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How do you make an instagram highlight cover


How to Make Clicky Instagram Highlight Covers [40 Free Covers]

What is an Instagram highlight cover?

How to create an Instagram highlight cover

8 tips for clicky Instagram highlight covers

Instagram highlight cover templates

Having an orderly, beautiful and consistent set of Instagram highlight covers looks cool, sure — but it’s also a great opportunity to show off your branding, color palette and sense of style to your followers. And, aesthetic highlight covers encourage profile visitors to click and view the Stories that contain all the important information you’ve essentially pinned to the top of your profile.

You can design personalized highlight covers from scratch or use a graphic design tool or photo editing app for extra support. Read this post and you’ll be, well, covered.

Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.

What is an Instagram highlight cover?

First: What is an Instagram highlight?

An Instagram highlight is a collection of Instagram Stories that a user has saved under a certain category. Instagram Stories can only be viewed for 24 hours, but adding a Story to a highlight gives it a permanent spot on your profile.

An Instagram highlight cover is a photo or graphic that appears above the highlight name on your profile page. It’s like a book cover, but for your highlight.

In the example below (indicated by the blue rectangle), a fashion brand uses highlights to feature important information—a sizing guide, care info, new launches, etc.—and each highlight has a cute floral highlight cover.

Source: Instagram

Highlight covers aren’t essential, but they do provide your profile with a polished look—and they make a great first impression for people visiting your Instagram page for the first time.

Here’s how to make them.

How to create an Instagram highlight cover

To create an Instagram highlight cover, first you need to have an Instagram highlight. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a highlight (and if you already have a highlight set up, skip this part).

How to create an Instagram highlight

1. Open your Instagram account in the mobile app and click “New” in the highlights section below your bio.

2. Scroll through your Story archive and select the Stories you want to include in your highlight. Then, tap Next in the top right corner of the screen.

3. Type in the name of your highlight.

4. Optional: Tap Edit cover to edit the default cover picked by Instagram (a frame from the first Story in your collection). You can also do this later, once your highlight is live — we cover the process in detail below.

5. Click Add in the top right cover of the screen.

That’s it! Your highlight will show up on your profile page.

How to create a personalized Instagram highlight cover

Once you create an Instagram highlight, the cover will generate automatically — but personalizing your Instagram highlight covers is way more fun. It’s also a great way to showcase your branding and add an individual touch to your profile.

We’ve put together 40 Instagram Story highlight cover icons that are free to download and easy to customize. Or, you can make your own.

You can create circular Instagram highlight covers using any design app or software. We’re fans of Canva (and psst… Canva is now integrated with Hootsuite, making it simple to design beautiful graphics for free). Here’s how to create a highlight cover using Canva.

1. Go to canva.com. Canva is free to use, but you do need to create an account to log in.

2. You can design your own Instagram highlight from scratch using any circular image, or personalize a Canva template (that’s what we’ll be doing in this example). Type “Instagram Story highlight” into the search bar to find thousands of templates.

3. Select your favorite template.

4. Once you’ve selected your template, you can edit the text…

5. …and the colours…

6. …and even add graphics, if you want to. Canva has a ton of free images and designs to choose from.

7. When you’re happy with the design, click “Share” at the top right of your screen to download the image.

8. Choose Download from the drop-down menu. Download the image as a PNG or JPG. If the template you’ve chosen has several pages, only download the pages that you want—in this case, we’re only saving page 2.

9. Save the image to your phone’s camera roll. Now, it’s time to use the image as a highlight cover.

How to change your Instagram highlight cover

To change your Instagram highlight cover to a personalized image, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the highlight from your Instagram profile.

2. Tap More in the bottom right corner.

3. Tap Edit highlight. Then, tap Edit cover, near the top of your screen.

5. To choose an image from your camera roll, tap the photo icon near the bottom of your screen.

6. Choose the new highlight cover from your camera roll. Then, tap Done.

That’s it! Your brand new highlight cover is live.

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8 tips for clicky Instagram highlight covers

Still searching for inspiration? Here are some great examples of engaging Instagram Story highlight covers and tips on how to get it right.

1. Keep it simple

Instagram Story highlight covers are small—so small, in fact, that you’ll want to avoid crowding that precious little circle with too much text or overcomplicated images.

