Your one-stop resource for always-updated cover photo sizes (and templates) for Facebook profiles, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.
Social media is becoming more and more visual every day. Ever since Facebook revealed its timeline cover photo, people have really taken to it this idea of a large header and/or cover images.
It’s a lot of work though to create a good cover photo for your profile– especially when the dimensions for these cover photos are so hard to find. Well, you’re in luck! I’ve gathered the cover photo dimensions from the top social networks that incorporate them, and put them all in one place for you.
I also promise to always stay on top of social network changes, and update these templates accordingly.
Download all JPEG templates instantly by adding your email below!
The primary social networks that I have included for you to download are as follows [click to go straight to that template]:
- Facebook Cover Photo Template (Profile)
- Facebook Cover Photo Template (Page)
- Facebook Group Cover Photo Template
- Twitter Header Template
- LinkedIn Background Image (Profile)
- LinkedIn Background Image (Company)
- Pinterest Cover Photo
- YouTube Channel Art
Each template showcases the maximum display dimensions. I’ve also marked out where certain interface obstructions or cropping may occur. The grey areas are what will be seen, the dark areas are what will be covered up.
Make sense? Cool, let’s get started.
A Brief Word of Advice
One thing I tell all my clients when crafting these for them is that they should not look at it as a billboard or a marketing opportunity. It should be used to showcase the person or brand– not to sell something. It is a means of visually enriching your online story.
Too much text is unattractive and people won’t read it anyways. Trying to communicate too much ends up communicating nothing at all. So keep your cover photos high-quality and simple.
Lastly, I always recommend that you keep your cover photos consistent across all your social profiles. They don’t have to be the exact same photo, but consistency builds brand recognition and trust. Just something to keep in mind.
Facebook Cover Photo Template (Profile)
Over the years there have been a lot of changes to the many Facebook image sizes. Currently, your Facebook profile cover photo is a maximum resolution of 2,048×758.
Make sure you look out for the areas that will be covered up by your profile picture, your name, and a row of action buttons. While these obstructions are annoying at times, you can also get creative and make them a part of your background if you want.
For example:
Notice how the profile photo is seamlessly a part of the cover photo. Very creative.
Facebook Cover Photo Template (Page)
If you have a Facebook Page, your cover photo gives you 100% of the space to work with. The maximum display dimensions are 2,048×779.
There are no interface elements or obstructions of any kind.
Just keep in mind that your Facebook Page Cover Photo is not a flyer. It’s also not a billboard. Don’t try and put a ton of information all over it because people don’t want to sit and read through it.
Use your Cover Photo to showcase your brand as visually as you can with color, photography, and/or illustrations that show your audience what your about without using words.
Facebook Group Cover Photo Template
If you manage a Facebook Group, the Cover Photo is also unobstructed. You have 2,048×830 to tell the visual story of your group.
Since groups tend to get a lot more visits than a Facebook page, the group Cover is something you might consider updating frequently to showcase updates or upcoming events for the community.
Twitter Header Template
Since the day it was introduced, the Twitter Header has not changed it’s dimensions. It still sits at a maximum resolution of 1,500×500.
Like your Facebook profile, there is an obstruction to be aware of from your profile photo. It’s a much smaller area than Facebook’s photo obstruction, but still enough to have some fun with if you want.
LinkedIn Background Image Template (Profile)
If you want to pretty-up your LinkedIn Profile, the background image is a nice touch. You have a very narrow area, however, maxing out at a resolution of 1,584×396.
Since LinkedIn is a more professional environment, I highly recommend keeping your Background Image a photo or illustration. Leave the text off of it–especially since it’s such a small area to work with.
Just like Twitter, LinkedIn also places your profile photo over top of a portion of the Background Image.
LinkedIn Background Image Template (Company)
If you manage a LinkedIn Company Page, you also have the ability to upload a Background Image. The maximum display resolution is 1,536×768.
This maximum resolution is deceiving, however, as most of it ends up getting cropped out. There is only a very narrow sliver of the uploaded photo that will actually display.
On top of that, there is also a portion of the Background Image covered by your company profile photo. Yikes!
I have no idea why LinkedIn decided to make this so complicated. I’m hoping it changes soon so it doesn’t feel like so much of our photo is wasted.
Pinterest Cover Photo Template
Pinterest was one of the last big platforms to allow for a cover photo. You can upload one for yourself at a maximum resolution of 1,600×900.
Again, a small portion of the photo will be covered up by your profile photo.
If you choose not to upload a cover photo, Pinterest populates a dynamic one which displays your latest pins. I think this was a brilliant (and beautiful) move by the Pinterest team.
YouTube Channel Art Template
Now we come to the last, and most complicated of all the social media cover photos-the YouTube Channel Art.
YouTube requires you to upload a photo with a minimum resolution of 2,560×1,440. You can upload one that is larger, but it will get reduced in size (and quality).
The challenge with YouTube Channel Art is that there are 3 different display possibilities–Desktop, Mobile, and TV. Each of the 3 display environments will show your Channel Art in a different crop.
