Professional video cropping tool with rectangle, circle, freehand mask, and AI object tracking. Available for macOS and Windows.
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- Color-coded keyframe spans - Timeline now shows colored spans indicating each keyframe's active duration until the next keyframe
- "None" keyframe type - Add keyframes that disable the bounding box for a duration (shown in white on the timeline)
- Update keyframe button - New button to update the selected keyframe with the current bounding box; disabled when no changes pending
- Keyframe bar open by default - Timeline is now visible by default when loading a video
Get the latest release from Releases:
| Platform | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Cropaway-x.x.x.dmg |
Drag to Applications to install |
| Windows | CropawaySetup-x.x.x.exe |
Installer with Start Menu shortcuts |
| Windows | Cropaway-Windows-Portable-x.x.x.zip |
Portable build, no install needed |
Requirements:
- macOS: macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon or Intel
- Windows: Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
- FFmpeg is bundled with all downloads
- Rectangle Crop — Precise rectangular cropping with draggable handles
- Circle Crop — Circular masks with adjustable center and radius
- Freehand Mask — NLE-style point-based mask tool with bezier curves
- AI Track (SAM3) — Object tracking via fal.ai SAM3 cloud API with text or box prompts
- Keyframe Animation — Animate crop changes over time with easing interpolation
- Hardware Accelerated Export — VideoToolbox on macOS; NVENC/QSV/AMF on Windows
- Batch Export — Export multiple videos at once
- Bounding Box Export — Per-frame crop data to JSON or Python pickle
- Mask Adjustments — Smoothness, radius, and denoise controls for mask refinement
- Zoom & Pan — Zoomable video preview (25%–400%) with fit-to-window
- Auto-Save — Crop data persists automatically per video
- Inspector Panel — Numeric crop property editing
- JKL Shuttle — Professional shuttle playback controls
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Rectangle Mode | Cmd+1 |
| Circle Mode | Cmd+2 |
| Freehand Mode | Cmd+3 |
| AI Track Mode | Cmd+4 |
| Export Video | Cmd+E |
| Export All | Cmd+Shift+E |
| Add Keyframe | Cmd+K |
| Undo / Redo | Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z |
| Reset Crop | Cmd+Shift+R |
| Play/Pause | Space |
| Step Forward/Back | → / ← |
| J/K/L Shuttle | J / K / L |
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open Videos | Ctrl+O |
| Rectangle Mode | Ctrl+1 |
| Circle Mode | Ctrl+2 |
| Freehand Mode | Ctrl+3 |
| AI Track Mode | Ctrl+4 |
| Export Video | Ctrl+E |
| Export All | Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Add Keyframe | Ctrl+K |
| Remove Keyframe | Ctrl+Shift+K |
| Previous/Next Keyframe | Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] |
| Auto-Keyframe Toggle | Ctrl+Shift+A |
| Undo / Redo | Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z |
| Reset Crop | Ctrl+Shift+R |
| Copy/Paste Crop | Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V |
| Play/Pause | Space |
| Step Forward/Back | → / ← |
| Jump 1s Forward/Back | Shift+→ / Shift+← |
| Jump 10s Forward/Back | Ctrl+Shift+→ / Ctrl+Shift+← |
| J/K/L Shuttle | J / K / L |
| Nudge Crop | Alt+Arrow Keys |
| Zoom In/Out | Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- |
| Fit to Window | Ctrl+9 |
| Actual Size | Ctrl+0 |
| Toggle Sidebar | Ctrl+\ |
| Toggle Inspector | Ctrl+Alt+I |
| Set In/Out Point | I / O |
| Split Clip | Ctrl+B |
| Toggle Loop | Ctrl+L |
| Slow/Normal/Fast | Ctrl+Alt+S / Ctrl+Alt+D / Ctrl+Alt+F |
Both platforms support cloud-based object tracking via fal.ai SAM3:
- Switch to AI Track mode (
Cmd+4/Ctrl+4) - Enter a text prompt describing the object (e.g., "person", "car") or draw a bounding box
- The service tracks the object across frames and generates keyframes automatically
Requires a fal.ai API key — configure in the app settings. Pricing is approximately $0.005 per 16 frames.
- macOS: H.264, HEVC, and ProRes via VideoToolbox hardware encoding
- Windows: H.264 and HEVC with automatic hardware detection:
- NVIDIA NVENC (
h264_nvenc/hevc_nvenc) - Intel Quick Sync (
h264_qsv/hevc_qsv) - AMD VCE (
h264_amf/hevc_amf) - Software fallback (
libx264/libx265)
- NVIDIA NVENC (
- Alpha channel export for circle and freehand modes (preserves transparency)
- JSON — Per-frame
[x1, y1, x2, y2]bounding box coordinates - Pickle — Python-compatible pickle format for ML pipelines
The published GitHub Releases are unsigned/ad-hoc-signed. If you want to verify the source, ship a personal build, or self-sign with your own Developer ID, follow the instructions below.
