at the end; click play again to restart.
    • Click the timeline or drag the red playhead to move through the clip. The preview updates to the selected moment so you can make sure important content stays inside the crop frame.
  4. Adjust the crop
    • Freeform crop: Choose “Custom” from the aspect ratio dropdown to move and resize freely.
    • Constrained crop: Choose a preset aspect ratio to maintain specific dimensions. Available presets:
      • 16:9: standard widescreen
      • 16:10: slightly taller widescreen, common for laptop displays
      • 4:3: classic standard ratio
      • 1:1: square
      • 4:5: portrait, optimized for Instagram and Facebook feed posts
      • 9:16: full vertical, ideal for TikTok, Reels, and Stories
    • Manual input: Type in exact pixel values for precision.
    • Automatic zoom: When your selection gets small, the preview zooms in and centers on it so the crop handles stay easy to grab. This only changes your view of the preview. Your crop values stay exactly where you set them.
What’s inside the purple frame is what will be shown in your final video.

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Let Tella suggest a crop

In the screen crop window, click Auto Crop. Tella detects content regions in the recording and suggests crops around them. Use the arrows beside Auto Crop to step through the suggestions, then save the one you want. Auto Crop isn’t available when cropping your camera or an image. If the clip has both screen and camera footage, use the dropdown in the crop window title to switch between Screen and Camera without closing the tool. If you have unsaved changes, Tella asks Save crop changes? first. Click Save and switch to keep them and move to the other frame, or Cancel to stay on the current frame and keep editing.

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Choose how far the crop reaches

In the crop window, choose a scope from the dropdown next to the save button before saving. The button names the scope, for example Crop 1 layout or Crop 3 layouts in all clips (Save 1 layout and so on when cropping the camera):
  • This layout only frames the layout you opened the crop tool on without changing the other layouts in the clip. The preview timeline and playback cover only that layout. Use it when you want to show a different part of the same recording at a different point in the clip.
  • All layouts in this clip (the default) applies the crop to every layout in the current clip, replacing any individual layout crops there.
  • All layouts in all clips applies the crop across the video, replacing individual layout crops in those clips.
The same scopes apply when cropping your camera. If you reposition the camera’s focus point in the crop window, This layout only keeps that focus point on the active layout; the clip-wide choices replace layout-specific focus points in their scope.

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Copy a crop to another clip

To reuse the same crop on a different clip, copy it from one clip and paste it onto the next instead of retyping the position and size.
  1. Open the crop window on the clip whose crop you want to reuse.
  2. Click ⋯ (More crop controls) next to Size and choose Copy crop dimensions, or press ⌘ + C (Ctrl + C on Windows).
  3. Close the crop window, select the other clip, and open its crop window.
  4. Click ⋯ and choose Paste crop dimensions, or press ⌘ + V (Ctrl + V on Windows).
  5. Check the scope and save as usual.
  • If the clip you paste onto has a different resolution, Tella scales the crop to cover the same part of the frame.
  • Paste crop dimensions is disabled until you’ve copied a crop. The copied crop stays available until you leave the editor.
  • Copy and paste stay inside Tella and don’t use your system clipboard. Copying or pasting text in the position and size fields works as normal.
Copy and paste work the same way when cropping your camera.

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Remove a crop

In the crop window, click Reset to return to the full screen recording, then save.

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Do I need to adjust layouts after cropping?

No. Once cropped, your screen recording automatically resizes and aligns itself inside each layout.
Last modified on October 14, 2026