How to Crop in OBS Studio with Alt Key on Windows

This guide provides a quick and straightforward walkthrough on how to crop any media source in OBS Studio on Windows using the Alt key shortcut. You will learn the exact steps to trim your camera, display capture, or video sources directly on your canvas, allowing you to remove unwanted edges from your stream or recording layout.

To crop a media source in OBS Studio using your keyboard and mouse, follow these steps:

1. Select the Source: In the “Sources” dock at the bottom of the OBS window, click on the media source (such as your webcam, image, or display capture) that you want to crop. A red bounding box will appear around the source in the preview canvas.
2. Hold the Alt Key: Press and hold the Alt key on your Windows keyboard.
3. Drag the Handles: While continuing to hold the Alt key, left-click on one of the red square handles on the edges or corners of the boundary box and drag it inward.
4. Release to Apply: Once you have cropped the source to your desired size, release the mouse button first, and then release the Alt key.

When a source is cropped, the border color of the cropped edge will change from red to green in the preview window. This visual indicator helps you easily identify which edges of the media source have been cropped.

If you ever need to undo the crop and restore the source to its original dimensions, right-click the source in the “Sources” list or preview window, hover over Transform, and select Reset Transform (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R).