Prerequisites
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Xcode 26 or newer (required for the Liquid Glass APIs used in the UI). Install from the Mac App Store, then run
sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.appand accept the license:sudo xcodebuild -license accept. - Homebrew
- FFmpeg (
brew install ffmpeg) — used at runtime via the system PATH or the bundled binary.
1. Clone and open in Xcode
git clone https://github.com/mhadifilms/cropaway.git
cd cropaway
open cropaway.xcodeprojIn Xcode, pick the Cropaway scheme and My Mac as the destination, then press ⌘R to run a Debug build. The first build downloads SwiftPM dependencies and may take a couple of minutes.
2. Command-line Debug build
xcodebuild -scheme Cropaway -configuration Debug \
-derivedDataPath build/DerivedData build
open build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/Cropaway.app3. Release DMG (ad-hoc / unsigned)
./scripts/build-dmg.sh 1.0.0This produces build/Cropaway-1.0.0.dmg ad-hoc-signed. The DMG opens normally, but Gatekeeper will block first launch because the app is not signed with a Developer ID or notarized. To run it:
- Right-click the app in
/Applications→ Open → Open in the confirmation dialog (only required the first time), or - Run once from Terminal to strip the quarantine flag:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Cropaway.app
4. Release DMG (signed with your own Developer ID, optional)
If you have a paid Apple Developer account and a Developer ID Application certificate installed in your login keychain, you can produce a fully signed (and optionally notarized) DMG by exporting the required environment variables before invoking the build script:
# Signing only — produces a Developer-ID-signed DMG (still triggers Gatekeeper unless notarized)
export DEVELOPMENT_TEAM="ABCDE12345" # Your 10-char Team ID
export CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: Your Name (ABCDE12345)"
# Optional: also notarize and staple
export APPLE_ID="you@example.com"
export APPLE_TEAM_ID="ABCDE12345"
export APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD="abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop" # App-Specific Password, not your Apple ID password
./scripts/build-dmg.sh 1.0.0You can find your identity string with:
security find-identity -p codesigning -v | grep "Developer ID Application"App-Specific Passwords are generated at appleid.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords. Notarization uploads the DMG to Apple and waits for the result; it typically takes 1–5 minutes.
Prerequisites
- Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
- .NET 8 SDK
- Inno Setup 6 (only if you want to build the installer
.exe) - FFmpeg — the build expects
ffmpeg.exeandffprobe.exeinCropawayWindows/ffmpeg-bin/. Download a static build from BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds and copy the two binaries into that folder.
1. Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/mhadifilms/cropaway.git
cd cropaway\CropawayWindows
dotnet restore CropawayWindows\CropawayWindows.csproj
dotnet build CropawayWindows\CropawayWindows.csproj -c Release2. Self-contained publish (portable folder)
dotnet publish CropawayWindows\CropawayWindows.csproj `
-c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true `
-p:PublishSingleFile=false `
-p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true `
-o publish
# Bundle FFmpeg with the build
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path publish\ffmpeg -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item ffmpeg-bin\ffmpeg.exe publish\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe
Copy-Item ffmpeg-bin\ffprobe.exe publish\ffmpeg\ffprobe.exeRun publish\CropawayWindows.exe directly, or zip the publish folder for a portable distribution.
3. Installer (.exe)
With Inno Setup installed:
iscc /DMyAppVersion=1.0.0 installer.iss
# Output appears in CropawayWindows\output\CropawaySetup-1.0.0.exeThe installer is unsigned by default; SmartScreen may show a "Windows protected your PC" warning on first run. Click More info → Run anyway to proceed, or sign the installer yourself with signtool if you have an EV/OV code-signing certificate.
- SwiftUI with macOS 26 Liquid Glass
- AVFoundation for video playback
- FFmpeg (bundled) with VideoToolbox hardware acceleration
- Core Graphics for mask rendering
- WPF (.NET 8) with CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
- MediaElement for video playback
- FFmpeg (bundled) with NVENC/QSV/AMF hardware acceleration
- System.Drawing for mask rendering
- fal.ai SAM3 API for AI object tracking
- JSON-based crop data persistence
Releases are fully automated via GitHub Actions. To create a new release:
./scripts/release.sh 1.2.0This tags the commit on main and pushes it. CI builds both platforms in parallel (macos-26 and windows-latest runners) and publishes a unified GitHub Release with the DMG, installer, and portable ZIP.
MIT License