Have you ever been disappointed by the image quality of your Facebook photos and wonder why they never look quite right? If so, then you’re not alone! Some of the most common complaints of photo issues are washed out color, sharpness and overall clarity.
As a graphic designer and photographer, I share your frustration and often find myself spending too much time trying to rework and repost images, only to be disappointed that the end results aren’t much different.
But there is a quick-fix solution to this much complained about Facebook issue and it does not require any type of magic potion—just a simple “file save as” update to your existing workflow process.
JPG vs. PNG
When we save as a JPG, the file is compressed. When we upload that compressed image to Facebook, it’s resized and compressed again. A double-whammy! And literally double the image compression, skewing the image.
However, when we save a PNG (24-bit) file, it uses “lossless” compression, enabling the picture to maintain its original quality. Facebook will still do a resize and compression upon upload but your images are only compressed once instead of twice, making the quality of the photo that much better.
What about size?
According to the current Facebook cover photo guidelines, images should be sized at 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. Additional research shows that as long as you keep the long side of ANY image upload to 851 pixels tall, your images will end up looking just as good!
Here’s how it works:
- Be sure your color mode is set to sRGB
- Resize the long side of your image to be 851 pixels tall
- Save your image as a PNG file
Check out the enclosed comparison: 