For your Facebook photos to look their best, you’ll want to learn how to optimize photos for Facebook. Here’s the scoop on the photo file types and compression to use when uploading photos to your Facebook Fan Page. See my previous post for best sizes to upload!
Image created on memegenerator.net.
How to Optimize Photos for Facebook
Facebook accepts uploads of .jpg, .gif, and .png file types. Jpeg is generally used for images with blended tones, like photos, and gif and png are better for images of flat tones, like logos and graphics. However – Facebook compresses ALL images you upload to .jpgs. I’ve tried uploading the same image in all 3 formats, and the result was virtually the same. Facebook compresses the heck out of images so pages will load faster. This will be most apparent on logos and graphics, and seems to be worst on solid red and purple tones.
Facebook takes this…
…to this!
I don’t believe there’s any workaround for the ugly artifacts Facebook creates by compressing flat tones in gifs and pngs to jpegs. Just be aware of this limitation, and consider using more photo quotes than flat toned images.
I save all my images for Facebook as RGB jpegs at the least compression, or maximum file size. On Photoshop, this is 12 – Maximum Quality. Other than the full photo custom tabs (which are limited to 400kb), I haven’t run into any file size restrictions. I uploaded a profile picture as a 2200px square, 3.1 MB file, and it worked fine.
Please share in the comments if you have other suggestions on how to optimize photos for Facebook!
Louise,
I’m a big fan of your blog (but you know that)! Keep the great content coming…
Tom
Thank you Tom, and back atcha!
Louise, I’m so grateful to have found your blog and your expertise. I’m looking forward to learning from you. Thanks for the post!
Thanks so much Alicia! I feel the same about you, so I consider that a high compliment!
Fun fact, my daughter’s friend (a high school student) created the app for memegenerator, and my daughter is the one who designed the graphics for the app. Made my day to see it mentioned here today!
How totally awesome! Clever kids ;)
Thanks for making me smile!
Thank you so much for this enlightening article Louise! The image I use for my business is red. After the change to the FB Timeline, it looked orange. Now, I understand why. I will see if my graphics designer can fix it for me. I’m all thumbs when it comes to Photoshop. :-) Dyane
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Dyane! Best of luck with your page and the red image.
I am so thankful for this Facebook information. As a designer getting back into the business after kids, a lot has changed. Thanks for putting this info in one handy place.
Welcome Deborah, glad you enjoyed the post!
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