Edit once and crop three ways, or edit three times: 4:5, 1:1, 9:16

Edit once and crop, if the subject sits in the middle of the frame; edit three times, if a square or a story-shaped crop would cut it off. A 4:5 frame cropped to 1:1 keeps 80% of its height, and cropped to 9:16 keeps about 70.3% of its width. On Ideogram 4.5 at medium quality on Sume, one edit is $0.075 and three are $0.225.

The crop arithmetic

Take a 4:5 image, 1080 wide by 1350 high. A 1:1 crop is 1080x1080, which keeps 1080 of 1350 rows, or 80%. A 9:16 crop at full height is 759x1350, since 1350 x 9 / 16 is 759.4; that keeps 759 of 1080 columns, 70.3%, so almost a third of the width is cut. Anything near the left or right edge disappears.

When to edit separately

The Image API docs say Ideogram 4.5 keeps the source shape on an edit when aspect_ratio is omitted, and per Morphic the model supports ratios from 1:6 to 6:1. Setting aspect_ratio on an edit asks for a new shape; check the first result before running the batch.

• The new object sits near an edge of the 4:5 frame, where a 9:16 crop would cut it.
• The result needs breathing room above or below, which a tall story format has and a square does not.
• You want the model to compose for the shape instead of trimming a finished picture.

The workflow

Edit the 4:5 hero first, since it is the shape most feeds display. Crop 1:1 and 9:16 in Pillow with a box centred on the subject, and look at both. Where a crop fails, run an edit for that shape only. In practice you rarely need all three edits: a product on a plain surface can be cropped, while a scene with props at the edges needs the second pass.

Check the crop on a phone-sized preview, not only on a desktop monitor. A 9:16 story is viewed small, and interface elements can cover the bottom of the frame, so a product that sits low in the picture can be hidden. Keep the subject in the middle third of the height and leave the lower edge empty.

A simple rule for batches: edit at the shape of the hardest placement, which is usually 9:16 because it loses the most width, then crop wider shapes from it. A 9:16 frame cropped to 1:1 keeps 56.25% of its height (9 of 16), so check that your subject survives that crop too before you pick the master.

Crop from a lossless file. Save the edit as PNG, crop, and only then export JPEG for the placement, so the crop does not add a second round of compression to an already compressed file.

A related question, whether to edit the original large file or a downsized one, is covered in editing a high-resolution photo without downsizing.