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    Perfect Image Size for Social Media • Russwurm

    Perfect Image Size for Social Media

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    Social media needs images to get the attention of users - and it looks just cooler to underpin your blog article with a cool image. But beside your blog there is a whole lot of services you (or others) want to distribute your content to, like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more. All of these services support images and you definitely should go for. Therefore you would need to create images in various formats and make sure to meet the respective guidelines to deliver appropriate results on various platforms. Well, I don't like that - too much waste of my time to create images in all these different formats. So I tried to figure out the most common image size to fit all of them nicely. And the one I am going with is ... wait for it... 1200 x 630 pixel. Basically it is the one recommended by Facebook as well and therefore not such a great finding ;)

    Why this Image Format?

    The main reason you should go with this image size is the flexibility on various platforms and it is the minimum size to have a full blown up image in Facebook. The format is usually JPG because its more compact but if you need the image really crisp (like small text) you should go for PNG.

    Image Guidelines

    But there are a couple of guidelines you should take care to make sure it fits (nearly) everywhere.
    1. The base size is 1200 x 630 pixel
    2. Use JPG especially for photos and PNG if you need it crispy
    3. On the left and right side you should have 80px of "padding" image content - nothing important here
    4. Make sure that all your very important stuff is in the middle in a 630x630 field
    5. Font size of 48px (48pt) if you want to make sure it is readable everywhere
    That's it. Let's check some results on the most important sites (in my opinion of course). If you need the same ratio but a higher resolution (e.g. for hires displays) and your are too lazy to use your brain: 1200 x 630 2400 x 1260 3600 x 1890 4800 x 2520 (my preferred image source size) For my source images I prefer to use the largest 4800 x 2520 resolution because this works for press as well. Or lets say its 4800 pixel wide and whatever height it takes. Usually I am using the ratio which is required for the image and just cut the height down for social image distribution.

    Results of the Perfect Image Size for Social Media

    Original image

    The original image can be seen at the top of the post. Facebook That's how it looks on Facebook. Google+ That's how it looks on Google+. Twitter See it in twitter over here. LinkedIn Because I like this business portal a short view on it. They make it pretty small and it becomes a square. Look at the text which still can be read if 48px (and you have glasses). WordPress And the gallery in WordPress. Probably not that important ...

    Links

    You will find a great overview of the various image sizes by social media type at Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Image Sizes