Image size cheat sheet
One page, all the numbers. Keep it open in a tab while you export and you will not have to search again.
Last updated: 23 September 2026
Every table below gives the dimension in pixels, the format that platform actually prefers, and the weight to aim for. Where a platform publishes a hard limit, that limit is in the notes column, and the rest are the values that give the best result in practice.
Social media
Social platforms re-compress everything you upload, so uploading a larger file than the table says does not get you a sharper post. It gets you the same post after a heavier squeeze.Match the dimension exactly and let the platform do nothing but serve it.
| Placement | Pixels | Ratio | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram feed (square) | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | JPG or PNG | Under 8 MB |
| Instagram feed (portrait) | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | JPG or PNG | Best-performing feed size |
| Instagram Stories / Reels cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | JPG or PNG | Keep text off the outer 250 px |
| Facebook shared post | 1200 × 630 | 1.91:1 | JPG | Same as link previews |
| Facebook cover | 820 × 312 | 2.63:1 | JPG or PNG | Crops hard on mobile |
| X / Twitter in-stream | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 | JPG or PNG | Under 5 MB |
| LinkedIn post image | 1200 × 627 | 1.91:1 | JPG or PNG | Under 5 MB |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 | JPG or PNG | Hard limit: 2 MB |
| Pinterest pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 | JPG or PNG | Taller pins get cropped |
| TikTok video cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | JPG | Safe zone: centre 60% |
Websites and blogs
On your own site you control the compression, so the target is different: the smallest file that still looks clean on a retina screen. Export to WebP unless you need transparency plus wide browser support, and keep everything below the fold lazy-loaded.
| Use | Pixels | Format | Target weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-width hero banner | 1920 × 1080 | WebP | 150–300 KB | Serve a 960 px version to phones |
| Blog featured image | 1200 × 675 | WebP | 80–150 KB | 16:9 travels well everywhere |
| In-article image | 800–1000 px wide | WebP | 40–100 KB | Rarely needs to be wider |
| Thumbnail / card | 600 × 338 | WebP | 15–40 KB | Lazy-load everything below the fold |
| Logo / icon | Any (vector) | SVG | Under 10 KB | PNG only if the logo has effects |
| Open Graph / social preview | 1200 × 630 | PNG or JPG | Under 300 KB | Under 8 MB is the hard cap |
| Favicon | 512 × 512 source | SVG or PNG | Under 15 KB | Browsers scale it down for you |
Print works in millimetres and DPI, not pixels. The conversion is simple:multiply the size in inches by the DPI. A 210 mm width is 8.27 in, and 8.27 × 300 = 2480 px. Anything a printer sends back as "low resolution" is almost always a file exported at screen DPI by mistake.
| Item | Trim size | Resolution | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business card | 85 × 55 mm | 300 DPI | 1004 × 650 px | Add 3 mm bleed on each edge |
| A4 flyer | 210 × 297 mm | 300 DPI | 2480 × 3508 px | CMYK, not RGB |
| A5 flyer | 148 × 210 mm | 300 DPI | 1748 × 2480 px | Same bleed rule |
| A3 poster | 297 × 420 mm | 300 DPI | 3508 × 4961 px | 150 DPI is fine if viewed from 2 m |
| Photo print 10 × 15 cm | 100 × 150 mm | 300 DPI | 1181 × 1772 px | Most labs accept 240 DPI |
| Roll-up banner | 850 × 2000 mm | 100–150 DPI | 3346 × 7874 px | Never viewed up close |
Check before you pay. Print is the one place where a mistake costs real money. Upscaling a 72 DPI screenshot to 300 DPI does not add detail. It only makes the blur larger. Always start from the original camera file, never from a version that has already been through a social platform.
ID and passport photos
These are the strictest specs on this page, because a human or an automated checker will reject them over millimetres. The requirements change by country and occasionally by year:confirm on the issuing authority's own site before you submit.
| Document | Digital size | Printed size | Background | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK passport (digital) | 600 × 750 px min | 35 × 45 mm | Plain cream or light grey | Under 10 MB |
| EU / Schengen visa | 413 × 531 px | 35 × 45 mm | Plain light grey or white | Head 32–36 mm tall |
| US passport | 600 × 600 px min | 2 × 2 in | Plain white or off-white | Head 1–1 3/8 in |
| Spanish DNI / NIE | 307 × 413 px | 26 × 32 mm | Plain white | No glasses, no smile |
Three rules that cover everything else
- Resize down, never up. Shrinking an image discards pixels and looks fine. Enlarging invents them and looks soft. Always start from the biggest original you have.
- Export once, from the master. Every save of a JPG re-compresses it. Keep one high-quality original and export a fresh copy for each destination rather than editing an export.
- Match the aspect ratio before the pixel count. A platform that wants 4:5 will crop a 1:1 image to fit, usually straight through the subject's head. Crop deliberately first, then resize.
Each of these has a full guide behind it in Image formatting and compression, with the exact settings and the free tools that do the job.