--- title: 'Editing images and videos' description: 'How to trim, crop and adjust images and videos in your browser with the built-in media editor, which saves edits as a new file.' url: https://www.medialab.co/support/core/downloading/media-editor --- # Editing images and videos MediaLab includes built-in editing tools to help you quickly trim, crop, and adjust your media files directly in your browser. ### How editing works - **Edits are non-destructive** - All edits are made on the preview version of your file. Your original source file remains untouched and safely stored. - **Creates a new file** - When you save your edits, a new file is created. The original file is preserved unchanged. - **Output format** - Edited files are saved in web-compatible formats: videos as MP4, images as JPG, and audio as MP3, regardless of the original file format. The output uses standard codecs, not the codec from the original file. - **Quality considerations** - The preview/proxy file is used as the source for transcoding, so the output quality will match the preview's bitrate. If you need a higher quality output, recreate the preview at a higher bitrate before using the editor. - **Video processing** - After editing a video, a transcoding job will be submitted to generate the final output. The edited file will become available once transcoding is complete. ### Common use cases - **Trim** - Quickly trim longer videos down to specific segments or highlight reels without needing external editing software. Trimming in the media editor always re-encodes to MP4; if you need to keep the original format, streams, and quality, use Clip Cutting instead. - **Annotate** - Draw or write directly on images and videos to add notes, highlights, or feedback for your team. Note that annotations are applied on a best-effort basis and may not be 100% accurate. ### Editing a file - Select the file you want to edit. - Click the **Media editor** button in the context menu. - Choose **Create edited video**. - Make your adjustments (crop, trim, rotate, annotate, etc.). - Click **Save** to create the edited version. **Note:** The media editor is available for images, videos, and audio files only. It is not available for documents or other file types. ### Editing archived files The media editor remains accessible even when source files are archived, since editing is performed on the preview version which stays readily available. ### Related articles - Clip Cutting - Transcoding feature - Changing the thumbnail or preview image of a video - Editing thumbnails ### Need help? If you have questions about editing files or the editor isn't available, contact your organization's MediaLab administrator or reach out to [support](https://www.medialab.co/contact).