Source: Instagram

Keeping your covers basic and clean is ideal. Even simple color-blocked highlight covers (like the ones used by the artist above) are super effective: they’re not too busy, and pleasing to look at.

2. Be consistent

Your IG highlight covers don’t need to be identical, but ideally, they’ll match: consider picking a certain color, theme or pattern to follow when making your covers.


Source: Instagram

This restaurant uses a red circular frame on all of their highlight covers, creating a consistent look even though the photos within each frame are all different. It’s a small detail, but it gives the covers a cohesive look.

3. Be creative

Highlight covers are an opportunity to show off your creativity as a brand. Think about how you can infuse your brand into your highlight covers as much as possible.


Source: Instagram

For example, paint brand Farrow and Ball has highlight covers that look like paint mixing together. It’s a very unique choice that effectively communicates something about the brand (mainly, that they sell paint).

4. Use a branded color palette

Another way you can incorporate your brand into your highlight covers is by using your brand’s colors in the designs. Think of a cover like a label for your business: audiences should be able to look at it and immediately know that it belongs to you.


Source: Instagram

This cosmetic brand, for example, has a very consistent color palette across their products and on their Instagram. The highlight covers are no exception: they take on the same trendy pinky-brown hues as the rest of the profile.

5. Use icons

Because there’s not much real estate on a highlight cover, using pictures that symbolize words and ideas—or icons—can be an excellent tool for communicating simple information.


Source: Instagram

Crate and Barrel’s Instagram highlight covers are quite basic, but the icons are effective when it comes to symbolizing ideas (and they’re pretty cute, too). Icons are where editing apps like Canva really shine—there’s thousands of symbols and simple illustrations built right in.

6. Show off your products

If you use Instagram for business, your highlight covers work as a tiny marketing tactic. Instead of having to scroll through your feed to see all of your merchandise, Instagram users can get a quick look at your products via the highlight covers.


Source: Instagram

This slow fashion brand uses highlights to feature specific products, so curious shoppers can easily research the design and fit of different pieces of clothing.

7. Highlight what matters most

Don’t make the high school mistake of highlighting everything. Highlights should be used to showcase only the most important and useful information to your audience. It’s good to be picky about which Stories you highlight (and as a bonus, being selective means you won’t have to design a ton of highlight covers).


Source: Instagram

Pottery Barn Kids keeps their highlights simple and broad: topics like “Nursery,” “Toddler,” and “Bedroom” make it easy for Instagram users to find the inspo they’re looking for.

8. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Highlight covers often symbolize the highlighted category in a very literal way, but if you’ve got an idea, try it—one of the best things about highlight covers is that they can be edited or switched out if you change your mind. Let your imagination go wild.


Source: Instagram

It’s not surprising that this graphic designer has very bold, distinctive highlight covers—they fit perfectly with his brand. For example, it would be the typical choice to go with Twitter’s logo for the “Tweets” section, but this designer created his own personal version of that iconic bird.

Instagram highlight cover templates

Now that you know how to create Instagram highlights and add custom covers to them, download this bundle of 40 free customizable designs and take the look of your Instagram profile to the next level.

Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.

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How to Make Custom Instagram Highlight Covers

Instagram Highlights, though fairly new, are now an important part of any marketer’s Instagram strategy. Brands and marketers use them in creative and useful ways to engage their audiences and get the most out of their Instagram accounts.

However, not everyone has mastered the key to optimizing these Highlights by using the right cover images. A lot of people don’t even know that they can select a customized cover image for their Highlights.

If you are someone who has ever wondered how some brands add beautiful and consistent designs as their covers, then this is the post for you.

In this post, we will discuss not only the best practices for creating good cover images, but also the ways in which you can design them. So, read on and become an expert at designing the best cover images for your Highlights.

How to Make Custom Instagram Highlight Covers:
  • What is an Instagram Highlight Cover?
  • Tips For Creating Good Instagram Highlight Covers
  • How to Make Customized Instagram Highlight Covers
  • How to Upload Instagram Highlight Covers

What is an Instagram Highlight Cover?

As we all know, Instagram Highlights are essentially the Stories that you want to showcase on your profile permanently. And, Instagram Highlights cover images are the pictures that you see in the form of circles at the top of your Instagram profile.

