As an extension to @Jon's answer, here's an implementation of this approach in PHP-GD library
/**
* Crops image by taking largest area rectangle from center of image so that the desired aspect ratio is realized.
* @param resource $src_image image resource to be cropped
* @param float $required_aspect_ratio Desired aspect ratio to be achieved via cropping
* @return resource cropped image
*/
public function withCenterCrop($src_image, float $required_aspect_ratio) {
$crr_width = imagesx($src_image);
$crr_height = imagesy($src_image);
$crr_aspect_ratio = $crr_width / $crr_height;
$cropped_image = null;
if ($crr_aspect_ratio < $required_aspect_ratio) {
// current image is 'taller' (than what we need), it must be trimmed off from top & bottom
$new_width = $crr_width;
$new_height = $new_width / $required_aspect_ratio;
// calculate the value of 'y' so that central portion of image is cropped
$crop_y = (int) (($crr_height - $new_height) / 2);
$cropped_image = imagecrop(
$src_image,
['x' => 0, 'y' => $crop_y, 'width' => $new_width, 'height' => $new_height]
);
} else {
// current image is 'wider' (than what we need), it must be trimmed off from sides
$new_height = $crr_height;
$new_width = $new_height * $required_aspect_ratio;
// calculate the value of 'x' so that central portion of image is cropped
$crop_x = (int) (($crr_width - $new_width) / 2);
$cropped_image = imagecrop(
$src_image,
['x' => $crop_x, 'y' => 0, 'width' => $new_width, 'height' => $new_height]
);
}
return $cropped_image;
}