crop image without disturbing aspect ratio

Question

** In image processing, while cropping images, aspect ratio is maintained on any site or app.

Even uploading images as profile photo on whatsApp and Facebook, we cant edit both height and width separately

Why we cant edit the way we want **

Answer 1

Almost all image editing programs have an option to control whether aspect ratio is constrained or not while cropping. Sometimes one wants to guarantee the same aspect ratio and sometimes one wants to crop to a different one for a specific purpose. In fine art printing, crops are usually unconstrained to either match a specific paper size or to make sure the edges hit exactly where the photographer wants them to. (Resizing without preserving aspect ratio is almost never useful on photographs.)

For creating a profile photo, the desired aspect ratio constraint would be the one the site prefers or imposes, not the original one for the image. This immediately creates user confusion if the target ratio is not the one of the uploaded photo because most users do not understand the constraint and would wonder why they can't just use their entire photo.

It might be useful to have the UI that guides people to crop to the aspect ratio the site prefers, but most sites are somewhat imprecise about the entire concept anyway. (E.g. Facebook's profile photo layout has changed a number of times over the years. When I worked on the Photos team there, effort was being put into trying to automatically generate crops of photos so they could be display in a variety of places with different aspect ratios due to design choices. That this would enrage any serious photographer was not a significant concern to those working on the feature.)

It also takes a moderate amount of design and programming to do the UI for this and thus it doesn't get done that often. But most likely the reason is because it confuses users. Instagram would be an exception as it heavily pushes toward square aspect ratio and its large user base has very much embraced this. The UI very much steers one to crop to a square.