Image Source: Instagram

As Instagram Highlights are showcased right at the top of your profile, it is important to select the right cover pictures. These should be catchy enough to grab the attention of your audience and make people want to view them.

So, it is important to select or design the best cover images for your Highlights as they play an important part in forming your brand aesthetic.

Tips For Creating Good Instagram Highlight Covers

As discussed, your Instagram Highlights cover images should be designed in a way that immediately grabs the attention of your audience. And, since it forms a part of your brand aesthetic, it should be consistent with the colors and design elements that you use for your posts.

Keeping that in mind, here are a few tips for selecting the best cover images for your Highlights.

Make Them Self-Explanatory

One tactic that a lot of brands and marketers follow is to make the cover images self-explanatory. For example, if your Highlight is about beauty tips, then the cover image can be something related to that. Or, you can even make it as simple as writing “Beauty Tips” on a colored background and adding that as your cover image.

What this accomplishes is that it helps your audience make an immediate decision about whether they have any interest in seeing it or not.

Take the cover images from H&M, for example. The images tell you all you need to know about what you can expect inside.

Source: instagram.com

Maintain Consistency

Highlights are shown in horizontal sequence at the top of your Instagram profile. It is important to maintain a similar design and aesthetic for all your cover images so that they look good as a collective. 

If you use different types of images for different Highlights, your profile may end up looking unorganized and chaotic.

See how Daniel Wellington has chosen to keep their cover images consistent not just with each other, but with the brand logo as well.

Image Source: Instagram

Use Quirky Designs and Icons

Your cover images should be visually-attractive and attention-grabbing. You can use beautiful pictures, icons, or other illustrations to achieve that. 

Here’s an example of how the beauty brand Sephora does it.

Source: instagram.com

How to Make Customized Instagram Highlight Covers

Making an Instagram Highlight cover is just like designing any other image for social media and requires a good photo editing app or tool. The only thing to keep in mind is to use the right image size as the cover picture gets cropped in a circular shape. 

So, you need to design an image that has all the important elements right in the center with ample space on all sides. This will ensure that when the image is cropped into a circle, it still looks perfect.

If you can use an app that already has the option to design a cover picture in the right size then that’s the best option for you. And, there are such photo editing apps that provide this option, so you don’t have to worry about image size. 

There are several tools that you can use to create customized Instagram Highlight covers. However, to explain the process in more detail, we will use the popular photo editing app, Canva, as an example.

How to Design an Instagram Highlight Cover Using Canva

Here is a step-by-step guide to creating an Instagram Highlight cover using Canva.

Step 1

Go to the Canva app and click on the + icon to start designing your image.

Step 2

Select the Instagram Story template.

Step 3

Click on the blank template to see the option for adding images or colors.

Step 4

Select the colour of your choice, preferably a brand colour, and add to your design.

Step 5

Now click on the + icon to add graphics, icons, illustrations etc. In this case, we will see how to add an icon.

Step 6

Select the “Illustrations” option and then “Icon” from the list of options.

Step 7

Add an icon of your choice and change the size and colour as you like.

Step 8

Save the image to your device and share as an Instagram Story.

Once you share your image as a Story, it will be available to be added as a Highlight and the Highlight cover. Just make sure that you have allowed the “archive” option in your Instagram Story settings. This automatically saves all your Instagram Stories to be later added as Highlights.

To allow archiving of Stories, go to your account settings and select the “Privacy” settings. From the options menu select the option to change your “Story” settings. Just toggle on “Save to archive” option and you’re good to go.

We will discuss how to upload the image you designed as your Highlight cover in a later section. This section just aimed at giving you a basic idea of how to design and post an image that can be used as your Highlight cover. 

Please note that there are numerous tools that you can use to design your cover images. Some of these are mentioned in the section below.

Other Tools to Create Customized Instagram Highlight Covers

Here are some of the best photo editing tools that you can use to design your Instagram Highlights cover pictures.

InShot

This is a popular and high-rated photo-editing app that you can use to create beautiful Instagram Highlights cover pictures. 

The process is quite similar to the one discussed above, as it also has preset templates for different image sizes. So, all you need to do is select the right template and get creative with your design skills.

You can find this app for both Android and iOS devices.

StoryArt

This is another great tool for designing Instagram Stories and cover images for your Highlights. It provides numerous templates, design effects, and other useful tools needed to create beautiful designs. 

