I Built a Free Social Media Image and Video Crop Tool as a Vibe Coder
Hi DEV Community 👋
I'm Praneeth Kawya Thathsara — a product designer, Rive animator, vibe coder, and founder of Kanthaka Labs. 🐎
I love finding small everyday problems, turning ideas into products, and shipping them.
Recently, I kept running into the same annoying problem.
An image looked perfect for Instagram.
Then I needed a version for X.
Then LinkedIn.
Then a YouTube thumbnail.
And suddenly, I was searching Google again:
"What is the correct Instagram post size?"
Or:
"What size should a LinkedIn banner be?"
I was tired of checking social media image sizes again and again.
So I started building CropFiles.
What Is CropFiles?
CropFiles is a free online image and video crop tool built specifically for social media content.
The idea is simple:
Upload → Choose a platform → Select a size → Crop → Export
No complicated design workspace.
No need to remember social media dimensions.
No signup for basic cropping.
I wanted to build a focused web tool that solves one repetitive problem quickly.
Quick note: The desktop experience currently works best. I'm still improving the mobile version.
One File. Multiple Social Media Sizes.
This was one of the main problems I wanted CropFiles to solve.
A single image or video may need to become:
- An Instagram square post
- An Instagram Story or Reel
- A TikTok video
- A YouTube thumbnail
- A Facebook cover
- A LinkedIn banner
- An X / Twitter image
- A Pinterest Pin
Creating each version manually becomes repetitive very quickly.
My goal with CropFiles is to let creators upload one file and prepare it for multiple social media platforms without restarting the entire workflow.
Upload once.
Choose the platform.
Crop.
Export.
Move on.
Why I Built CropFiles
My main background is in product design, UI animation, and Rive animation.
I work with visual content almost every day.
Because of that, I've repeated this workflow many times:
- Create an asset.
- Check the required social media dimensions.
- Open an editor.
- Resize or crop the asset.
- Export it.
- Repeat the same process for another platform.
It sounds like a small problem.
And it is.
But it's a problem I experienced repeatedly.
Instead of trying to find a massive revolutionary SaaS idea, I decided to build a solution for a problem I already understood.
That idea became CropFiles.
Yes, I'm a Vibe Coder 😄
I'm a designer and animator first.
I'm not going to pretend I've spent my entire life as a traditional software engineer.
I'm a vibe coder.
And I'm enjoying it.
My current product-building process looks something like this:
Find a problem → Design the experience → Build → Break things → Fix them → Ship
AI helps me move much faster on the development side.
It helps me explore ideas, understand technical problems, and build things that would previously have taken me much longer.
But I've also learned something important.
AI doesn't automatically build a good product.
You still need to make product decisions.
You still need to ask:
- What should the user see first?
- What is the main action?
- Where could users get confused?
- Does this feature actually solve a problem?
- Is the interface becoming too complicated?
- What should I remove?
- Can someone understand the product without a tutorial?
Writing code is only one part of building a product.
The experience still matters.
A lot.
Building the CropFiles Editor
The current CropFiles editor includes social media categories and ready-to-use crop presets.
I'm currently building workflows for platforms such as:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- X / Twitter
- Snapchat
- Threads
Instead of manually entering dimensions, users can choose a platform and select the format they need.
I'm also experimenting with tools around:
- Custom crop sizes
- Aspect ratios
- Crop area selection
- Image adjustments
- Background controls
- Text
- Watermarks
- Video trimming
- Multi-size exports
One workflow I'm particularly interested in is the Creator Export Pack.
The idea is simple.
Upload one asset.
Prepare multiple social media versions.
Export them.
Without restarting the whole process every time.
I'm Not Trying to Build Another Canva
This is something I keep reminding myself while building CropFiles.
There are already incredibly powerful design platforms.
I don't want to build another massive design editor with hundreds of tools.
That's not the goal.
The goal is much simpler:
CropFiles should be a fast way to prepare images and videos for social media.
That's it.
If a feature doesn't improve that workflow, I have to question whether CropFiles actually needs it.
As a product designer, I've learned that adding features is easy.
Keeping a product focused is much harder.
Building in Public Instead of Waiting for Perfect
CropFiles is not finished.
The desktop experience is currently the strongest part of the platform.
The mobile experience still needs work.
There are UX issues I already know about.
There are tools I'm still improving.
There are probably bugs I haven't discovered yet. 😄
Normally, I might have waited.
Fix everything.
Polish everything.
Make it perfect.
Then launch.
But this time, I'm trying something different.
I'm building in public.
Because a product sitting privately on my computer can't teach me much about real users.
I need people to use it.
I need people to click the wrong button.
I need someone to tell me:
"This is confusing."
Or:
"Why doesn't it do this?"
That's where the useful product decisions start.
What I'm Learning From Building CropFiles
The biggest lesson so far is simple:
You don't always need a revolutionary startup idea.
Sometimes a product can start with a repetitive problem.
Find a problem.
Understand the workflow.
Build the smallest useful solution.
Ship it.
Then listen.
I'm still early in the CropFiles journey.
There's a lot I want to improve.
But the product exists.
People can use it.
And now I can learn from what happens next.
For me, that's much more valuable than keeping another "perfect idea" inside a notes app.
Try CropFiles
If you're on desktop, feel free to try CropFiles:
I'd genuinely love feedback from developers, designers, content creators, and fellow vibe coders.
Especially if you find something that feels:
- Confusing
- Slow
- Unnecessary
- Broken
- Missing from the workflow
Tell me.
I'm still building.
I'm Praneeth Kawya Thathsara — a vibe coder, product designer, Rive animator, and founder of Kanthaka Labs. 🐎
At Kanthaka Labs, I'm building SaaS products, web apps, and developer tools while sharing the journey and lessons along the way.
Ideas, unbridled. 🐎
If you're building something too, I'd love to hear about it.
What are you working on right now?
Let's build.
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