What is the best image size, ratio and format?
Question
What is the best image size, ratio and format to use for the images in my survey?
Answer
Before considering image size, ratio and format, it is worth mentioning consistency.
File size
Respondents will view the same file as the one uploaded to the image libary. Therefore the smaller and lighter the the better without losing image quality.
The recommended file size is 400 KB or less. The platform will warn you if you use images larger than 400 KB and will not allow you to upload a file size larger than 3MB.
File ratio
Square images ( 1 : 1 ratio ) work well for images on the platform. However the most important thing is to keep the ratios consistent for images.
File type
The app supports any file type that a browser is able to render as an image. This includes JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF.
There are lots of articles on-line which will help you chose the best image file format to use such this this article by 'Design Powers' https://designpowers.com/blog/image-file-formats
Resizing images
There are many free tools which will allow you to customise the ratio and file size of your images. One such tool is Adobe Express.
These are the steps to follow to customise the ratio and file size of an image using this service.
Go to https://new.express.adobe.com/ and sign into your account or create one for free
Once you have opened an account go to the 'resize file' option as shown below.
Upload your image and select 'Resize for Instagram'
Centre your iamge and select 'Download'
When you download the file you will be able to see the file size of the image. In the example below the file size is 1,183 KB which exceeds the recommended file size of 400 KB or less
To reduce the file size choose 'resize for custom' and choose a smaller width and height px. In the example below 540 px has been chosen. Download the image again.
This time the file size is 388 KB which is in line with the recommended file size for the platform
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