The interface is fairly easy to use and does not require any design skills on your part.

This app is also available on both Android and iOS devices

How to Upload Instagram Highlight Covers

To upload an image as an Instagram Highlight cover, it must first be added to your Highlights. This means that you need to first add an Instagram Story with the image that you want to upload as your Highlight cover. Then, you need to make it a Highlight for you to be able to use it as an Instagram Highlight cover.

Here is the detailed process of how you can change the cover picture for your Instagram Highlights.

  1. Go to your profile and click and hold the Highlight for which you want to change the cover picture.
  2. You will see a list of options from which you need to select “Edit Highlight.”
  3. Select the “Edit Cover” option right at the top.
  4. You will see a list of images to select from.
  5. Choose the one you want as your cover and save.

If you want to add another image to as your cover that is not currently a part of your Highlight, then you need to first make it your Story and then Highlight. Follow the process below for that.

  1. Post an Instagram Story and Highlight it using the heart icon in the bottom-right corner.
  2. For old Stories, you can go to your profile and click on the + icon to make a new Highlight.
  3. To add an old Story to your current Highlights, you need to click and hold that Highlight, click on the edit option, and then add the desired image.
  4. Once the new image reflects in your Highlight, you can make it your cover image using the process mentioned above.

Conclusion

Selecting good cover images for your Highlights is important for maintaining your brand aesthetic and get more views. Use this post as your go-to guide for making beautiful, customized cover images for your Highlights.

TOP 3 cover apps

A cool app that's perfect for creating elegant plain color covers for Stories Highlights. There are all kinds of color palettes of various shades, so you can easily and quickly arrange your archive of stories in your favorite style.

Workflow:

  • Enter the Adobe Sketch application.
  • Click on the plus sign, which is located at the bottom right and select the tabloid format.
  • Go to the settings of any brush and select the color change category. Here you will see a wheel with a color scheme, where you can choose the optimal shade.
  • Click Finish. Next, hold down the screen and fill in the sketch for the future cover of Instagram Highlights with the selected palette.
  • Don't forget to save the picture.
  • If you want to make a couple of covers, then you need to delete the old sketch layer and add a new color as described above.
  • If you want to make several images of the same tone, then just move the arrow on the wheel a little to the side and choose the gamma a little darker or lighter.

Another cool theme that allows you to create cool Instagram Highlights covers with original calligraphy. The service has twelve templates of ready-made inscriptions in the public domain, then for a fee.

Please note that background covers must be prepared in advance to use this application. The first resource we talked about, that is, Adobe Sketch, will help you with this.

Action sequence:

  • First, open the app.
  • Go to the gallery and find the background cover on which you will apply the inscription.
  • Next, select the "Tech" category if you want to use free text templates. If you want to use paid fonts, then go to the "Font" category. By the way, 53 fonts are available in the paid version of the application, 26 of them are in Russian.
  • Now place the caption in the middle of the cover and save the picture. This can be done from the menu at the bottom of the page.

Very cool service for creating Highlights covers. It's more than just pictures. To put it simply about the complex, this service allows you to engage in WEB-design.

With Canva, you can design awesome covers with custom themed icons. Interestingly, working with this application, there is no need to pre-create covers in color. Everything is much simpler here.

Action algorithm:

  • Go to the "Your story" section and choose any shades for your Highlights cover.
  • When you have chosen a suitable color scheme, press the plus sign located at the bottom right.
  • Then go to the graphics category and select the appropriate icon. At the same time, please note that it is better to make requests in English. For example, if you want to make a sports-themed cover for Stories Highlights, then type “sport” into the search engine.
  • The next step is to choose from the options that appear either a paid version of the icon or a free one.
  • Place the icon in the middle of the image and click Share.
  • The last stage is the publication of the finished cover in the story.

How to replace the cover for Stories Highlights

Look, if you just need to replace the existing cover, then the procedure is as follows:

  • After that, go to the profile album, in which the template option is added, select the "More" category, and then click "Edit current".
  • Now you can edit the cover itself by first pressing the corresponding button.
  • Now it remains only to press the "Finish" button.

    • How to create a cover for Stories Highlights from scratch

    Here is the scheme:

    • Click on the plus sign in your profile.
    • The category "Actual" will appear before you. Here are all the stories that you have ever published.
    • Select the Stories you need to create a new album.
    • Think of a name for your album and click the edit cover button, after which you need to select the template you made.
    • The last step is to click the "Add" button.

