Add black bars to video and photos
Slide in cinematic black bars and compare the result with the original, then open your own video or photo and export it at full resolution. It runs in your browser: your file is never uploaded.
- Free
- No upload
- No account needed
- No watermark
- MP4, WebM, PNG, JPEG, WebP
Letterbox
How to add black bars to a video online
Open your video or photo
Choose Open your own file: the editor opens with the effect, ready for your file (videos as MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV; photos as JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF). It opens in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.
Set the bars and compare
Letterbox sets how tall the bars are: 72 gives the 2.39:1 of widescreen cinema on a 16:9 video. Compare shows the original beside the result.
Export it
In the editor, export the video as MP4 or WebM, or the photo as PNG, JPEG or WebP, at its full resolution, with no watermark.
Black bars over the picture, not around it
The bars are drawn over the top and bottom of the picture, as a cinema matte is: the video keeps its size and shape, so 1920×1080 stays 1920×1080, and what lies under the bars is covered. That is the cinematic letterbox look.
It doesn't put the whole picture on a taller canvas with bars round it, which is what fitting a landscape video into a vertical 9:16 frame takes; for that, use a tool that pads the video.
Which ratio is cinematic?
On a 16:9 video, Letterbox 11 gives 1.85:1, the widescreen of many films; 31 gives 2:1; about 68 gives 2.35:1 and 72 gives 2.39:1, the anamorphic widescreen of epic cinema; and 100 gives 2.76:1, the widest, as on the grandest 70 mm epics. In between, the bars grow in proportion. On a 1080p video, 2.39:1 means bars about 138 pixels tall.
Bars on vertical, square and photo frames
At 100 the picture between the bars is 2.76:1 on any frame, and below that the bars' height is in proportion. So on a square or vertical video the bars are much taller for the same amount: a low amount goes a long way there. A frame already 2.76:1 or wider gets no bars. Photos work the same way as videos.
Pure black, with clean edges
The bars are pure black, with edges smoothed across a pixel at any size, and by default they are drawn after every other effect, so grain, glows and a LUT never land on them. A vignette added in the editor darkens the corners of the picture between the bars, not of the bars.
Your files stay on your device
Everything happens right on your device, in your browser. Your videos and photos are opened, edited and saved there, and never sent anywhere.
Because nothing is uploaded, your files are safe: nothing can leak, and no one else, not even us, ever sees them. You don't need an account: one holds only your email address and the AI agents you let in, and signing in keeps a single cookie. An agent's instructions to your editor pass through our server and are deleted as soon as the editor has carried them out; your files never do. Without cookies, the site counts visits and a few choices, such as a preset or effect you pick and the format you export to, but never which files you open or anything in them.
Exports leave out hidden details such as where a video was recorded, and a shared link carries only your settings, never your file.
Files and browsers
Opens MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV videos and JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF photos, and exports MP4 or WebM, or PNG, JPEG or WebP, at full resolution, keeping the original sound where the browser can. Works in current Chrome and Edge on a computer or Android, in current Firefox on a computer and in Safari 26 or later; HDR video is converted to standard range.
A cinematic look with black bars
The Cinematic preset puts the bars in a whole film look. It opens the editor with it:
Questions about adding black bars to a video
More effects to try
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- GlitchAdd a glitch effect to a video or photo in your browser: bands torn sideways, colours split, blocks broken. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
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- DitherAdd a dither effect to video or photos in your browser: ordered or noise dots, black and white or colour, 2 to 16 levels. Export at full size. Free, no upload.
- HalftoneAdd a halftone effect to video or photos in your browser: dots that grow with the light, or mosaic tiles. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
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- Chromatic aberrationAdd chromatic aberration to a video or photo in your browser: red and blue lens fringes that grow toward the edges. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
- RGB splitAdd an RGB split to a video or photo in your browser: red and blue shifted apart, like a worn videotape. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
- VignetteAdd a vignette effect to a video or photo in your browser: darker corners in an ellipse, a circle or the frame's rectangle. Full resolution. Free, no upload.
- BloomAdd a bloom effect, the soft glow that spreads from the brightest parts of the frame, to video or photos in your browser. Free, no upload, full resolution.
- FisheyeAdd a fisheye look to a video or photo with barrel lens distortion, in your browser. No black corners. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.