As you know Facebook upgraded all Facebook Pages to the timeline design on March 30 so please go to this post for the new image sizes and Facebook Cover Photo Checklist : http://tina.bz/coversfb
Did you realize your Facebook Fan Page profile picture can be as big as this?
[Have updated this post as the new size is 540 pixels high by 180 pixels wide.
Facebook still refers to the vertical banner on your Page as your Page Profile Picture. This post is intended to encourage you to maximize your visual branding of the vertical banner on your Facebook (Fan) Page.]
Very generous of Facebook to give us all this valuable space on their site – the second most popular site on the globe! (Alexa)
A picture is worth a thousand words! And all this space is free!
How to Make the Best Use of this Free Space
1. Do this first – upload your full-size profile picture – 540 pixels high and 180 pixels wide. Grab your designer or Photoshop friend! Aviary is a free online photo editor you can use to create your vertical banner if you are using a single photograph.
2. Keep your branding consistent. On your Fan Page, Facebook allows you to promote your products or services – so go for it!
3. Include a photo of you in your profile picture – its about connecting with people.
4. Include your core offering so your visitors can see immediately how you can help them.
Some Great Facebook Profile Pictures to Inspire You!
Mitch Meyerson’s Facebook Fan Page
Fabienne Fredrickson’s Facebook Fan Page
Dan Weik’s Facebook Fan Page
Dubli Facebook Fan Page
NightLife @ the California Academy of Sciences Facebook Fan Page
Have you a great Profile Picture on your Fan Page? Feel free to add your link in the comments below. If you found this post helpful, please share with your friends.
© 2010 – 2012, Tina Cook. All rights reserved.
Hi Tina,
Many thanks for this page. I have used it before and it worked perfectly. However I am trying to add a 540 x 180 profile picture now on my fan page and it is not working. It is only showing the small square size. Any suggestions?
Twitter: danasheehan
says:
Hi Tina, I have checked out all of the Facebook pages in this post and one of them have the 180 x 540 profile image any more. I suspect that Facebook changed (shocking, I know!) and no longer allows this.
However, they are changing their profile picture dimensions on April 26 to 160 x 160 (currently 125 x 125) in an effort to make it more visible:
“On April 26, we will be updating the size of the profile picture on all Pages. We are letting you know about this small change in advance so that you can update your profile picture on April 26. The new profile picture will be 160 x 160 pixels and will sit at 23 pixels from the left and 210 pixels from the top of the Page.”
Happy Facebooking!
Dana
Twitter: http://www.restoresim.com
says:
Thanks for posting That’s great
I just started my online business when my offline advertising business was taken over by Canada Post. We were in media distributions and I invented an adbag, put all the flyers for various towns inside of it and mailed it through Canada Post. Now they have changed the law (Canada Post is government owned) so that nobody can do what I did again. That killed my 15 year career in advertising! I am almost 50 now and going back to school for a second career is not something I want to do. I am already a certified Teacher and Counsellor, so I am considering doing some personal and business coaching on the side for right now. But I will not quit at developing an online business. If I have to go back to school to learn HTML, etc., I will. Hopefully I can outsource or find a partner who is able to do the technical end of things for me.
Don G Cox
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Hi Don, With your 15 years business experience am sure you’ll be able to coach many very successfully. Would recommend mastering WordPress (the .org version) rather than HTML for many reasons: its free, if you can use MS Word, you can use WordPress, Google love WordPress, amazing functionality and constantly adding more. Please let me know if can help you on your new adventure. Best, Tina
hi mr. Cox, please contact me at this email adress: alin.adrian05@gmail.com
Hi,
I switched to Timeline for my FB fanpage.. It says that the cover photo should have a width of 399px. No mention as to the height px. I did the 399px width and had been proportioning the height px but every time I uploaded a pic it keeps blowing out of proprtion.. Any idea what’s a recommended height px for the cover photo?? Thanks
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Hi Howard,
Yes the cover photo dimensions are 851 x 315 pixels. Congrats on setting yours up so soon. Best, Tina
Twitter: keridwyn
says:
Hi Tina – what great time you take in responding to folks here – I’ll certainly be back to your site as a reference in the future. What’s the idea size for profile pic sizes on Fan pages now that Timeline is in affect. Is it still 180 wide by 540 tall (but only 180 shows up when viewing it on the home page?)
thanks!
I’ve been doing graphic design for 10 years using photoshop yet I still can’t create an image that will successfully upload to facebook as a profile picture. I have tried every format and resolution conceivable with no luck. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Here are some examples of images I’ve uploaded. They were beautiful, clean and crisp on my computer.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/424092_312502938810194_1171224861_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/424906_312506302143191_311950245532130_926045_956092078_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395911_312604962133325_311950245532130_926206_1866733333_n.jpg
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Hi Elayne,
You must have been doing all this as Facebook was switching over to the new Timeline for Pages! Now its a whole new format. Good news is – many will need your graphic design skills for their new cover photos! Hope you are smiling again! Warmly, Tina
Hi, I am curious about your point that many will need graphic design skills just to get a profile picture into Facebook pages in timeline. Why exactly is that?
