What are Standard Photo Sizes?

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Whether you’re adding photos to your website, social media, or physical print materials, you’ve probably realized there isn’t a one size fits all answer to image sizing – requiring you to optimize images for different platforms. Your Facebook images should be one size, your blog requires another, and the brochure you’re printing also needs a different size.

But you don’t need to feel overwhelmed by the different sizes you need for different uses. We’ve created this guide to help you quickly find the right dimensions for your images whether that’s a Pinterest pin or a postcard you’re mailing.

What are the different standard photo sizes?

Technically, the dimensions of different photo sizes are limitless. At iStock, size varies among the images we offer, and we always specify the largest available size of an image so you don’t find yourself paying for an image that doesn’t meet your needs.

Why do I need to resize my pictures for different platforms?

Though there are some general standards among different social media platforms, ad platforms, websites, and print material providers, each was built with its own design needs in mind. As a result, different sites have different design needs. Some of those are minor with a few pixels here and there, while some are vastly different, and may require specific file types.

Image size and resolution

Though they’re sometimes used interchangeably, image size and resolution are different things. The image size is represented in this guide by the number of pixels wide and tall that an image measures. For example, 100 x 100 pixels are representative of the actual size the image will appear on the website.

Resolution controls the print size of the image. For example, the resolution might be 300 pixels per inch which means there are 300 pixels in an inch when printed. Pixels per inch is commonly abbreviated as PPI. You might also see DPI which stands for dots per inch. A higher DPI or PPI means the image is more detailed. Lower PPI or DPI means the image could look pixelated or blurry when printed.

For this guide, we focus on image sizes rather than resolution. We also focus on recommended or minimum image sizes. This means you can create your images to be a little larger (for example, 400 x 400 pixels instead of 180 x 180) so they can be scaled down, but we don’t recommend using smaller images with the hope they’ll scale up.

In this post, we’ll also mention aspect ratios from time to time. Read our article about common aspect ratios in images to gain a better understanding of this concept.

Social media photo sizes

Sizing images for social media is often a source of confusion. However, a lot of social networks have similar sizing recommendations.

Facebook

Of all the social networks, Facebook is the most popular. Here are some of their recommendations on image sizing, some of which are more straightforward than others.

  • Cover photos: 820 x 312 pixels.
  • Profile photos: 180 x 180 pixels.
  • Image posts: 1200 x 630 pixels for a horizontal image, 500 x 750 pixels for a vertical image, and 600 x 600 for a square image.
  • Link posts: 1200 x 628 pixels. Facebook pulls the featured image or the image that’s been designated by metadata to be displayed on Facebook when someone shares a link.
  • Highlighted image: 1200 x 717 pixels.
  • Event image: 1920 x 1080 pixels but will scale down to 470 × 174 pixels.
  • Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels.
  • Ads: 1200 x 628 pixels is recommended for a single‑image Facebook ad, but Facebook will allow anything between that and a 1:1 ratio in the same size. The recommended aspect ratio is between 9:16 to 16:9 but crops to 1.91:1 with a link. Carousel ads are always 1080 x 1080 pixels or a 1:1 ratio.

YouTube

While the quality of your video content is the most important part of YouTube, you’ll need to set some general profile images to get the most out of your channel.

YouTube also allows you to set custom video thumbnails which is highly recommended. Otherwise, YouTube has you select between a few thumbnails that they choose at random, so making your own thumbnails ensures those browsing YouTube will get the best possible impression of your video before they click.

  • Profile photo: 800 x 800 pixels, a simple 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Cover photo: 2560 x 1440 pixels, but the safe area is 1546 x 423 pixels right in the middle. YouTube cover photos display differently on different devices.
  • Tablet display: 1855 x 423 pixels.
  • Mobile display: 1546 x 423 pixels.
  • TV display: 2560 x 1440 pixels.
  • Desktop: 2560 x 423 pixels (1546 x 423 pixels are always visible). The flexible area which may or may not be visible is 507 pixels to the left and 507 pixels to the right of the safe area in the middle.
  • Thumbnails: 1280 x 720 pixels or a 16:9 ratio. Obviously, thumbnails are scaled down quite a bit on the YouTube search page, but that thumbnail also appears when a video is embedded on a website or on Facebook where it appears larger than it does on YouTube.

X

The days of Instagram images being simple 1:1 ratio squares is over, but sizing images for Instagram is still pretty simple.

  • Profile photo: 110 x 110 pixels, a 1:1 ratio.
  • Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels, a 9:16 aspect ratio.
  • Image posts: This is where it can vary, but you can upload a square (1080 x 1080 pixels), a vertical image (1080 x 1350 pixels recommended), or a horizontal image (1080 x 608 pixels).

