How to make instagram highlight covers free
How to Create Beautiful Instagram Highlight Covers (40 Free Icons)
Instagram Highlight covers make a great first impression.
Located right below the bio section of your Instagram profile, they provide a polished look for your Instagram Highlights and draw attention to your best Instagram Story content.
And you don’t have to be a hip influencer to use them. Orgs of all stripes from government institutions to Fortune 500 companies use them to great effect.
Covers are an easy win for any brand that banks on aesthetics. (And on Instagram, that’s everyone.)
The good news is that even if you don’t have access to a graphic design team, they’re easy to make.
We’ll walk you through all the steps to create your own Instagram highlight covers. As a bonus, we have a free pack of icons to help you get started.
How to create an Instagram highlight
How to create a new Instagram highlight from your profile
How to create your own Instagram Highlight covers
5 tips for using Instagram highlight covers and icons
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Create highlights to keep your best Story content at the top of your Instagram profile permanently.
1. In your Story, tap Highlight in the bottom right corner.
2. Choose the Highlight you want to add your Story to.
3. Or, tap New to create a new Highlight, and type out a name for it. Then click Add.
And that’s it! You just created an Instagram highlight.
Have an idea for a new highlight? Or maybe you want to add a few different Stories at once?
Follow these steps to create a new Highlight from your Instagram profile:
1. Go to your profile and tap the +New button (the big plus sign).
2. Pick the Stories you want to add to your new Highlight. Pro tip: Instagram gives you an archive of your stories going back years. So don’t be afraid to do a little digging for those Story gems.
3. Tap Next and name your new Highlight.
4. Choose your Highlight cover, and tap Done.
Don’t have a highlight cover yet? Read on.
Instagram will allow you to use any image you like for your highlight covers.
BUT your brand deserves better than just “any image.”
This space is prime real estate for converting lurkers to followers. You want to leave an impression.
If you’re crunched for time, Adobe Spark has pre-made covers that you can customize and use.
But if you want more control over your Instagram brand, these steps will show you how to easily build a great Instagram highlight cover from scratch (or almost-scratch).
Step 1: Log in to Visme
Log into your account on Visme or create a free account on visme.co.
Step 2: Create a new image that is sized for Stories.
From the main Visme dashboard, click Custom Size in the top right corner, then type in the Instagram Story image dimensions (1080 x 1920 pixels). Click Create!
Step 3: Get our free icon set
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now.
Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Once you’re done downloading, unzip the file and choose your favorites. (You can use them with or without our professionally designed backgrounds.)
Step 4: Upload your icons to Visme
Go to My files in the left-hand menu, click Upload, and select the icons you would like to add.
Once you upload the icon image, click on it. If you can’t see your icon on your canvas after you’ve uploaded it, don’t worry. It’s most likely because the icon is white lines on a transparent background. We’ll fix this in the next step.
Step 5: Create your background
Right-click anywhere on your image and click Background. A quick-access background bad will appear in the top left corner of your workspace. Here, you can select a background color, or add a brand color in the HEX code field.
When you change the background color (to anything other than white, your icon will appear).
Step 6: Download your highlight covers from Visme
Name your project. Then click Download in the top right corner. Choose your file type (PNG or JPG are both fine). Then click the Download button.
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Get the free icons right now!
Your cover will be downloaded to your hard drive.
Repeat this process with other cover designs.
Pro tip: Now is a great time to make sure your Instagram account has your Story archive enabled. This is important if you want to go back and see your old Stories without downloading them to your phone.
Step 7: Edit your existing highlights to add your new covers
You no longer have to add an image to your Story (where all your followers will have to swipe past it) in order to make it a highlight cover.
Instead, you can just edit the highlight directly:
- Go to your Instagram profile.
- Tap the highlight whose cover you’d like to change.
- Tap More in the bottom right corner.
- Tap Edit Highlight.
- Tap Edit Cover.
- Choose the image icon to access your phone’s photo library.
- Choose your beautiful cover.
- Tap Done (actually, tap it three times.)
Do this for each of the stories you want to add covers to.
Voila! Your on-brand Instagram highlight covers are now gracing your profile and unifying your look. Magnifique.
5 tips for using Instagram highlight covers and icons
Now that you know how easy it is to make your own unique highlight covers, we’ve got some time-saving tips to make them as effective as possible.
Show off your brand’s aesthetic
Your brand has its favourite colours, font, capitalization—and possibly even some favorite emojis. Your highlight covers are definitely the place to show these off.
