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How to post pictures of different sizes on instagram


How to Post Multiple Images With Different Sizes to Instagram

Instagram

Julia Enthoven

3 min

On Instagram, it’s impossible to post an album — multiple photos or videos in one post that you swipe through — with multiple different aspect ratios. In this article, I'll show you how to do it for free and online.

When posting an album, Instagram requires that the images have the same aspect ratio. In this post, I’ll describe how you can post multiple photos or videos with different sizes by first resizing them to square.

On Instagram, it’s impossible to post an album — multiple photos or videos in one post that you swipe through — with multiple different aspect ratios. For example, if you want to post a landscape image and a portrait image at the same time, you need to crop one or the other (or you could crop both to square). Instagram requires that your photos have the same aspect ratio.

When posting multiple photos or videos, all are cropped to square

To post multiple different photos or videos with different sizes on Instagram, you need to use a tool to resize them first. To avoid cropping out content, add a white background to make each photo or video in to a square. Then, you can post the album without cropping out or changing the size of your image.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial:

1. Upload your photos/videos to Kapwing

Open the Kapwing Studio and start with a square 1:1 canvas (or 4:5 or 5:4, which are both accepted by Instagram).

One at a time, upload the photos or videos you want to post. Kapwing is free to use and online, so you don’t need to download an app. It supports images, GIFs and videos.

2. Add a white background behind each post

If needed, tap the photo or video and resize the canvas to the right aspect ratio. On mobile, use the "Edit Background" button to find the Resize Canvas button.

1:1 for an Instagram Post appears under the "Size" dropdown (Kapwing also supports 9:16 sizing for Stories and other formats). Turn off "Canvas Blur" and select white for your background color. You can use Kapwing’s zoom and positioning tools to zoom in, crop, or add a border. Double tap to crop the image or video, and use the Play button to watch a preview of what your post will look like. Click Export once the preview matches what you want your post to look like.

3. Export, download, and post

After resizing your posts, you can download them and share them on Instagram as an album. Since each photo/video now has a 1:1 aspect ratio, you can publish them without cropping.

On an iPhone, use the "Downloads" gallery to find the file you just made and save it to your camera roll.

If you're not signed into a Kapwing account, sign in or sign up using your Google or Facebook account. Once you're signed in, each of your exports will be saved in your workspace so that you can download them later.

Repeat these steps for each of the photos and videos that you want to share in your Instagram carousel. After you've downloaded each of the square posts, open the Instagram app and upload them as an album.

For more ideas, tutorials, and features, check back in at the Kapwing Resources page or our YouTube channel! And remember to tag us @KapwingApp whenever you share your content on social media– we love to see what our creators are passionate about!

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Your Complete Guide to Instagram Image Sizes for 2023

Instagram is a platform that provides many content options from posts to Stories to IGTV video and Live videos. For each type of content, there are different image guidelines that you need to adhere to. 

In this post, you will find out everything that you need to know about Instagram image size guidelines. We will discuss the resolutions and aspect ratios required for different types of Instagram content and how you can resize your images without any hassles.

Your Complete Guide to Instagram Image Sizes:
  • Image Posts
  • Stories
  • IGTV Cover Picture
  • How to Upload the Right-Sized Images on Instagram Without Hassle
  • Does Your Choice of Image Size Impact Your Feed?

Size Guide for Different Types of Instagram Images

Instagram accepts images between 320px and 1080px, but there are specific guidelines for images added to Stories, posts, and IGTV. If your image is lower than 320px, then Instagram will enlarge it. And if it is higher than the upper limit, it will get resized to 1080px or lower. So, you don’t need to worry too much about image size as Instagram automatically takes care of it.

However, you should be aware of image size guidelines for different types of Instagram content. Here are the specific guidelines.

Image Posts

Traditionally, Instagram has been known for its square image posts with a 1:1 aspect ratio. And, it was quite a problem for users as they had to crop their pictures to fit the prescribed image size and ratio.

However, Instagram has long evolved from that initial model and now allows you to upload your portrait as well as landscape images. For Instagram posts, you can choose from three different aspect ratios—1:1 (square), 1.91:1 (landscape), and 4:5 (portrait).

Here are more details one each of these options.

1:1 - Square Images

Ideal image size - 1080px by 1080px

These are the traditional square images that are characteristic of Instagram. If you want to use this option, Instagram has an auto-cropping functionality that makes it super-easy.

Earlier it was a problem uploading square pictures because most cameras took pictures in landscape or portrait formats, but not square. Nowadays, however, you can take a square picture directly from an iOS device or by using any photo apps that have different size options.

Here’s an example of an Instagram post with a square (1:1) image.

