Facebook image sizes explained

Content alone is not enough to stand out from the social media crowd. Quality, method, and storytelling are also important elements. Par­tic­u­larly important here is the concept that visual content marketing comes first. As in­ter­est­ing and original as text may be, companies only have a fraction of a second to reach their audience. The brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text content. So that means nothing is as effective for social media marketing as a good visual im­pres­sion. To achieve this, you’ll need to gather the best elements from your content and make sure your Facebook image sizes are ideal.

First im­pres­sions count. What may sound trivial is still factual. We need between 0.3 and 7 seconds to form an im­pres­sion of something we are looking at. First im­pres­sions determine friend­ships or job op­por­tun­it­ies. Though they can still be corrected through human in­ter­ac­tion, social media users have to be convinced within the first few seconds.

An essential factor for visual content is optimal di­men­sions and image sizes. Facebook images that are in­cor­rectly sized or in the wrong format can appear distorted, pixelated, or cropped. Not only does this look un­pro­fes­sion­al, but it also weakens your social media marketing and your company brand.

In social media marketing, business profiles and fan pages on Facebook and Instagram are a must. Instagram image sizes and video formats are a topic in and of them­selves, so this article will focus solely on Facebook image sizes. If you have your own Facebook page as Facebook marketing for your own business, remember that there are different types of images on Facebook, each with their own re­quire­ments:

• Profile pictures
• Cover pictures
• Event pictures
• Shared picture posts
• Carousel ad­vert­ising
• Link images

For par­tic­u­larly large formats and high res­ol­u­tion, it may be necessary to compress images before uploading them. JPG, PNG, or GIF formats are most suitable for Facebook. PNG and GIF are more suitable for logos and other graphics, whereas JPGs are more suitable for photos.

Whether for a private account, a business Facebook page, or a Facebook fan page, we recommend a Facebook cover image size of 820 x 312 pixels, since Facebook displays cover images on a desktop in this format. The file size should be less than 100 KB. For optimal display on mobile devices, the ideal aspect ratio has di­men­sions of 640 x 360 pixels.

For the size design of Facebook cover images, an ideal in­ter­me­di­ate value of 820 x 360 pixels with the important com­pon­ents in the centre is sometimes also suitable, in order to avoid a clipped display.

For the size design of Facebook profile pictures, an image size of at least 170 x 170 pixels is re­com­men­ded. The ideal medium for high-quality res­ol­u­tion is a picture that measures 800 x 800 pixels or 1200 x 1200, since profile images can be enlarged and should therefore have the highest res­ol­u­tion possible. Profile pictures are displayed on a desktop in 170 x 170 pixels, and on smart­phones in 128 x 128 pixels. Keep in mind an image ar­range­ment with a round format, according to the current profile picture standard.

If you want to post pictures on your timeline, a size of 1200 x 630 pixels is re­com­men­ded. 1200 x 1500 pixels is a suitable size for portrait format images. The maximum aspect ratio is 1:1.5. Keep in mind that Facebook images with incorrect di­men­sions will be cropped or scaled. Since timeline images are like a chronicle of your activ­it­ies and actions, you should pay par­tic­u­lar attention to using the correct di­men­sions.

Event photos in the header of a Facebook event appear par­tic­u­larly large. A size of 826 x 294 pixels is therefore re­com­men­ded in this case. The feed is displayed on Facebook in 470 x 174 pixels, so a higher res­ol­u­tion of 1920 x 1080 pixels (aspect ratio 16:9) is advisable here. Since the display can vary depending on the device being used, you should arrange the most important details in the centre and keep any text short if necessary.

Carousel ad­vert­ise­ments, also known as carousel ads, are par­tic­u­larly useful for present­ing up to ten images with their own URLs in one ad. The ideal image size here is 600 x 600 pixels and an aspect ratio of 1:1. There is space for 125 char­ac­ters of text, 40 title char­ac­ters, and 20 link label char­ac­ters.

If you want to share links, it makes sense to il­lus­trate them. This will attract attention and generate feedback and in­ter­ac­tion. With a Facebook display size of 500 x 261 pixels, an image size of 1200 x 627 pixels is re­com­men­ded.