Regards
Gary
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your question. It’s interesting how many of the Social Media platforms are becoming even more visual. Having good graphic skills are a huge advantage. The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” sums it up, don’t you think? Best, Tina
The reference to the editing program is because your profile picture has to be 160 X 160 pixels….
You can easily change the size of a picture in Photoshop Elements a $65.00 software program from dell.com
Gary, my profile picture and my cover photo join together and create ONE picture…..
https://www.facebook.com/#!/barry.bridges.5
Use your imagination and create yours.
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Beautifully done Barry, awesome!
Well i just tried and it keeps on showing me just a part of the picture…….btw i have timeline………and my profile pic is also so so small…..help me please…i wanna have a banner like lalo and i cant have it
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Yogesh, sounds like you are working on your Facebook personal page. This is intended for your fan page. Hope that solves why its not working for you.
Tina, I too am experiencing this – I’m not using a personal page – FB is changing all formats, including fan pages. Although the profile pic can be 540×180 px they are only allowing a minimum display. I’ll do more research…. Thanks.
Hi Tina,
I want to create a face book fan page with vertical banner image. But when I try to upload it it does not work. Can you help me please what to do?
Tigist
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Greetings Tigist,
We’ve found the visual for your Facebook Fan page needs to be exactly 180 px wide by 540 px high. If it is one pixel out, you may get the error message.
Please let me know if that helps you.
I am having the same problem!
Mine was exactly 180 – 540 px and I even went and cropped it to be just a liitle less and I am still getting the FB message “to use something more square”. I did have a square image in earlier, does that have anything to do with it or has FB just change their size for the profile image on the fanpage?
Thanks,
PS Great site! It was the first site to come up in Google for my search!
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Sorry to hear you aren’t winning Robert. Sometimes Facebook can be challenging. As far as I know, Facebook hasn’t changed the size and I uploaded a banner a few days ago 180px by 540px. We are waiting for Facebook’s announcement on Timelines for Pages. Thank you for your compliment about my site. It’s a work-in-progress! Just love adding more functionality and cool things for my visitors to explore. Wishing you the very best.
I did it!!! thank you so much you are very help full. I correct the pixel size as you suggested and now it works.
if you want to see it… http://www.facebook.com/AsianMedicalService
Thank you. If you have any comment it will be helpful.
Thanks
Tigist
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Wonderful Tigist, happy to help your great cause. Your warm, friendly smile makes your page very inviting. You may want to double check the copy on your banner for typos.
Also, when you have more time, the top five visuals could be used to illustrate your mission by re-sizing them.
You could also adjust the thumbnail of your new visual so it centers your face. To do that just hover over the top right corner of your new banner till you see “Change Picture”. Once you have clicked though to the next page, at the bottom of your banner you will see “Edit Thumbnail”.
Twitter: lalofuentes
says:
Thank you for the help. Now my Facebook page has a banner!
http://www.facebook.com/losangelespersonaltrainer
Let me know what you think!
Lalo
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Very smart Lalo!
Twitter: BRGreenLawnCare
says:
Thanks for the write up! It was hard to find the exact dimensions on so much blog spam out there. Your article was quick and to the point. Thanks!
Twitter: rachelkarl
says:
This was really helpful! Thanks Tina!
When I try to upload to my biz page I get the ‘too wide/too long – try something square’ message. What am I doing wrong? My graphic is the right size and I have tried multiple formats – png and jpeg. Can anyone lend some words of advice?
These profile page pictures are great and really give your page high impact.
They are simple to create but give your fanpage an instant professional look.
I hope Facebook doesn’t change the layout of the fanpage like they have
done with the new timeline.
Thanks Tina, theres some great tips here.
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Thank you Domain Promotions, it’s highly likely Facebook will change the layout of Fan Pages to their timeline format. Though no announcements yet.
Great ! this site is really helpful I was wondering why my pics were changing so much, loosing the quality but I managed to upload the banner and looks crisp and cool !
Got to be PNG
Have a look: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colorin/329251407119797?sk=app_184217821649480
Many thanks Tina
Jamie
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
You are most welcome Jamie. Best of success with your new Fan Page!
I can’t seem to get mine nice and crisp – I’ve saved it as a .png (its super nice and crisp on my computer) but when I upload it, it looses its quality? What am I doing wrong? lol.
Twitter: clare_josa
says:
Thank you so much for the inspiration, Tina – as usual! You nudged me to get up and sort out my fan page profile pic. Thank you!
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Awesome Clare!
Twitter: pashminu
says:
Very helpful set of images. Anyone with simple editing skills can now have good professional profile image for FB.
I can confirm that this works! Thank you so much! I have added a 488 x 200 px photo to my photography page and it makes it stand out very nicely! I simply went to ‘change photo’ by hovering over my profile picture and uploaded from there. I recommend doing this.
Thanks again!
Michelle Nichols
Hey there everyone! Does anyone know if facebook will be moving to the new interface for product fan pages as well as for users? I knew that users wont have an option to remind with the way the profile looks like now.