In my template above, the white area is what will be displayed on most mobile screens. The extended grey areas to the left and right of that white area is the additional space that will be seen on desktop, laptop, or some tablet devices.
Everything else is what will be seen when your YouTube channel has gotten so popular that people are browsing it from their television set. And even then… I have no idea how they would even see your channel art.
Quick Reference Infographic
In case you need a quick reference guide, I’ve put this simple infographic together so you can get all these dimensions at a glance. Simple, lite, effective, and highly sharable.
Share this Image On Your Site
Copy the code below and paste it into your website!
<a href="https://dustinstout.com/social-covers/"><img src="https://dustinstout.com/free-resources/social-covers/social-cover-templates-reference.jpg" alt="Social Media Cover Photo Templates" width="600px" border="0"/></a><em>Image courtesy of <a href="https://dustinstout.com">dustinstout.com</a></em>
You can save each one of the photos above and use them at your leisure. Of course proper credit is appreciated, but not required. Make your cover photos beautiful, be creative, and always have fun.
What are some of the best cover photos you’ve seen online? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
This is great stuff! Such a time saver! I shall use them for my upcoming blogs. Thanks once again!
It was a super article. How should we export the images we prepared with Photoshop? 300 DPI as 500 DPI?
Never save web graphics at anything higher than 72 dpi. If it’s going to be physically printed, you can do 300 dpi. But for web graphics, you’re just making the file size unnecessarily large, and therefore anywhere you upload it there will be a lot more compression added, reducing the image quality down. No social network will display graphics at a resolution higher than 72 dpi.
very good article, a cover helps a lot to make it look more high quality 🙂
xoxo
franziska
Thanks Dustin! Brilliant and easy instructions to follow.
Hola
Thanks alot for sharing!
Awesome.
Thanks for putting efforts and sharing it.
thanks for the post.
Still the best guide out there. Thank you Dustin.
Thanks, Robert!
Thank you very much for giving best guidance for facebook image sizes, it is already being very useful for me!!! Thanks for the valuable information. Great work.
You’re welcome, Priya!
Nice resource, I’m a little surprised that you don’t have instagram in the pack though. I’ve noticed more and more companies moving on to the platform.Will you be adding it in the future?
Hi, Murrough! Instagram doesn’t have a “cover photo” (only profile photos and, well… posted photos) so until they do there’s nothing for me to add to this particular resource about Instagram.
That means you create custom graphic covers for their Twitter and FB accounts. Check out “social identities” to get an idea!
Thanks Dustin. Been wanting to update my Facebook cover for a while so thank you for the great insights. Will promote this article to my social sites for sure!
Awesome Rob! Glad you found it useful.
Hi Dustin,
Thank you for sharing the post .Really helpful post,
Thanks Dustin for sharing this post, It’s helpful indeed. The problem with this is, the social sites used to change these cover picture dimensions and that creates the problems.
You’re welcome. And that’s exactly why I keep this post updated every time a social network makes a change. 😉
These are great resources for social covers. Thanks for offering them.
Keep up the great work and live unstoppable!
Thanks Rhonda! Glad you like them! 😀
Thank you so much for this! My brother, Justin, told me about you.
One suggestion: could you update the standalone FB template to include the darker boxes that show where the buttons and descriptive text go? I noticed the infographic has those boxes, but the template does not.
Hmm… I must have an old file linked. Thanks for letting me know Brandon!
Thanks nice infromation.
Thanks for the very timely and useful post! Pinned, shared ect..
Thanks so much Jinia! Great name BTW!
I always had to google for this, I’ll bookmark this one, please update it if any of mentioned site changes their cover photo’s dimension. Like twitter did some time ago.
I updated it as frequently as needed. 😀
Wow, great article and infographic Dustin! I’ve promoted it on my site with full links back to you – such a useful resource!!
Thanks so much Phil!
Thanks +Dustin W. Stout nice info !!!
I may have missed later posts on this topic, but I was updating my own G+ cover last night and the new layout, while the same aspect ratio it would appear, is much different than before.
It is much different Steve. It still recommends the same sizing though. 😀
sweet, I really need to think about updating everything, so little time.. thanks for the helpful info.
Have you put together (or are aware of) any stats specific to how Google+ appears to handle different sized images in peoples streams, always feel like that is something I should be aware of but lack the time (or more likely talent) to research it.
Thanks again
JK
That’s a good question Johnny. I haven’t put anything together like that. Since there’s so many different screen sizes (especially factoring in mobile) that would be a tough one to figure out.
Thanks Dustin! It prompted me to update some of my social media covers. Great info on sizes and philosophy behind it.
I’m glad you found it so helpful Danny!
You are so very clever! How can I chat with you? I have a question about this post.
Best way is through my contact page here.
Thanks for the reference guide. 🙂
You’re welcome! BTW August, have you considered getting a Gravatar?
great stuff buddy, loving some of your posts and sharing and caring information….shared this one for you…
Thanks Virginia! Much appreciated. 😀