What can be the best way to describe yourself to the whole world? Or, what can be the best way to say something to the public? Yes, if you’re on the same path and thinking about Facebook cover pictures, you’re right. When it comes to making a good first-impression in Facebook, nothing can beat the importance of Facebook Cover Photo and profile picture. Therefore, Facebook Cover photo plays a vital role in defining your senses and your personality which you want to describe the whole world. Even if you lock down all of your photos, your cover photo cannot be done so and this is why visitors can see your cover photo. Either you can put a photo of yourself, otherwise you can use a photo to depict your true self or what your personality is with the photo.

Facebook Cover Picture Dimensions

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There’s a certain size under which a Facebook profile cover photo depicts its full form. In order to display properly, a cover photo should carry the dimensions of 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you already have these sized images on your PC, you can easily upload them. Otherwise, you can crop the picture manually using a software tool. Plus, if you don’t have the same size but want to use similar image, you’ve to keep a minimum of 399 x 150 pixels. Larger images have customization options with Facebook so that you can drag it like the way you want. Facebook offers reposition by dragging to place your facebook banner where you want and how you want. According to Facebook, a picture that has a resolution of 851 x 315 pixels with only 100 KB depicts the perfect size for a profile/page cover photo. If you want to use text-based content or logo, you can try keeping your image in PNG file for high quality image.

Image Guidelines

  • Display on page at 851 x 315 pixels.
  • Minimum size of 399 x 150 pixels.
  • For best possible results, upload an RGB JPG file less than 100 KB.
  • Images with a logo or text may be best as a PNG-24 file.

Facebook Cover Dimensions For Mobile

FACEBOOK COVER PHOTO DIMENSIONS mobile
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Explanation of Facebook cover photo dimensions from above image is given below:

RED AREA -Red area is for your profile picture. So, avoid putting any image or text here as it will not be visible in both mobile, desktop and other devices.

BLUE AREA – The area which is’nt visible in mobiles. Majority of people are not aware about this fact. So, avoid adding any text or image in this region as it will be completely visible to desktop users and invisible to mobile users. If you’re optimising your cover picture for mobiles then you will need to follow this fact.

BLACK AREA – This is the only area which is visible in both desktop, mobile and other devices. You can add any thing here.

How to Change Facebook Cover Photo

It’s pretty easy and most people learn it on their own. Five easy steps to add or change your cover photo:

  1. Login into your Facebook account and go to your profile.
  2. Once you hover your mouse icon over the cover photo, a button stated “Change Cover” will appear. Click on that button.
  3. Choose whether you want to upload a new photo or want a photo from one of your existing photo albums. For new cover photo you have to click on Upload Photo option then the destination of your future cover picture.
  4. After uploading the cover image you’ll need to reposition the cover image by clicking the image and dragging it up or down.
  5. Click Save.

Privacy on Old Facebook Covers

When you’re changing your cover photo and put a new one, you still have the option to put a new privacy option that will allow you to hide all the cover photos except for the one that is currently active. Not only can all of them, but you do it selectively.

Using Photo Collage

Using photo collage is a great way to add different flavored pictures in one single picture. There’re a lot of available programs in the market dedicated to making photo collage automatically. Plus, you can also do it on your own by using simple the MS Paint or photoshop and any other photo editing software you like.

Using Logos & Text On A Facebook Banner

Facebook uses aggressive compression utility which can degrade the picture quality even if you upload a very good image. Facebook does it for the sake of faster page loading. This way, even if you upload a superior quality image, the quality might get hindered in case of logos and text and the low quality image will make it look like blurry. To get around this problem, you can use PNG image files.

Facebook Image Sizes Cheat Sheet [BONUS]

All measurements are in pixels. All are recommended image dimensions. If you found any error please report me on hammad [at] covershub.net. For complete social media design sizing blueprint click here.

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This post originally appeared on the Covershub blog.