Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
Upload 2560×1440. Design for 1546×423 — the window every phone shows, which is 17% of the file. Four devices crop the same image four different ways.
A LinkedIn carousel is a PDF rendered as swipeable pages. Here is the page size, the type size, and the structure that keeps people swiping.
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 vertical feed draws its interface on top of your video. Here are the covered regions per platform, and how to design once for all of them.
An aspect ratio is a shape, not a size. Here is what each ratio is for, how to convert between them, and why cropping down beats scaling up.
Pinterest recommends a 2:3 Pin at 1000x1500. Here is why that ratio wins, what happens to taller Pins, and the title and description limits alongside it.
Facebook image size by placement: feed posts, link cards, Stories, cover photos and ads - plus the crops that differ between desktop and mobile.
LinkedIn image size by placement: feed posts, link cards, document posts, profile and company banners - and the mobile crop that decides what is seen.
Twitter image sizes on X: 16:9 for single images, 1200x628 for link cards, and the timeline crop that decides what people actually see.
TikTok video size is 1080x1920 at 9:16. The harder part is the safe zone - the caption, the action rail and the username cover a third of your frame.