1.91:1 - Landscape

Ideal image size - 1080px by 608px

These are the horizontal photos that you might have seen on some Instagram posts. Adding these types of images is a bit tricky as most landscape images are of 16:9 aspect ratio as opposed to 1.91:1. So, most pictures that you upload will automatically get added with a black border around it.

More often than not, the black border does not look aesthetically pleasing and would make the post inconsistent with other posts on a person or brand’s Instagram feed.  

Here’s an example of a horizontal Instagram image post with black borders at the top and bottom, because of an imperfect aspect ratio.

This is another horizontal post from the same Instagram page, but this time they’ve got the image size and aspect ratio right.

4:5 - Portrait

Ideal image size - 1080px by 1350px

These are the posts that have a portrait format images with an aspect ratio of 4:5. These are fairly easy to upload as you can take a portrait image from your mobile’s camera. And, even if you have a portrait image of different aspect ratios, you can always crop it to fit the Instagram post.

Here’s an example of an Instagram post with a vertical, portrait-style image.

Stories

The beauty of Instagram is that you can create different types of content like posts, Stories, and IGTV videos. And, all these have the option of uploading images and different image size guidelines for each.

Now that we have discussed the different image sizes allowed for Instagram posts, let’s have a look at the guidelines for Instagram Stories.

The ideal Instagram Stories image size is 1080px by 1920px and the aspect ratio should be 9:16. This is the perfect image size to ensure that there is no black border and the image fits the Story perfectly.

However, Instagram Stories allows you to add any image between 1.91:1 to 9:16. You can simply crop the image to fit the Story or it will automatically add a black border to fill the remaining space.

Ideally, you should upload portrait-style images for your Stories as Stories are basically vertical and are meant to be viewed as such. Even though you are allowed to add landscape images to Stories, it just does not look good. It is always better to use a 9:16 aspect ratio, to the extent possible.

And, if for some reason you can’t upload an image with a 9:16 aspect ratio, at least try to upload a vertical image in any other dimension.

IGTV Cover Picture

While IGTV is essentially meant for videos, you do need to upload images for the cover photos of those videos. There are specific image size guidelines for adding IGTV cover photos, which are very different from those for posts and Stories. 

IGTV cover photos should ideally have a resolution of 420px by 654px and an aspect ratio of 1:1.55. And, you can choose to either upload a new image or a still from your IGTV video, as your cover picture.

How to Upload the Right-Sized Images on Instagram Without Hassle

After reading about all the different image sizes and Instagram image guidelines, you might be a little worried. There’s no need to worry though because uploading the right-sized images is not as big of a deal as it may look.

No one really has the time to modify their pictures and change the size and aspect ratio every time they upload a picture to Instagram. There are several ways in which you can achieve this without making too much effort.

You can either use a photo editing tool that allows you to edit a picture to make it Instagram-friendly or simply let Instagram do it for you.

Here’s how you can upload images to Instagram while meeting the size guidelines.

Photo Editing Tools

There are several no-crop photo editors that allow you to make your images Insta-friendly without cropping those.

Square InPic

This is one of the best and highest-rated Instagram-friendly photo editors that you can use to resize your images without cropping. This is especially good at creating square-sized Instagram images without cropping your original picture. And, it also comes with other design features like emojis, filters, etc. that you can use to enhance your images.

Square Pic

This is another great photo editor that can convert any image into a square-sized, Instagram-friendly image. It comes with different background options like blur, black, and white backgrounds to create aesthetically-pleasing, Instagram-friendly images.

No Crop & Square for Instagram

This is another no-crop photo editor that you can use to resize images for Instagram. It is simple to use and comes packed with a variety of useful features to enhance your images. Apart from resizing images, this tool also lets you create photo collages and add filters and other effects to your images. And, it has over 300 background patterns for you to choose from.

Instagram Auto-Cropping

If you don’t care much if your pictures appear with a black border, then you don’t need to resize images before uploading as Instagram will do it for you. Whenever you upload an image that is of an incompatible size, Instagram will automatically crop and resize it to fit its dimensions.

A lot of people don’t bother about editing images and just let Instagram do it for them. However, it might make your Instagram feed look less visually appealing. The trick to avoid that is to follow a consistent pattern for all your image posts. 

For example, you can consistently use only portrait-style images with the auto-cropped black borders and make it look like your theme. This way, your Instagram feed will look consistent and you won’t have to put in any extra effort into resizing and editing your images.

Does Your Choice of Image Size Impact Your Feed?

A lot of people worry that if they will use a mix of landscape, portrait, and square images then that might make their Instagram feed look inconsistent and haphazard. However, that’s not the case because all your images automatically appear as square images on your feed.

