One image, many contexts
A single photo might need to appear as a hero image on your website, a thumbnail in a blog listing, a post on Instagram, a cover photo on LinkedIn, and a thumbnail in an email newsletter. Each context has different requirements for dimensions, aspect ratio, and file size.
Getting dimensions wrong creates problems: images that look stretched or cropped on social media, hero images that are too small and appear blurry at large sizes, or oversized files that slow down page loads.
Resize images to exact pixel dimensions with Image Resizer.
Website image dimensions
Hero/banner images — 1200-1600px wide, 400-600px tall. Full-width heroes can be wider (up to 1920px) but are usually cropped based on viewport. Keep file size under 200KB after compression.
Blog post featured images — 1200×630px is the safest choice: it’s the standard for social sharing previews (Open Graph), looks good at blog post width, and works as a thumbnail.
Inline content images — Match the maximum display width of your content column. If your blog content is 720px wide, resize images to 720px. Serving a 2400px image that displays at 720px wastes bandwidth.
Product images — Depends on your layout but typically 800-1200px square for main product images. Use consistent dimensions across all products for clean grid layouts.
Thumbnails — 300-400px is sufficient for most thumbnail uses. Resize aggressively here — there’s no visual benefit to a 1200px thumbnail that displays at 300px.
Social media image dimensions
Twitter/X:
- In-stream photo: 1200×675px (16:9 ratio)
- Profile photo: 400×400px
- Header/cover: 1500×500px
Instagram:
- Square post: 1080×1080px
- Portrait post: 1080×1350px (4:5)
- Landscape post: 1080×566px (1.91:1)
- Stories/Reels: 1080×1920px (9:16)
- Profile photo: 110×110px (displayed; upload at 320×320px)
LinkedIn:
- Post image: 1200×627px
- Company cover: 1128×191px
- Profile photo: 400×400px
- Article header: 1200×644px
Facebook:
- Post photo: 1200×630px
- Profile photo: 170×170px (desktop)
- Cover photo: 851×315px
YouTube:
- Thumbnail: 1280×720px (16:9)
- Channel banner: 2560×1440px (safe zone: 1546×423px center)
- Profile photo: 800×800px
Email images
Email newsletter header: 600px wide is the standard for email clients. Height varies.
Inline images: Maximum 600px wide. Many email clients block images by default, so images should supplement rather than replace text content.
File size: Keep individual images under 100KB. Emails with large images load slowly and are more likely to trigger spam filters.
Print dimensions and DPI
Web uses pixels; print uses physical measurements. The relationship between them depends on resolution (DPI — dots per inch).
Standard print: 300 DPI. An A4 sheet (8.27 × 11.69 inches) at 300 DPI needs an image of 2481×3507 pixels.
Large format print: 150 DPI is acceptable for posters and banners viewed from a distance.
Web/screen display: 72-96 DPI. Images you download from the web are typically 72 DPI — fine for screens but not for print.
A common mistake: downloading a web image and using it in a printed document. A 72 DPI image that looks fine at 800px on screen will print blurry at 300 DPI.
The aspect ratio matters as much as the pixels
16:9 — Standard widescreen (YouTube thumbnails, Twitter cards, most screen content) 1:1 — Square (Instagram, profile photos) 4:5 — Portrait (Instagram portrait posts) 9:16 — Tall portrait (Stories, Reels, TikTok) 1.91:1 — Open Graph standard (Facebook, LinkedIn post links)
When resizing for a specific platform, you often need to crop as well as resize. Cropping to the target aspect ratio first, then resizing to the target dimensions, prevents distortion.
Practical workflow for batch resizing
When preparing images for multiple platforms from a single source:
- Start with the highest-resolution original you have
- Resize to the largest target size first
- For each smaller size, resize from the original (not from a previously resized version)
- Add compression after resizing to the target dimensions
- Verify each output at the display size before uploading
For social media, many teams maintain a few standard templates in their design tool (Figma, Canva) for each platform’s required sizes, then export to the exact pixel dimensions. This ensures consistent framing and branding rather than resizing and hoping the important content stays visible.
Use Image Resizer to resize to exact pixel dimensions, then Image Compressor to bring the file size down for web use.