How to "crop" a rectangular image into a square with CSS?

I know that it is impossible to actually modify an image with CSS, which is why I put crop in quotes.

What I'd like to do is take rectangular images and use CSS to make them appear square without distorting the image at all.

I'd basically like to turn this:

Into this:

A pure CSS solution with no wrapper div or other useless code:

img {
  object-fit: cover;
  width:230px;
  height:230px;
}

Assuming they do not have to be in IMG tags...

HTML:

<div class="thumb1">
</div>

CSS:

.thumb1 { 
  background: url(blah.jpg) 50% 50% no-repeat; /* 50% 50% centers image in div */
  width: 250px;
  height: 250px;
}

.thumb1:hover { YOUR HOVER STYLES HERE }

EDIT: If the div needs to link somewhere just adjust HTML and Styles like so:

HTML:

<div class="thumb1">
<a href="#">Link</a>
</div>

CSS:

.thumb1 { 
  background: url(blah.jpg) 50% 50% no-repeat; /* 50% 50% centers image in div */
  width: 250px;
  height: 250px;
}

.thumb1 a {
  display: block;
  width: 250px;
  height: 250px;
}

.thumb1 a:hover { YOUR HOVER STYLES HERE }

Note this could also be modified to be responsive, for example % widths and heights etc.

1. Place your image in a div.
2. Give your div explicit square dimensions.
3. Set the CSS overflow property on the div to hidden (overflow:hidden).
4. Put your imagine inside the div.
5. Profit.

For example:

<div style="width:200px;height:200px;overflow:hidden">
    <img src="foo.png" />
</div>

If the image is in a container with a responsive width:

.rect-img-container {
  position: relative;
}

.rect-img-container::after {
  content: "";
  display: block;
  padding-bottom: 100%;
}

.rect-img {
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  object-fit: cover;
}

<div class="rect-img-container">
  <img class="rect-img" src="https://picsum.photos/id/0/367/267" alt="">
</div>

(edit: updated from sass to plain css) (edit: Added dummy image for reference)

Using background-size:cover - http://codepen.io/anon/pen/RNyKzB

CSS:

.image-container {
  background-image: url('http://i.stack.imgur.com/GA6bB.png');
  background-size:cover;
  background-repeat:no-repeat;
  width:250px;
  height:250px;
}  

Markup:

<div class="image-container"></div>

I actually came across this same problem recently and ended up with a slightly different approach (I wasn't able to use background images). It does require a tiny bit of jQuery though to determine the orientation of the images (I' sure you could use plain JS instead though).

I wrote a blog post about it if you are interested in more explaination but the code is pretty simple:

HTML:

<ul class="cropped-images">
  <li><img src="http://fredparke.com/sites/default/files/cat-portrait.jpg" /></li>
  <li><img src="http://fredparke.com/sites/default/files/cat-landscape.jpg" /></li>
</ul>

CSS:

li {
  width: 150px; // Or whatever you want.
  height: 150px; // Or whatever you want.
  overflow: hidden;
  margin: 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
}
li img {
  max-width: 100%;
  height: auto;
  width: auto;
}
li img.landscape {
  max-width: none;
  max-height: 100%;
}

jQuery:

$( document ).ready(function() {
    
    $('.cropped-images img').each(function() {
      if ($(this).width() > $(this).height()) {
        $(this).addClass('landscape');        
      }
    });
  
});

Check out CSS aspect-ratio

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/aspect-ratio

.square-image{
  width: 50%;
  background-image: url('https://picsum.photos/id/0/367/267');
  background-size: cover;
  background-position: center;
  aspect-ratio: 1/1;
}

<div class="square-image"></div>

object-fit: cover will do exactly what you need.

But it might not work on IE/Edge. Follow as shown below to fix it with just CSS to work on all browsers.

The approach I took was to position the image inside the container with absolute and then place it right at the centre using the combination:

position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);

Once it is in the centre, I give to the image,

// For vertical blocks (i.e., where height is greater than width)
height: 100%;
width: auto;

// For Horizontal blocks (i.e., where width is greater than height)
height: auto;
width: 100%;

This makes the image get the effect of Object-fit:cover.

---

Here is a demonstration of the above logic.

https://jsfiddle.net/furqan_694/s3xLe1gp/

This logic works in all browsers.

---

Original Image

Vertically Cropped

Horizontally Cropped

Square Container

---

I had a similar issue and could not "compromise" with background images. I came up with this.

<div class="container">
    <img src="http://lorempixel.com/800x600/nature">
</div>

.container {
    position: relative;
    width: 25%; /* whatever width you want. I was implementing this in a 4 tile grid pattern. I used javascript to set height equal to width */
    border: 2px solid #fff; /* just to separate the images */
    overflow: hidden; /* "crop" the image */
    background: #000; /* incase the image is wider than tall/taller than wide */
}

.container img {
    position: absolute;
    display: block;
    height: 100%; /* all images at least fill the height */
    top: 50%; /* top, left, transform trick to vertically and horizontally center image */
    left: 50%;
    transform: translate3d(-50%,-50%,0);
}

//assuming you're using jQuery
var h = $('.container').outerWidth();
$('.container').css({height: h + 'px'});

Hope this helps!

Example: https://jsfiddle.net/cfbuwxmr/1/

Use CSS: overflow:

.thumb {
   width:230px;
   height:230px;
   overflow:hidden
}

Either use a div with square dimensions with the image inside with the .testimg class:

.test {
width: 307px;
height: 307px;
overflow:hidden
}

.testimg {
    margin-left: -76px
    
}

or a square div with a background of the image.

.test2 {
width: 307px;
height: 307px;
    background: url(http://i.stack.imgur.com/GA6bB.png) 50% 50%
}

Here's some examples: http://jsfiddle.net/QqCLC/1/

UPDATED SO THE IMAGE CENTRES

.test {
  width: 307px;
  height: 307px;
  overflow: hidden
}

.testimg {
  margin-left: -76px
}

.test2 {
  width: 307px;
  height: 307px;
  background: url(http://i.stack.imgur.com/GA6bB.png) 50% 50%
}

<div class="test"><img src="http://i.stack.imgur.com/GA6bB.png" width="460" height="307" class="testimg" /></div>

<div class="test2"></div>