Resolutions on Instagram: Formats, Clippings and Modes of Publication

The success of Instagram goes far beyond boasting a plate, a lost corner of the world or a nose. The secret is also in using the correct image, and we are not referring to the frame, but to the resolution. Choosing the right format and resolution is crucial for your photos to look perfect, so we are going to give you some tips and tricks so that you have a perfectly harmonious gallery.

The perfect size for Instagram

Resolutions on Instagram: Formats, Clippings and Modes

To Instagram, all the megapixels that your camera has. The service will reduce the giant images to optimize the loading of the galleries, so don’t worry about uploading the image at maximum quality, because it will be reduced. With the idea of not giving so much work to the service and avoiding more compression of the account, the ideal is that you upload the images with a width of 1080 pixels , which is the maximum width that the service supports.

If you upload images with a larger width, the system will reduce it, and if you upload a smaller one, it will increase it and, therefore, it will lose a lot of quality. In the early days of Instagram, images had a maximum width of 640 pixels, but luckily things changed and now we have much more information in a photo.

Format issue

Instagram

Another detail to take into account is the format of the image. Until now, you have always been told that mobile photos had to be taken horizontally, however, the importance of social networks and the way we use them have completely changed this concept.

On Instagram it was not going to happen less, so you will have to go changing the chip and thinking more vertically than horizontally. The reason is the way the images are displayed in the feed. Since Instagram stopped restricting the 1: 1 format a few years ago, the service has allowed rectangular images to be uploaded with which to display photos differently while maintaining a 4: 5 format .

It is something that many asked for a long time, and although it is no longer a problem, it carries some details to keep in mind that will determine the success of your photo. And yes, depending on the image format, your photos will look more or less.

If you choose to place a horizontal image, the feed will adjust it so that it maintains the proportion and, forced by the width of the screen, the height of the image could be quite reduced. This causes your photo to take up little space on the screen, and when a user scrolls through their entire feed, your photo may not attract attention first.

However, if you pull more vertically, the larger side will be the height of the photo, in which case the image will take up more space on the screen. In this way, when you scroll, your photo will stay longer on the screen and, therefore, will be more visible.

How to choose the correct format?

This does not mean that you should not upload horizontal photos, but if you are looking for visibility, you better squeeze the verticals to the maximum. Based on the fact that the maximum width of the image displayed by Instagram is 1080 pixels , this is the optimal resolution with which you will have to publish your photo vertically: 1080 x 1350 pixels.

Why? The vertical format will have a 4: 5 ratio, this means that for a width of 1080 pixels (the one that Instagram allows) we can have a maximum height of 1350 pixels. Other different formats will crop the image and make you lose information from above and below (as long as you have a disproportionate height), since the final format applied by Instagram will always be 4: 5. If the image is smaller than these proportions, it will appear without problems, but you will have wasted width or height as the case may be.

How do I crop the image?

Instagram recortar imagen

The simplest option and with which you will practically have to do nothing is to use the Instagram editing tool. The problem is that you may not have full control of the image placement when cropping. The default format for Instagram is 1: 1 (square), but if you want to have a horizontal or vertical view of the image, you only have to press the stretch button to allow you to see the new crop.

Snapseed recortar

Although if you want to have absolute control of the crop, see exactly what is going to be shown and what is missing in the image, you could use the Snapseed application , since the 4: 5 format is included in its crop tool to that you can get a perfect cut to upload to Instagram.