    Afterword

    As you can see, creating cool and original covers for Stories Highlights is an art. We told you about some useful services that will help make your Instagram profile more unique and attractive. Take advantage or not of our advice, it's up to you.

    By the way, we also recommend reading another article on our blog on the subject of the archive of stories - "Best Content Ideas for Instagram Highlights".

    Material: https://smm-blog.com/highlights-instagram-top-3-ap...

    4 applications where to do ? covers for Instagram highlights

    Menu

    Contents

    • 1 Cover design for Instagram highlights
    • 2 How to make Instagram highlights
    • 3 Applications where to make covers for the current Instagram

    When promoting a business on Instagram, the appearance of the profile is the face that creates the first impression of the company. A potential subscriber visits a brand page and the design of the content directly affects his loyalty.

    Therefore, it is important to observe the style in every detail and not to make a hodgepodge of everything that gets into the camera out of the account. The “Relevant” section on Instagram is one of the important points, the design of which should be approached with responsibility and creativity.

    Instagram highlight cover design

    Firstly, the Instagram highlight section is useful for navigating through the account's posts. It helps to organize the pinned stories in the right order. So that subscribers immediately understand what each collection is about, give it a title and choose a suitable cover.

    The harmonious design of Instagram not only attracts attention, but also makes the profile more harmonious and professional.

    First of all, “Relevant” is the section of the Instagram account where already published stories are posted. Many users are used to sharing life moments, impressions and emotions in Instagram Stories.

    An example of a competent design of the "Actual" section.

    But, unfortunately, stories disappear after 24 hours. And I want as many people as possible to see them. And just in this case, Instagram Highlights will help us. Collections of pinned stories are displayed under the header of the bio account.

    How to make Instagram trendy

    For harmonious design, covers are created in the same style and harmonize with the Instagram profile avatar. First you need to determine the dominant colors in the profile.

    Adobe Capture will help you with this. With this application you will define your color scheme.

    To do this, take a screenshot of the profile and upload it to the application. The program will do the rest. Having found out which colors prevail in your Instagram account, start creating a cover.

    Applications where you can create covers for the current Instagram

    We have made a selection of applications in which you can create icons for Instagram Highlights.

    • Canva.

    Canva is the number one app for creating beautiful and vibrant images for Instagram Highlights. Creating a design in this service is a pleasure.

    There are also collections of colorful designs for posters, presentations, stories and other social media formats.

    All the tools are provided here to create a highlight cover, so it's easy to create visually appealing Highlights. How to do it:

    1. Log in to your account in the service or register.
    2. You need to create a personal design with individual sizes or use ready-made templates (we recommend choosing a template for Instagram Stories).
    3. Select a background from the Elements section, or add any image from the Photos section. If you can't find a suitable one, upload your picture through the "Downloads" section.
    4. Open the "Elements" section and search for the desired icon by keywords. For example: "price", "review", "address" will help you choose a schematic image. Position it in the center of the created image.
    5. You can also add any text to the selected background, while changing its font, color, size. Canva's font library offers over 700 font options.
    6. Click the download arrow and save the resulting design in the desired format.
    • App for type.

    Another cool app that helps you create aesthetic and harmonious covers for the trendy. The app is available for both iPhone and Android. How to create a Highlights cover:

    1. Open the application.
    2. Click the "New art" button to create a new art.
    3. Choose the design size.
    4. By clicking the "+" icon, select a picture for the background from the smartphone gallery.
    5. By clicking on the first button in the panel in the form of a sticker, select a sticker to add. Add captions to photos. App for type already contains more than 750 calligraphic signatures for the Actual.
    6. Adjust its size and location.
    7. Save the resulting image to your phone's gallery.

    You can buy new collections of stickers and badges by opening the "Shop" section (located in the form of a small bag). The app frequently updates sticker packs and is a pretty handy way to create a nice caption for your photo.

    • Pinterest.

    Don't want to bother and want an easy way to create a beautiful Instagram cover? This is where Pinterest comes in handy!

    Here are ready-made collections of covers for Instagram for every taste and color. Hundreds of different options: from plain to colorful, with and without inscriptions.

    Learn more