Circles are a mask, not a magic file type
People search for a circle crop when they want a round profile picture. JPEG and most PNG exports are still rectangular bitmaps. The round look comes later: CSS `border-radius: 50%` or `clip-path: circle()`, an alpha PNG with transparent corners, or a mask in Figma, Canva, Photoshop, or Illustrator. This page is the honest prep: center the face or mark in a square so the eventual circle does not clip ears, horns on a logo, or the wordmark. If you place a subject using a rectangular preview only, the corners you “kept” will vanish in chat. Leave padding inside the square equal to what the circle will hide. Favicons and Apple touch icons are their own sizes (16, 32, 180 px and friends) but they still start from a clear square mark — trim here, then scale. Banners and blog heroes are usually not circles; do not force a radial mask onto a wide header. Thumbnails in some CMS themes are circles; others are rounded rectangles — check the theme. For logos, a true round badge often needs a transparent PNG after this frame; start from HEIC-to-PNG if the source was an iPhone snap of a sign, or from SVG in a design tool if you still have vectors. Convertify4u’s Canvas control may preview a circle while exporting a square; treat that preview as a guide. The design tool finishes the alpha. Background Remover helps when you need a cutout before the round mask. None of this replaces a passport’s rectangular rules — identity documents almost never want a circle.