Image Sizing Guide for Social Media
This one’s a quickie! I wanted to share some valuable resources I found which help me stay organized when I’m preparing my images to be shared.
We live in a day and age where there's so many social platforms for us to share images and connect with one another. Whether you’re a content creator or just sharing images for fun, it’s important to realize that every single social platform has different requirements for sizing images. They definitely don’t make it easy for us! Haha! Of course not ;)
It can be really easy to goof up and share your images with incorrect sizes and aspect ratios. Next thing you know, your photos are too compressed or cropped and they look nothing like you intended them to. The best way to avoid sharing the wrong sized image on a social media platform is to prepare each image or video appropriately corresponding to which platform you plan to share it on.
"Sizing? Aspect Ratios? What are you talking about, Clare?"
Ahh yes. It can sound daunting, but don't worry! Here’s a quick run down with the details you'll need to know:
Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio is basically the shape of an image, or rather, the ratio between an image’s height and width. Remember that geometry class from 9th grade? It’s represented as two numbers with a colon in-between… 16:9 , 4:5 , 1:1, 2:3 ...
A square image with equal sides would have an aspect ratio of 1:1. It’s important to understand that whether an image is 200px by 200px, 1080px by 1080px, or 2000px by 2000px, the aspect ratio would still be 1:1 because all of the height and widths of the images are still equal despite their sizes.
This image has an aspect ratio of 1:1 since the height and width are equal.
Pixels
Pixels, also known as picture elements, are the tiny squares on the screen that fill up with color to create the images we see. For each social media platform’s formatting, only so many pixels can fit within the respective settings before pixels are forced to be cropped out or compressed.
For example, if you're trying to share a square photo on Instagram (with an aspect ratio of 1:1), the maximum number of pixels that Instagram can optimize is 1080px by 1080px. If you're trying to share an image with more pixels, say 2000px by 2000px, Instagram will have to compress your image down to fit its sizing requirements which causes it to lose quality.
Now that you know more about the image sizing lingo, let's get down to the specifics for each social platform!
Since most of the next information is straight forward from here on out, I’ll just be sharing the sources and links that I like to refer to instead of me regurgitating all of their information.
Side note: Remember that social media platforms update often and change their formatting too! It’s important to have up-to-date information so you’re not formatting your images with old sizes.
Second Side Note: Theres a handful of links below because each website provides numbers for various social media platforms. There's A LOT so just find what you need!
Image & Video Sizing Resources:
Sprout Social
Sprout Social has a lot of great information & they keep their articles up to date too! They have separate articles for image sizing and video sizing which you can find links to below. They even offer free Google Sheets with all of the same information in easy-to-read formats. Just tab through the different sheets on the bottom of the document to find the numbers you need for each social platform.
Sprout Social Image Article Link
Sprout Social Images Google Sheet Link
Social Platforms Covered:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
YouTube
Tumblr
Social Sprout Video Article Link
Social Sprout Video Google Sheet Link
Social Platforms Covered:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Snapchat
YouTube
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Brandwatch
Heres another great and useful article! Unlike the other articles, these guys cover Google+ sizing!
Brandwatch Article Link
Social Platforms Covered:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
YouTube
Google+
Falcon
If you happen to use Tik Tok, this article covers Tik Tok's sizings along with many others.
Falcon Article Link
Social Platforms Covered:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
YouTube
Tik Tok
Next, once you find the specific dimensions your respective image needs to be for wherever you plan to share it, it's time to resize it! I personally use Photoshop to do all of my resizing. If you don't have Photoshop, here's a link to an article that discusses different ways to resize your images using free tools you can find on MacOS, Windows, and online.
Alright friends, hopefully that covers it! Go out and share your gorgeous images in the appropriate sizes. As always, if you have any questions about resizing your images or want to chat more about this topic, please feel free to leave a comment below or send me a message on my Contact Page! :)
-CJ