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is all about professionalism, and that tone should apply to the image assets associated with your company page. Here are the recommended sizes for business profiles on LinkedIn.

  • Company cover photos: 1536 x 768 pixels is recommended for upload but appears as 1400 x 245 pixels
  • Company banner image: 646 x 220 pixels
  • Company profile photos: 300 x 300 pixels, 1:1 ratio
  • Career page hero image: 1128 x 376
  • Image posts: 1104 x 736 pixels
  • Ads: 1200 x 627 pixels, 1.91:1 ratio

Image sizes for Google Banner Ads

Though some websites still require specific image sizes to advertise on their pages, more and more sites are using Google Ads or other native ads platforms to serve advertisements to their site visitors. Here are the most common ad sizes for Google Ads on mobile devices and desktop, and the common names you might see them called.

Mobile

  • Medium rectangle: 300 x 250 pixels
  • Mobile leaderboard: 320 x 50 pixels
  • Large mobile banner: 320 x 100 pixels
  • Square: 250 x 250 pixels
  • Small square: 200 x 200 pixels

Desktop

  • Medium rectangle: 300 x 250 pixels
  • Large rectangle: 336 x 280 pixels
  • Leaderboard: 728 x 90 pixels
  • Large skyscraper: 300 x 600 pixels
  • Large leaderboard: 970 x 90 pixels
  • Banner: 468 x 60 pixels
  • Square: 250 x 250 pixels
  • Small square: 200 x 200 pixels

Standard photo print sizes for marketing materials

The popularity of the Internet hasn’t ended the need for physical, printed materials. Print marketing materials are used by many brands, businesses, and causes.

Like with social media, exact sizes vary by the printer. Below are some common sizes from popular printers like Vistaprint.

Please note that the following measurements are in inches, not pixels. The exact resolution of images is ultimately your choice, but more pixels per inch or dots per inch will result in printed materials that look sharper and have more detail.

Brochures

Though you could technically print brochures to whatever size paper you want, the four main brochure sizes are:

  • 8.5 x 11 inches 
  • 8.5 x 14 inches
  • 11 x 17 inches
  • 11 x 25.5 inches

Vinyl banners

Vinyl banners can be as small as something you’d put in your yard, or enormous banners like those you might see at a car dealership. Be aware that vinyl banners typically come in specific sizes. Check with your printer to see what they have available.

A few of the most common vinyl banner sizes are shown below in feet and inches.

  • 6 x 3 feet (72 x 36 inches) 
  • 4 x 2 feet (48 x 24 inches) 
  • 8 x 4 feet (96 x 48 inches)

Postcards

Even with brands cutting their direct mail budgets, postcards are still a popular way to connect with a customer list or an entire community.

Most printers print postcards in two sizes: 6 x 4.25 inches for large postcards and 5 x 3.5 inches for small postcards.

Business cards

Though business cards traditionally just have a logo and text, you can get creative by adding images that make business cards more memorable or personal. For example, if you’re printing business cards to advertise piano lessons, you might have the background of the business card to be a photograph of piano keys.

The sizes of business cards vary somewhat but common sizes are 3.5 x 2 inches (vertical or horizontal) or 2.51 x 2.51 inches for square business cards.

Flyers

Whether you’re looking for something small to place on the counter at a coffee shop or detailed, educational material, flyers are a great way to convey information. According to Vistaprint, here are some common flyer sizes.

  • 2.5 x 4 inches 
  • 3.75 x 8.25 inches
  • 4 x 6 inches
  • 4.2 x 5.5 inches
  • 5 x 7 inches
  • 5.5 x 8.5 inches
  • 6 x 6 inches
  • 8 x 8 inches
  • 8.5 x 11 inches
  • 11 x 17 inches

Photo print sizes

Even though one‑hour photo development studios are increasingly rare, there are still online and in‑person shops that can print your photographs for you in a variety of sizes. Some of those popular sizes include the following.

Photo prints

  • 4 × 4 inches 
  • 4 × 6 inches
  • 5 × 7 inches

Square prints

  • 5 × 5 inches 
  • 10 × 10 inches
  • 12 × 12 inches
  • 16 × 16 inches
  • 20 × 20 inches
  • 30 × 30 inches

Large scale prints

  • 10 × 13 inches 
  • 10 × 20 inches
  • 11 × 14 inches
  • 16 × 20 inches
  • 18 × 24 inches
  • 20 × 24 inches
  • 20 × 30 inches

Panoramic prints

  • 5 × 15 inches
  • 8 × 24 inches
  • 12 × 36 inches

Looking for an image in a specific size? Filter pictures by aspect ratio and resolution on iStock photos.

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