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Image Focal Point Cropping

Keep the subject of an image in frame at every card size and aspect ratio.

moderate Design Systems

What it adds

A focal point stored per image and honoured by every crop the app renders, at any ratio.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Identify every place the app crops an image to fit a fixed shape — card thumbnails, list rows, avatars, hero banners, share previews — and record the ratios each of them uses.

  2. 2

    Store the focal point as relative coordinates on the image record itself, not on any one crop, so the same point drives the square thumbnail, the wide banner, and any ratio added later.

  3. 3

    Give whoever uploads the image a way to set the point directly on the image, with the common crops previewed live beside it, so the choice is made against the shapes it will actually appear in.

  4. 4

    Define a sensible default for images that have never been given a focal point, and apply it everywhere rather than letting each surface choose its own — an inconsistent default is harder to diagnose than a wrong one.

  5. 5

    Do not crop by scaling the image down to fit the frame. Letterboxing a portrait photo into a wide card produces bars and a subject too small to read, which is the problem the crop was meant to solve.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • The focal point belongs to the image, not to a crop or a card. Storing it per surface means the same photo is corrected three times and drifts apart the moment one of them is edited.
  • Rotating or re-orienting an image invalidates its stored coordinates. Recompute or clear the point when orientation changes, or the crop will centre on the wrong part of the picture.
  • A focal point chosen against one ratio can still lose the subject in another. Show the common responsive crops during selection so the person setting it sees the square, the wide, and the tall result at once.
  • Replacing the image file without replacing the record leaves a stale focal point pointing at nothing in particular. Reset to the default on replacement and prompt for a new point.
  • Extreme ratios — a very wide banner or a very tall panel — may still cut the subject even with a correct focal point. Clamp the crop so the point stays within the frame rather than sliding off the edge.
  • Images narrower or shorter than the frame must not be upscaled past the point of visible softness; pad them against a neutral surface instead.
  • Text overlaid on a cropped image must stay legible whatever the crop lands on, which means a scrim or a reserved area rather than trusting the image to be dark enough.

Definition of done

9
  • Every image record carries a focal point stored in relative coordinates independent of any crop.
  • All crop surfaces in the app derive their framing from that single stored point.
  • The upload flow lets the point be set on the image with the common crops previewed.
  • Images without a set focal point use one documented default across every surface.
  • Changing orientation or replacing the file clears or recomputes the stored point.
  • The subject stays within the frame at every ratio the app renders, including the widest and tallest.
  • No crop letterboxes or upscales an image beyond legibility.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.