That said, keep in mind that less is more. Those little portholes are pretty small, after all. Clarity is key.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
Your Instagram highlights don’t have to do it all. They can do one thing very well.
For instance, Red Bull’s highlights used to be fairly conventional (e.g., Events, Projects, Video, etc.) But now they give each of their athletes their own highlight. All we get is a face, a name, and an emoji. Intriguing.
Meanwhile, the New York Times takes Stories literally. They populate their highlights with exhaustive yet readable primers on complicated political subjects. They also create fun, snackable Stories about appealing subjects.
Either way, their cover style is perfectly consistent, which helps make the wide reach of their topics more manageable.
Be consistent in your organization
There are absolutely no rules when it comes to organizing your Instagram highlights. (Brb, my inner librarian needs to go rail antacids.
)
But, some brands organize their highlights like they would their website (e.g., About, Team, FAQ). Some brands organize by collection or product (e.g., Winter ‘20, New Arrivals, Makeup Line).
I’m here to tell you that however you choose to organize, remember to approach it from your audience’s perspective.
In other words: if they know what they’re going to see, they’re more likely to tap.
Highlight the Stories that matters most
Ask yourself what’s most important to your audience. What are they here to see? This season’s collection? Today’s schedule? Or something that is useful for the longer-term, like, for instance, how to pair your flagship earbuds?
The Met, for instance, prioritizes potential visitors. It keeps a helpful guide to this week’s exhibitions at the top of its highlight reel.
Convert your audience to customers
With the right covers, you can introduce new eyes to your best shoppable Stories and swipe-up content (if you have an Instagram for business profile with more than 10,000 followers).
Try using our shopping bag icon, for instance.
For more tips on selling products using your Instagram Stories, check out our complete guide to Instagram shopping.
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How To Make Custom Instagram Highlights Covers
If you’re eager to get going with Instagram Highlights, as well as to start rocking tasteful iconography like this, then good news — we at Plann are here to help!
Who says your Instagram stories can’t live on your profile forever? Thanks to Instagram highlights, they can be eternalized on your feed for your audience to enjoy over and over again.
Not only can Instagram highlights extend the ‘life’ of your stories content and get more eyeballs on your work, but they’re also a great way to show what your account is all about. Many brands and influencers used Instagram highlight covers (the graphics that sit along your highlights bar) to showcase the different themes their account covers For example: a mommy blogger might have ‘motherhood,’ ‘home’ and ‘style’ as some of her highlight cover icons,
You can also customize your Instagram highlight covers with colors, patterns and graphic to add to the overall aesthetic of your account. In this article, we’re going to walk you through step by step how to create custom Instagram highlights covers for your feed — plus, some examples of beautiful Instagram highlight covers to inspire your creations.
Your step-by-step guide to creating custom Instagram highlight covers
If you’re a visual learner, you can check out the video above! Otherwise, keep reading for our step-by-step guide.
First, let’s walk through how you can start to create a new Instagram highlight.
Step 1:Tap the button in the bottom-right to go to your profile.
Step 2:
Tap the “+” button to make a new Instagram Story Highlight.
You’ll be taken to your Instagram Archive, where you can see all of your past stories.
Step 3:
Choose which Stories you want in this Highlight by tapping the circle in the bottom-right corner.
Step 4:
Tap “Next.”
Step 5:
Choose a name for your Highlight.
PSST–> WANT TO KNOW THE BEST TIMES TO POST ON INSTAGRAM? WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK
Step 6:Normally here you would pick out your custom Instagram Highlights cover.
Skip over that for now and just tap “Add.”
Congratulations! You’ve made your first Instagram Highlights.
How to make custom Instagram highlights coversIn order to make custom Instagram Highlights covers, you’ll need access to any free graphic design platform. We personally like Canva, which you can actually access from within your Plann account!
Step 1:Open your Canva account and type “Instagram Story” into the search bar and scroll to the bottom.
Step 2:Click on the template for “Instagram Story” when it appears. Now you’ll have the perfect sizing for your Instagram Story highlight cover.
Step 3:Choose “ELEMENTS” from the sidebar and then click “GRAPHICS”. Now you’ll be able to search through different illustrations to choose icons for your Instagram Story highlight covers. There are plenty of options including free icons and paid icons.
Alternatively, you could create text-based highlight covers using Canva’s text options.
