Tips for Optimizing Your Facebook Page Cover Design
This is the ultimate guide to Designing Facebook page covers for their responsive display on various devices or screens of the users.
Essential Advice for Designing Facebook Covers
A well-designed Facebook cover can make a significant impact on how your page is perceived by visitors. Here are some essential tips to keep in mind:
Position essential elements and key text in the center-right section of the cover photo. This area is the most secure location for a Facebook cover image, ensuring visibility on both mobile and desktop screens.
Ensuring your cover photo adheres to the recommended size, dimensions, and aspect ratio for Facebook covers, to avoid cropping out crucial elements.
In the new Facebook page layout, the profile picture occupies a significant portion of the bottom left half on mobile screens. Therefore, avoid placing important elements at allocated space for a profile picture.
Avoid situating crucial details, like discounts or contact information, at the top and bottom edges of the Facebook cover, as they may not be visible on desktop screens.
Avoid clutter. A simple, clean design with a clear focal point is often more effective than a busy, overcrowded image.
Always use high-resolution images and graphic elements to ensure your FB cover photo looks crisp and clean. Use legible text fonts.
Incorporate elements of your branding such as your logo, brand colors, and typography. This helps in creating a cohesive look across all your social media profiles and strengthens brand recognition.
Get some ideas from our Facebook cover designs.
Best Facebook Page Cover Size
Any appropriate banner image in 16:9 ratio is perfect for the Facebook cover, for example 1280 by 720 pixel, 1600px x900px, 1640 by 924 pixels, or 1920 by 1080 pixels. However, in my opinion the most optimum size for Facebook cover photo is 1640px wide and 924px tall.
Optionally, for a fast loading and lightweight cover image, design it in 851 by 479 pixels, following the Facebook recommendation, also having the 16:9 ratio.
Discover why 1640 by 924 pixels are the ideal dimensions for a Facebook cover design
A Facebook cover image having width of 1640 pixels and height of 924 pixel is the best, because:
It is 16:9 aspect ratio as recommended by Facebook.
It has almost double the width (1640 px) from that of recommended (851 pixels) by Facebook. Therefore, the cover photo will give a blurry look, even if a user views it in full screen.
A Facebook cover having 16:9 ratio will display as full image on mobile phone screens - it will not crop out. On desktop screen, only the upper and bottom portions (height) will crop out - width will not crop out.
The 16:9 aspect ratio is commonly used in design. Therefore you can use any widescreen thumbnail image as Facebook cover.
The cover image will provide ideal display on both classic Facebook page as well as Facebook new page experience.
→ I highly recommend you also check this guide for Facebook cover safe zone size.
How many business pages on Facebook follow the 16:9 ratio size recommendation for the cover photo?
Most pages do not use this wise size for Facebook cover - the main reason might be the multiple and confusing recommendations on the internet. However, there are many pages which use a facebook banner cover in the best 16:9 ratio, for example NYT Cooking page (as shown in video demo).
How many pixels of a Facebook cover will be cropped out on a desktop screen?
So, we have concluded that 16:9 aspect ratio is the best for a Facebook cover photo. It will be easier to design a Facebook cover photo in any 16:9 size, if you exactly know the number of pixels which are automatically removed on desktop display.
166 pixels both on top and bottom of Facebook cover will crop out, if you design the FB cover in 1640 by 924 pixel size.
188 pixels both on top and bottom of the Facebook cover will automatically cut, when you upload a cover photo designed in 1920 by 1080 pixels.
Therefore, it is better to keep this portion empty or show here any less important elements such as business logo.
How to measure safe and unsafe pixel margins of Facebook cover?
In any design software (such as Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Filmora), take a picture, plain box, or a text box. Now bring the mouse cursor over any corner handle of the text box. As you start dragging the box, the current width and height values will appear.
For demo, you can watch this video on YouTube.
Drag the box until the required height value (166px) reaches. Now drag the box and align it on top of the image. Duplicate it to align another one on bottom of the cover. This 166px height will determine the unsafe margin of the Facebook cover where you should avoid writing any important text. The remaining central portion is safe for placing elements because it will show on all screens.
More Resources
Check these helpful resources.
YouTube banner best size guideline.
Custom Facebook Cover Design service.
Dozro service charges for creation of Facebook page banner.
Best Video Resolution and Export Settings for Upload on YouTube.
Best Favicon Size: Recommended by Google, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy.
Wrong Logo Size Hurts Website Speed and thus SEO.