This means that if someone opens a post, they will see the landscape or portrait style images. But, your entire feed as a whole will appear consistent because the preview image will automatically be a square one for all posts.

So, no matter your choice of image, your Instagram grid will appear perfect.

Wrapping it Up

Instagram automatically crops images and fits them in the right dimensions for any type of content. However, you need to be mindful of the image sizes to avoid that and ensure that your images fit perfectly without cropping. 

Cropped images often are shown with black borders, which ruins the visual appeal. To avoid that, you should upload your images in the right size to fit your post or story dimensions perfectly.

You can use this guide and create amazing Instagram image content.

How to post a photo in full size on Instagram and is it possible?

Contents:

  • 1 Why does Instagram cut photos?
  • 2 Life hacks on how to publish a photo in full size
  • 3 How to upload a photo without losing quality?
  • 4 Ideas for uploading a large photo
  • 5 Questions from our readers

Instagram is a social network that focuses on visual content. Apart from online stores, the lion's share of business accounts on this service belongs to bloggers and photographers. This activity involves the creation of high-quality and attractive content. But the site forces users to play by their own rules and fit into the framework. Let's talk about how to post a photo in full size on Instagram. nine0003

Why does Instagram cut photos?

Users of social networks often notice that the quality of photos drops when uploaded to the Internet. Why is this happening? Is it really a conspiracy of the owners of communication services to worsen the quality of life of people? In fact, this is of course not the case. And in 2019, everything is much better in this regard - for posts, the maximum resolution is 1080 by 1920, and for stories 600 by 1067, which is often quite enough for most modern mobile devices. Modern users, moreover, can post images in any orientation, unlike the early days of the social network. nine0003

Of course, I can write that this is done in order to save space on the site's servers. Think for yourself, if there are no restrictions, people will also upload 4k photos, which weigh quite a lot. But these are just my conjectures, there is no official information confirming this idea. Although, of course, lower quality = lighter weight = faster loading. This is the first reason. Let's move on to the second.

What is the feature of Insta? in publication format. They are displayed correctly and uniformly on devices of any year of manufacture and with any operating system. And this is achieved precisely by limiting the uploaded photos. nine0003

Life hacks on how to post a photo in full size

Formats, restrictions, resolution, yes, yes, yes. But you can somehow upload a large photo, it’s impossible that people don’t come up with some tricks for this. In fact, this section is here to warn you. There are many articles on the Internet about how to supposedly add an image without losing quality, without cropping it. They mention applications, and the same ones that promise to help you in this situation. But I don’t really understand why people write about these tools over and over again, because no matter how we process the image, or make a panorama, in the end everything will rest within the framework of the social network itself. nine0003

For example, the NoCrop application, which is often recommended in such articles, only helps to fit the photo to the required extension. Of course, when uploading an image processed in this application, its quality will not drop. But since it has fallen to this, it cannot be said that the photo will be uploaded in full size. But, again, why download third-party software for this if the service does it on its own? Therefore, alas, 1080 by 1920 is our limit.

How to upload a photo without quality loss? nine0019

As we have already understood, it is unrealistic to fully preserve the quality. But do you need something more than FullHD? Of course, 4k technology is already being introduced into phones, but there are only a few such devices, and it will take some time before a full transition to a new generation of screens. Therefore, under “How to upload a photo without losing quality on Instagram?” I mean, first of all, maintaining the original orientation, and not adapting to the standard square format.

Go to instructions:

  1. Open the app and click on the plus icon to open the post creation interface.
  2. Here we go to the gallery by clicking on the appropriate tab.
  3. Select an image.
  4. You can spread two fingers across the screen from its edges to the center to fit the entire image into a post. And you can make it much easier - click on the icon with two arrows. Then the picture will automatically be positioned as we need.

Large photo upload ideas

So, as we understand, there is no way to get around the restrictions of the social network. But what if you post the image as it is? Let's discuss a few ideas that might come in handy.

  1. Horizontal. If you really need a profile panorama, split it into three photos and put them in a row so that they appear in one line. It looks quite interesting and unusual - often people do not use horizontal lines, but whole pictures of tiles. But about them in the next paragraph. nine0062
  2. Tiles. Is there a lot of text or, in general, objects and letters are not readable on the post? Make some tiles out of the photo. For example, the most common option is 3 by 3. But some also make a continuous tile for the entire account. But it's quite difficult. When choosing a tile, for example, from nine posts, your creativity rests on a square format.
  3. Frames. When uploading an image in landscape orientation, the post looks rather strange. Therefore, many people use frames in order to take the maximum available space in the user's feed. nine0062
  4. If none of the options suits you, you can make a collage of several images.

