Correct Image Dimensions for Web, Social Media & Print

A practical size cheat-sheet for Instagram, Facebook, websites and printing — plus how to resize images without stretching them.

Uploading the wrong image size is one of the most common — and most avoidable — mistakes online. Too large, and your page loads slowly; too small, and it looks blurry or gets awkwardly cropped by the platform. Here are the correct dimensions for the situations people run into most often.

Resizing vs Cropping: Know the Difference

These are often confused but do very different things:

  • Resizing scales the entire image up or down, keeping all the content but changing its overall pixel dimensions.
  • Cropping cuts away parts of the image to change its aspect ratio, without scaling the remaining content.

If you resize an image without maintaining its original aspect ratio, it will look stretched or squashed — always resize proportionally unless you specifically need to force a new aspect ratio.

Common Social Media Dimensions

  • Instagram square post — 1080 × 1080 px
  • Instagram/Facebook story — 1080 × 1920 px (9:16 ratio)
  • Facebook cover photo — 820 × 312 px (desktop display)
  • Facebook feed post — 1200 × 630 px
  • Twitter/X post image — 1200 × 675 px
  • LinkedIn post image — 1200 × 627 px
  • YouTube thumbnail — 1280 × 720 px

These platforms often crop or letterbox images that do not match their expected ratio, so matching these dimensions upfront avoids awkward automatic cropping.

Website Image Sizing

For websites, the ideal size depends on where the image is displayed — a full-width hero banner needs to be much larger than a small blog thumbnail. A practical rule: resize your image to roughly the maximum size it will actually be displayed at (accounting for retina/high-DPI screens, which benefit from roughly 1.5-2x the display size), then compress it. Uploading a 4000px-wide photo for a 600px-wide blog thumbnail wastes bandwidth and slows your page down for no visual benefit.

Print Dimensions Work Differently

Print uses a completely different unit system than screens — DPI (dots per inch) rather than raw pixels. A standard print requirement is 300 DPI, meaning a 4×6 inch photo print needs to be at least 1200×1800 pixels to print sharply. Images sized only for web display (usually 72-96 DPI equivalent) will look blurry or pixelated when printed at a larger physical size.

Resize Your Images Instantly

Use our free Resize Image tool to scale any photo to the exact dimensions you need, or our Crop Image tool if you need to change the aspect ratio to fit a specific platform.

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Try the Resize Image Now

Resize images to exact dimensions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I upload an image that is the wrong aspect ratio to Instagram? add
Instagram will typically crop the image to fit its supported aspect ratios (or add padding, depending on the upload method), which can cut off important parts of your photo if you have not cropped it correctly beforehand.
Should I always use the highest resolution possible? add
No — higher resolution than needed wastes file size and slows page loading without any visible quality benefit, since the image will be displayed at a smaller size anyway. Match the resolution to where the image will actually be shown.
What is a safe general-purpose website image width? add
For most blog and content images, 1200-1600 pixels wide is generally sufficient for sharp display on both standard and retina screens, while keeping file size reasonable after compression.