How to Change Aspect Ratio in iMovie for iPhone/iPad/Mac

If anyone wants to know which program is free and pre-installed on Apple's smartphones or computers and empowers you to capture, edit, enhance, and share video or audio media content. I won’t say no to iMovie. For editing digital video clips, Apple iMovie is good enough for narration, aspect ratio conversion, queue organization, color grading, green screen visual effects, and many more.

AVI and MP4 formats are supported by iMovie, but others such as DivX and MOV are not possible. No matter the iOS app or Mac software, iMovie works with a streamlined interface to edit multiple texts, audios, and videos. If you need to figure out how to change aspect ratio in iMovie, this post is all-sided and easy. Let’s go ahead and get the user steps!

• How to Change the Aspect Ratio of a Video in iMovie on Mac
• How to Resize Video Dimension in iMovie for iPhone and iPad
• FAQs about Converting Aspect Ratio You Need to Get
• The Bottom Line

With that said, iMovie software was pre-installed on your macOS computer. In terms of changing aspect ratio of a video in iMovie, users either use the auto-crop feature or customize the window depending on specific requirements. Compared to Final Cut Pro which is designed for Mac only, iMovie is completely free and suitable for beginners. Follow us to see the tutorials below.

Launch iMovie from Mac. Commence a new project and select a clip

In the "My Media" part, you need to upload local media files to this software. It is easy to switch between projects like Segment 1 and Segment 2 in the left-hand panel. For utilizing stock resources, click on "Libraries" to find "Photos" and "All Events".

Click Crop to autofit the size. Or customize the window in real time

There are two ways for you to solve the problem. To begin with, if you'd like to automatically crop the video with iMovie, tap on "Crop" under the interface.

As for changing aspect ratio in iMovie manually with your wanted width and height such as 16:9 and 4:3, use the "Cropping" function from the toolbar. And you see a professional cropping workspace in iMovie.

On the screen, select the area to crop by dragging and dropping the edges of the window. It is advised to play the video for checking the effect. If you like the result, just save the settings for the project.

On the menu, follow File > Share > File... to export the video

When it comes to exporting your video from iMovie on Macbook or iMac, navigate to "File" > "Share" > "File..." from the menu. Afterward, you're empowered to fine-tune the description, tags, format, resolution, quality, and more.

The iMovie app offers a series of basic functions like cropping, combining, speeding, volume changing, and trimming. The interface is streamlined and easy to use as well, which helps you generate and mix texts, soundtrack, video clips, and photos in the same project. However, iMovie has no button for changing aspect ratio, users need to adjust the window. Let's jump into the details!

Select New Project and Movie to commence the project on the iMovie app

Open up the iMovie app on your device. Click "+" > "Movie" to commence a new project on this program. If you want to make a Hollywood-style movie trailer, it is suggested to try a ready-made template by clicking "Trailer".

Highlight the clip under the timeline. Click to zoom and pin the aspect ratio

There is no "cropping" button under the toolbar like other video editing apps, users need to click the window and then zoom and pin the canvas for changing the aspect ratio.

Export video from iMovie. Choose an output size and find the video on album

Once the project is finished, hit the button "Done" under the left corner place. The export size can be picked include "Medium - 360p", "Large - 540p", "HD - 720p", and "HD - 1080p". Besides that, iMovie offers channels to post video on platforms like YouTube and Instagram.

A. Can iMovie do different aspect ratios?

The iMovie software helps you convert a wide range of video aspect ratios. However, the iMovie app only gives you options between a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for HD files and a 4:3 standard aspect ratio for SD files. As a result, the iMovie app is unsuitable for converting video resolution for unusual posting requirements.

B. What are the differences among the 3:2, 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios?

The aspect ratio of a video with 1.77 width which is larger than the height, the 3:2 makes a 1.5 width, while the 4:3 comes with 1.33. Another difference is the example resolutions. To be detailed, the common resolutions for 3:2 are 2160*1440 and 2560*1700, the resolution for 16:9 is 1920*1080, and the value for 4:3 is 1440*1080.

C. What aspect ratio is cinematic?

There are two cinematic aspect ratios: the widescreen is 1.85:1 and the anamorphic widescreen is 2.39:1. However, the format will turn to 4:3 on television with standard definition or 16:9 with higher definition, whose widescreen cinemas is 1.78:1 rather than the normal value 1.85:1.

D. What are video aspect ratios for popular social media?

All of us know that popular social media platform requires different posting aspect ratios for video, profile photo, landscape, stories, or others. Compared to Instagram and Facebook, TikTok and YouTube seem simpler in video dimension. To be specific, YouTubers post 16:9 videos, and TikTokers are required 9:16 projects. Here are some details.

	Profile Photo	Landscape	Portrait	Square	Stories	Cover Photo
Facebook	170*170	1200*630	630*1200	1200*1200	1080*1920	851*315
Twitter	400*400	1024*512	N/A	N/A	N/A	1500*1500
LinkedIn	400*400	1200*627	627*1200	N/A	N/A	1128*191
Instagram	320*320	1080*566	1080*1350	1080*1080	1080*1920	N/A

Some issues you need to know when changing aspect ratio in iMovie like limited video formats and presets for resolutions. So, we recommend you an alternative to convert aspect ratios with customized settings. This software is called VideMake Video Editor, and you can get:

● An all-in-one video editing software for Mac and Windows both;

● Advanced green screen, split-screen, keyframes, reverse, and narration;

● Libraries of stickers, filters, emojis, music, transitions, and subtitles;

● Multiple formats support, including MP4, AVI, DivX, WMV, MOV, MKV, M4A, MPEG-2, PNG, JPG, MP3, AAC, FLAC, GIF, etc.