Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
The picture rendered fine when you pasted it and is a broken icon now. The expiry was in the URL the whole time — here is how to read it.
Instagram publishes a larger copy of every public post's picture so link cards can render it. Here is how to reach it, and why the link stops working.
Draw an Instagram post card with the caption cut exactly where the feed cuts it, so you can see which sentence disappears behind "more" before you publish.
Instagram Story size is 1080x1920, but the top and bottom bands belong to the interface. Here is the usable area and how to design a template once.
An Instagram Reels cover is shown at 9:16 in the Reel and cropped square in your grid. One image has to survive both. Here is how to position it.
Instagram carousel size is 1080x1350 per slide, and every slide must share the first one's ratio. Here is how to split one wide image so the seams disappear.
Every platform recompresses your upload. Compressing first, correctly, is how you control the result instead of letting their algorithm decide.
Instagram image sizes by placement: feed, portrait, carousel, Reels cover, Stories and profile. Three ratios cover all of them.