Facebook profile picture: How to add and change

A Facebook profile picture is publicly visible to everyone and is usually decisive in terms of the first impression a profile makes on others. It is therefore particularly important that you select a suitable image here. It should represent your company on Facebook in the best possible way and, just like the Facebook cover photo, must look high quality on all end devices. You should carefully think about the selection, size, and resolution of your image and check it against Facebook's guidelines.

The company logo is usually the obvious idea when choosing a profile picture. A logo is a great showcase and is always easily recognisable. But you can also use a picture of the company, its most famous products, or one from the current social media marketing campaign as a profile picture on Facebook. If the company wants to highlight an individual person, a professional portrait is also suitable as a profile picture. If your new profile picture contains writing, make sure you check that it is legible, even in the small view.

The right image format and a high image resolution are required if you want your profile picture to look as good as possible. Facebook has set official guidelines that determine what dimensions a profile picture should have. Facebook image sizes do not have one fixed size, instead the dimensions vary depending on the device used. Here are the official specifications for profile picture dimensions:

• Desktop view: 170 x 170 px
• Smartphone display: 128 x 128 px

We recommend making your profile picture slightly larger, i.e. at least 180 x 180 px. You can also use larger images and compress them to keep the file size small, and thus have them load faster. However, the image size is not the only crucial aspect; the file format also plays an important role. Facebook basically accepts two file types: JPG and PNG image formats. Most camera images are automatically saved in JPG format, but this is a compressed format. PNG files have the advantage that they are lossless compressed. So the image quality does not decrease. You should choose a PNG image format for better quality, especially if your profile picture contains a logo or text.

To avoid any issues, you should always follow Facebook's most important basic rule when choosing your new profile picture. Only upload images for which you own the copyright. This means that you must have either taken the picture yourself or acquired the rights to it. Copyright infringement can have serious consequences. If you use an image without having the rights to it, the copyright holder can send you a written warning, which is often paired with a fine. If other persons are visible in your profile picture and you didn’t get their consent, this may violate their personal rights. This could end up as a legal dispute.

When you upload a new profile picture on Facebook, you can either delete the old picture or keep it in the album. This decision is entirely up to you. However, we recommend deleting the old picture if it is an outdated logo or information. This will remove it from your album altogether.