What is my face shape? A measured answer from one photo.
Every face-shape quiz asks you to stand at a mirror and guess whether your forehead or your jaw is wider. Canthion measures it instead. One straight-on photo, 478 landmarks found in your browser, five ratios taken off the outline of your face. The read tells you which of the seven shapes those numbers add up to, and it shows the numbers, so you can see what the answer was built from. Nothing is uploaded.
The five things that decide it
Face shape is not one measurement. It is the pattern across five, all taken from the silhouette of your face in a front photograph:
- Length against width. The height of the face from the hairline to the chin, divided by the width across the cheekbones. Long faces read oblong; short ones read round or square. This is the facial index, compared against published norms for your population and sex.
- Jaw against cheekbones. The width across the corners of the jaw as a share of the width across the cheekbones. A jaw nearly as wide as the cheekbones is the square and triangle signature; a jaw well narrower than the cheekbones is heart and diamond. This is jaw width, also placed against norms.
- Forehead against cheekbones. The width at the temples as a share of the width across the cheekbones. A wide forehead separates heart from diamond; a narrow one separates triangle from square.
- The corner of the jaw. The angle the outline turns through at the jaw corner. Angular corners read square; soft, rounded corners read round or oval.
- Chin taper. How much the outline narrows from the jaw corners to the chin. A pointed chin is part of what makes heart and diamond; a broad, flat chin is part of square.
| Input | Taken from | Compared against | Reported as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length against width | Hairline-to-chin height, divided by cheekbone width | Published norms for your population and sex | Percentile |
| Jaw against cheekbones | Jaw-corner width as a share of cheekbone width | Published norms for your population and sex | Percentile |
| Forehead against cheekbones | Temple width as a share of cheekbone width | A symmetric reference face | Ratio |
| The corner of the jaw | The angle the outline turns through at the jaw corner | A symmetric reference face | Ratio |
| Chin taper | How much the outline narrows from the jaw corners to the chin | A symmetric reference face | Ratio |
The first two have real reference populations behind them, so they are reported as percentiles. The last three have no trustworthy norms in the literature. Those are compared against a symmetric reference face and reported as ratios instead.
All five appear on your read. A single word with nothing behind it is a horoscope.
The seven shapes, in terms of those five numbers
Each shape is a particular combination. This is the whole taxonomy, stated so you can check a read against your own numbers:
- Oval. Length and width in proportion, forehead and jaw close in width, a jaw corner that is neither sharp nor round. No line dominates, so in craft terms there is nothing to counter.
- Round. Short for its width, with a soft jaw corner and little taper to the chin.
- Square. The jaw as wide as the cheekbones, an angular corner, a broad chin.
- Oblong. Long for its width, with sides that run roughly parallel from temple to jaw.
- Heart. The forehead the widest part, the cheekbones next, the jaw tapering to a comparatively narrow, often pointed chin.
- Diamond. The cheekbones the widest part, with both the forehead and the jaw narrower than them.
- Triangle. The jaw the widest part and the forehead narrow, the reverse of heart.
Most faces sit between two classes rather than squarely inside one. When yours does, the read names both of them and says how far it leans, instead of forcing a single word on you.
What it is honestly for
Face shape is a craft taxonomy. It came out of hairdressing and optics, not out of anthropometry. Nobody has published a distribution of the seven shapes across a population, and no study shows that any one of them is rated better than the others. Canthion prints that caveat on the read itself, rather than dressing the word up as a score.
It is useful for the job it was invented to do. Hair, facial hair and glasses all get chosen against the lines a face already has.
Take a heart-shaped face. It is top-loaded, so the craft move is to add visual weight low and keep it off the top: bottom-heavy frames rather than a heavy browline, a beard that squares the jaw corners, hair that avoids width at the temples. An oblong face wants width, not height. A square face wants softening at the corners, or a deliberate lean into the angle.
The complete report makes those calls against your own numbers and shows the reasoning behind each one. It also renders the recommended cut, beard and frames onto your photo, so you can look at them instead of imagining them.
Why it can change, and what that means
All five inputs come off the soft-tissue outline. None of them comes from bone.
Body-fat level moves the jaw and cheek widths. A beard moves the jaw corner and the chin taper. Hair over the temples moves the forehead width. Hold a phone closer than arm's length and simple lens geometry widens the nose and cheeks against the forehead. So a read can move between two photographs of a face that has not changed at all, and a face that came out "square" at one weight can come out "oval" at another.
Two things follow from that. Take the photo the way the scan asks: even light, camera at eye height, at least an arm's length back, hair off the forehead.
Then read the inputs, not just the word. Say your shape is being driven mostly by the jaw-width number, and that number sits within its error bar of the boundary. The read will say "between square and oval".
How to take the photo
- Face the camera straight on, chin level, neutral expression, mouth closed.
- Camera at eye height and at least an arm's length away. Closer than that distorts every width ratio on this page.
- Even light from the front. A hard side shadow shifts where the outline gets found.
- Hair pushed off the forehead and behind the ears so the temples and the jaw corners are visible. Hair across either one is the most common reason a read comes out wrong.
Then run the free scan. The landmarks are found in a few seconds; the named shape with its five inputs is in the complete report.
Common questions
How do I find my face shape?
Measure the five ratios above on a straight-on photo and match the pattern to the seven definitions. Canthion does exactly that from 478 landmarks on your own photo and shows the numbers, so the answer can be checked rather than believed.
What are the seven face shapes?
Oval, round, square, oblong, heart, diamond and triangle. Each is defined above in terms of the same five measurements.
Is face shape a real measurement?
The five measurements are real and two of them have published norms. The seven labels are a hairdressing convention with no population data and no evidence that any is rated better. Useful for choosing a cut or frames; meaningless as a score.
Can my face shape change?
The bone does not. Every input is soft tissue, so weight, a beard, hair and lens distance all move it. That is why the read shows its inputs.
Is this free?
The free scan finds the landmarks. The named shape, its inputs and the cut, beard and frame guidance built on it are in the complete report, a one-time $59 with no subscription.
Does it upload my photo?
No. The read runs in your browser and the free scan uploads nothing.
One photo. Nothing uploaded. The overview costs nothing and needs no account.
Related: facial index · jaw width · face width-to-height · the facial symmetry test · the honest guide to looksmaxxing.