If you look at the situation soberly, then the answer to the question “How to post a photo in full size on Instagram?” one is nothing. There are, of course, many articles on the Internet on this topic. But most of them cite applications that only fit photos to the format of a social network. That is, Insta does not crop anything, because everything has already been compressed to a photoset.

Questions from our readers

#1. Why does Instagram cut photos?

The resolution limitation allows you not to stretch the image loading time. And it ensures the uniformity of publications, which allows them to be correctly displayed in the feed of users, regardless of what device they use.

#2. Hello! I tried to upload a small photo, it is stretched to a size of 1080 on the larger side. How to make sure that the original size of the photo does not change? For example, I have a photo of 600x700, how can I leave it the same? nine0080

Add a white border to it, adjusting the photo in this way to the standard size of Insta.

#3. How to upload a photo in the correct orientation?

Now there are no problems with orientation. You just need to click on the icon with two arrows in the lower left corner of the photo when creating a publication.

Do you still have questions? Write them in the comments! Also watch videos on the topic.

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    How to post a photo on Instagram in full size, what to do when cropped

    Posting a photo on Instagram in full size without prior preparation is difficult. The social network diligently crops the edges of the picture, other people's and not only arms and legs, heads and parts of the landscape. Previously, it was necessary to avoid difficult situations with the help of separate software, but now several local solutions have appeared that allow you to publish entries with almost no additional processing in graphic editors. nine0003

    Why Instagram crops a photo - is it possible to save the full size

    There are many reasons why Instagram crops a photo. Saving space on servers, the desire to fully adapt content to vertical screens of mobile technology (the key goal is to put users on an equal footing when scrolling pages is the same on the iPhone, and on Samsung, Xiaomi or Huawei), maintaining proportions for non-standard shots with a strange ratio sides.

    Together, these factors make us look for ways to get around the restrictions so that Instagram does not cut off the excess.

    How to add a photo without cropping and maintain quality

    You can add a full photo in the following ways:

    • without a white background;
    • vertical;
    • as a panorama.

    No white background

    It has long been possible to take a picture and immediately upload it to Instagram without a white background, previously used to get into standard proportions. An automatically arranged transparent margin will now appear around the edges. It is better to immediately follow the proportions of 16 d9and choose a resolution of 1067x600 pixels.

    Vertical photo

    A full-length photo on Instagram is now added without much experimentation. Finally, a separate button appeared in the interface that allows you to stretch out a vertical shot and add everything in full size, but with frames on the sides.

    Panoramic photo

    Uploading a rectangular photo to Instagram, stretched horizontally and designed as a panorama, can be done experimentally using separate software. SwieablePanorama and InSwipe help you cut the image into pieces and load the pieces into a grid of 3 or 6 frames that are easy to scroll from left to right. The combination looks unusual and even advantageous against the background of the usual publications in the news feed. nine0003

    How to adjust the size of a photo for Instagram

    Adjusting the original image to the proportions of a social network is a task, although annoying, not at all difficult - it is easy to find a bunch of software on the network that simplifies the task at times:

    Self-cropping

    even the graphic editors pre-installed in Windows or MacOS operating systems will help to achieve a full display of the image on the pages of the social network (Microsoft's Paint allows you to resize in pixels or percentages). If Photoshop or Lightroom was at hand, then there will be no problems either. nine0003

    It is important to remember only about proportions - 16 to 9, and about a resolution of no more than 1067x600 pixels for posts that fall into the feed, and up to 1920x1080 for Stories.

    Image Size Compression

    An alternative to Paint, Photoshop and Lightroom is a tried and true tool that has been on the web for a long time - Canva. To upload a photo so that Instagram does not cut anything superfluous (and at the same time change some details, such as captions, filters, or even frames), Canva helps with the help of special templates pre-selected for different social networks. nine0003

    In the realities of Instagram there are special sets for publications, Stories, covers for the eternal "Stories", avatars and even grids.

    As soon as you enter a suitable option in the search, the system will immediately select the missing details and help you move on to experiments, and also tell you what things you should not forget about, and what else is easy to impress the public with. Special recommendations help you get inspired in minutes.

    Applications that change image settings for Instagram

    A whole collection of graphic editors - NoCrop, Square, Whitagram - can automatically adjust the proportions to the size of the Instagram news feed. The listed assistants adapt the content to both classic publications and Stories, and at the same time they will help with a superficial change in individual details. They will add text and effects, non-standard geometric shapes and visual elements that can emphasize the theme of the picture.

    Posting a photo on the Instagram social network without cropping details around the edges will help both special software and manual adjustment of the resolution of photos or images downloaded from the network.

    Learn more