Step 4:
After you choose the icon you want as your custom Instagram Highlights cover, just choose a background color, and click “Download.” Make sure the icon isn’t so large that parts of it will be lost during Instagram’s circular cropping.
Step 5:Send it to your phone, go back to Instagram, and post it as a new Story. To do that, just go to your home feed and swipe left. When you’ve chosen the photo you want to use as your icon, be sure to pinch the screen to zoom out as much as you can. This will ensure that parts of your icon aren’t cropped off when you use it as your cover.
Step 6:
You’ll need to add this image to the Highlight so it becomes eligible as a custom Highlight cover. To do that, from your profile, just tap and hold on the Highlight you want to customize and choose “Edit.
” You’ll land on a screen like this:
You’ll see the option to choose which Stories are in or out. If you swipe right, you’ll see your Story Archive. Slide over and select your icon if it’s not selected already. You’ll want your custom Instagram Highlights cover story at the end so people don’t miss the actual Highlight.
Step 7:Swipe back to the “Highlighted” tab. You should see that the Story with your icon is included at the end. Tap “Edit Cover” and choose your icon using the slider on the bottom. You can pinch and drag to zoom and position the icon before you finalize the cover. When you’re finished, just tap “Done.”
Want a shortcut for creating Instagram highlight covers?
Not keen on creating your own Instagram highlights from scratch? No worries! Canva also has dozens of pre-designed Instagram highlights cover templates, complete with cute graphics and illustrations. Just head to the template library and search ‘Instagram highlight cover’ to check out what’s on offer.
Customize them with your own brand colors and you’re good to go!
Out-of-the-box strategies guide
9 growth strategies to skyrocket your Instagram
10 examples of beautiful Instagram highlight covers
Now that you know how to create custom Instagram highlights covers, you can pull on your arty-farty pants. Need some inspiration? Here are some stunning Instagram highlight covers that bring the ‘wow’ factor.
Instagram highlight cover #1: @amyporterfield
Instagram highlight cover #2: @refinery29
Instagram highlight cover #3: @netflix
Instagram highlight cover #4: @the_indigo_project
Instagram higlight cover #5: @spell
Instagram highlight cover #6: @getoffline.co
Instagram highlight cover #7: @lonelyplanet
Instagram highlight cover #8: @goaldiggerpodcast
Instagram highlight cover #9: @growglow.co
Instagram highlight cover #10: @vitablevitamins
Author: Christy
Christy Laurence is the multi-award-winning Founder of Plann, an app she created after watching hugely talented people around the world give up on making an income from their passion due to lack of marketing help.
After winning ‘Australasian Startup Founder of The Year’ for her achievements helping businesses grow using Instagram, she now splits her time between Silicon Valley and Sydney to grow her own software business, and help others grow their businesses too.
She has a strong pun game and loves a good chat, connect with her directly at @christyladylaurence
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How to make covers of current stories on Instagram for free
— What? Story covers? Well, these are the little things!
Yes, little things. But I believe that in any case, details are important, and even the appearance of the highlights on Instagram matters. Let's talk about how to make them quickly, beautifully, professionally and even for free.
If you like video more, watch the post on how to make covers for stories on Instagram for free and quickly. To be aware of other videos, subscribe to the page at Facebook and on YouTube channel where I upload live recordings.
Imagine that your potential ideal reader has landed on your Instagram account. What will he see there first? What will catch the eye? He will read the header, go to the saved stories, and what do you have there? Messy bits of life or everything on the shelves? See what are you talking about?
Saved stories or highlights are needed for navigation, they organize information for account guests and inspire the authors themselves to work with such a platform as Instagram. Agree, when you put things in order in your social networks, when you like to do everything conveniently there, then it’s more pleasant to run a social network. And you have more energy to keep going.
How to make "Favorites" in Instagram stories (5:50)
When I asked this question, I went to Creative Market and Etsy in search of templates from designers. But the ready-made solutions did not suit me: they were in the wrong theme, in the wrong colors and in the wrong style.
Then I decided to do everything myself and for free, so that the covers would be 100% in tune with my brand. I'll tell you how it happened, step by step, and you - repeat.
FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM FOR DAILY INSPIRATION AND FINDINGS FOR CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS.
View this post on Instagram :10)
Open your Instagram account from a desktop (you can also use it from mobile, but the following steps will not be so convenient) and zoom out on the page to fit as many photos on the screen as possible. So you can see which colors prevail in the account
Rewind the tape and take a screenshot. You need a screenshot of that screen, where there are all the colors you need and the combinations that you like.
