Matte Generator

A matte is the background a picture sits on when the picture is not the shape of the frame. Borrowed from picture framing, where the mount board around a print stops the image running to the edge, it solves the same problem on social media: your photo is 16:9, the feed wants 1:1 or 4:5, and rather than cutting the sides off you place the whole image on a background of the right shape. Nothing is lost - the framing you composed survives, and the matte fills what is left over.

This is the opposite of cropping, and it is the right choice in a specific set of cases: a wide landscape where the width is the point, a screenshot where the edges carry information, a product shot that has to show the whole object, or any image where cutting into it would remove something you cannot afford to lose. When the subject is central and the surroundings are incidental, a crop is better and gives the image more of the tile. Choosing between the two is the actual decision; this tool covers the first case.

Four things control how the matte looks. The background can be a solid colour, white, black, or a blurred and darkened copy of the image itself - the last is the one people recognise from Instagram, and it works because it fills the frame with the picture's own palette without you having to pick a colour. Padding sets how much breathing room sits between the image and the frame edge. A corner radius rounds the image, and an optional drop shadow lifts it off the background. Everything renders on a canvas in your browser at full output resolution, so the preview is the file - and the image is never uploaded.