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Step 2. Go to the Adobe Color website (9:11)
Adobe Color is a service that can define and select a harmonious project palette. In it, you can do this using the color wheel, or you can extract colors from your image in the corresponding tab.
To do this, drag your screenshot to the site or upload it from your computer. The program itself selects the color palette.
Step 3. Experiment with the saturation of shades (10:35)
In the left menu, the program offers literally: "Extract color mood" by clicking on the bullets "Bright", "Muffled", "Colorful" and others.
The retrieved palette can be corrected by yourself and replaced, in your opinion, unsuccessful shades.
Step 4. Save the finished palette (11:53)
To do this, Adobe Color will ask you to register or log in to an existing account. All palettes will be saved in "My Library".
The most valuable thing in the palette is not only harmoniously matched shades, but also the color codes of each of them.
See how they look if you go to the palette itself.
You can send these codes to designers if you order a visual for a project from specialists. Or use them yourself in graphic programs and websites.
I'll tell you about one of these graphics programs later.
Step 5: Go to Canva and select a template (14:11)
Canva is a free and premium tool. Its basic functions are enough to create covers for stories.
For this, I chose the Instagram Post template because it is square. The information placed on it will be well centered and fit into round covers.
I'm a Canva Pro member and get access to a huge library of premium images and cool extras. I can upload my own fonts, customize and save corporate style and colors, change the size of the finished image with one click, adapting it to the format of different social networks, and even schedule publications on 7 platforms. Canva Pro gives you more creative options and saves you time creating images.
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Step 6: Select a Background (14:56)
In Canva's left menu, select the Background tab and add a color code from your palette.
If you have premium access to Canva, you can create your own palette in the service, give it a name and use it all the time. If there is no paid access, it's okay, just when creating a new design, you will have to insert color codes again. Keep them handy.
I filled each new square with shades from my screenshot.
Step 7. Select the content of the cover (15:59)
In the "Elements" tab, you can select thematic icons. It is better to search for them in Canva search in English. And the service has a filter that displays only free images.
For example, you need a cover story for tips. Type "tips" into the search bar and choose the most appropriate element. Its color, size, position can be changed.
Step 8: Repeat for the rest of the covers and download (17:09)
When all the covers are ready, download them and upload them to your smartphone, because you need to download covers from the Instagram mobile application.
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Click on the stories that you have kept up to date. In the lower right corner there are three dots that open the menu. Select the "Edit current" item. In the window that opens, click on the "Edit Cover" link.
Instagram will prompt you to choose a cover from those stories that you have saved up to date or choose a picture from images saved on your phone. Choose an image icon and a cover image downloaded from Canva.
As a result, the colors of the story covers will be in harmony with the overall color scheme of the account. A neat appearance of the profile makes a good impression on visitors, holds their eyes and helps them decide whether to follow you or not.
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4 applications where to do ? Instagram highlight covers
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Contents
- 1 Cover design for Instagram highlight
- 2 How to make Instagram highlight
- 3 Applications where to make covers for Instagram highlight
- 3 Applications where to make cover for Instagram highlight
profile view 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
First of all, 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 it relevant on Instagram
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 highlights 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:
- Log in to your account in the service or register.
- Need to create a personal design with custom sizes or use pre-made templates (we recommend choosing a template for Instagram Stories).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Click the "Download" arrow and save the resulting design in the desired format.
- App for type.
Another cool application that helps you create aesthetic and harmonious covers for the current. The app is available for both iPhone and Android. How to create a Highlights cover:
- Open the app.
- Click the "New art" button to create a new art.
- Choose the design size.
- By clicking the "+" icon, select a picture for the background from the smartphone gallery.
- 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.
- Adjust its size and location.
- Save the resulting image to your phone's gallery.
In the Shop section (located in the form of a small bag), you can buy new collections of stickers and icons.
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.
You should enter what you are looking for in the internal search engine, and in a couple of seconds Pinterest will show inspiring examples.
We advise you to use this service more often to develop your visual awareness. This way you will be creative and create designs better than competitors on Instagram.
- Highlight cover maker.
The program that completes the list of applications for creating current templates. A simple application where you will find:
- Over 100 texture backgrounds: watercolor, marble, gradient and even more Instagram profile inspiration.
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