Twitter: davidsyw
says:
I understand that is no commitment by Facebook to support timeline for fan pages. http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/facebook-timeline-pages-for-brands
Hi Sarah. The answer is yes–kind of. Facebook automatically compress any jpg, even if it was already compressed. If you upload your pic as a png, Facebook will convert it to jpg and compress it without giving you the chance of making adjustments. Your best option is to either save your picture as jpg with maximum quality (100) or saving it as a png.
Twitter: chrisgregoryjax
says:
Right now I thought I was doing good by getting my logo up as my profile pic. You make a lot of sense in that it’s social so make a profile picture that has your face. I always thought it was add to reply to a comment as a logo. Thanks for enlightening us.
hi everyone,
i am designing a facebook banner in photoshop and it is really crips and clear, but when i save it as a JPG and upload to facebook profile picture it loses its sharpness.
After reading above, is the simply answer just to save it as a PNG instead?? or is there more to it than that? for example, what resolution/dpi should i be using etc?
hoping you can help.
cheers. sarah.
Twitter: ShakyPlanet
says:
Thanks for the dimensions, our FB fan page finally has a tall banner-
http://www.facebook.com/ShakyPlanet
we tried this months ago and gave up, it went in through the thumbnail upload without a hitch this time. We are about to offer our first Facebook-only gift for fans, we’ll have to see if they are ready to use a QR code.
Twitter: 0101110011
says:
well, if you get the square picture warning try this: upload the wannabe profile picture to your “wall photos” album. then open the picture’s page on facebook, and “make it a profile picture”. it works just as you want it to. 1 to 3 ratio.
cheers
Hi Ofsahin,
I have uploaded the new profile picture and can see it under ‘photos’ However, I can not find out how to find the ‘make it a profile picture’.
Can you please help.
Thanks
Twitter: 0101110011
says:
see here:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/256/44060828.jpg/
And the first 180 pixels are what will be used on wall posts (to the left of the text)?
Facebook doesn’t seem to let me put a larger picture on as a profile pic. I keep getting a message about using something more square. How is this done? I have a vision for my Facebook page that I can not seem to accomplish. HELP.
Hi Tina, I have used this posting to instruct me on how to size my profile pic in the past but in trying to do it this morning I received a facebook note telling me to select a square pic (in other words, the site would not accept my 180×540 submission.) Have we lost the ability to do this now? Any suggestion for how to get around it? Thank you.
This is the actual language that facebook uses: “Your picture is too tall or too wide.
Try to pick something closer to a square.” Thankfully I was able to return to my old 180×540 profile pic, at least.
Hi, how do you upload a profile picture of 180 X 540 into your company fb page? FB only appears to allow you to upload 180 X 180? I have been searching for answers on this all day and now pulling my hair out!
Twitter: davidsyw
says:
I first learned of the ability to include large rectangular images for my Facebook (fan) page from this site, thanks to Tina. I can confirm that as of 2 days ago, I was able to submit a 200×488 PNG file for my page http://goo.gl/uYmfj. I had to change my picture.
Since joining Google+, I have seen the differences in image handling. Facebook messes up the clarity of submitted images while Google+ preserves the clarity. Of course when it comes to clarity, I have not seen clearer pictures than that ones provided by Tina on this site.
I just uploaded my 200×488 image and Facebook accepted it.
Twitter: davidsyw
says:
Very nice site with clear-sharp images. Although I had seen the vertical banners on other Facebook fan pages, I did not think to use it until I came across your web page. Thanks for the great information.
My fan page is new so effort will be needed to build it. And until I get more Likes, I won’t have a vanity URL. http://goo.gl/uYmfj
I do see artifacts in my logo image in Facebook. I am using the PNG format. The same logo used elsewhere is very smooth with no artifacts.
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Congrats for setting up your new Facebook Page David. If you aren’t experiencing the same issue with your logo image elsewhere, then could be a Facebook issue. Interesting.
Twitter: davidsyw
says:
Thanks for your reply Tina. On another fan page, I have noticed similar artifacts. But when I use the same image on my website, they are perfectly clean. I agree with your assessment that it is a Facebook issue. I’ve tried on occasion to contact Facebook about issues and I’ve never gotten a response back.
Twitter: davidsyw
says:
Hi Tina. I want to share information on a discovery with the image artifacts issue. By accident, I discovered that changing my green color to a darker green removed the artifacts. I did this to make my icon look better on the smartphone display and to my surprise, it fixed the Facebook issue.
On another topic, I am having problems accessing some of your other pages from Firefox. I even upgraded from Firefox 7 to 8 and still the same problem. It hangs my Firefox browser session. I can view those pages with no problem in Chrome 15.
Twitter: gazaian1
says:
This website is great all i was looking for is the size of a Facebook fan page pic and i found lots more. Thanks a lot!
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Pleasure Ian, thanks for stopping by.
This was great. I started my first iteration of the logoand it is WAY better than what I had started with. Thank you!!
http://www.facebook.com/poormoores
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Looks very good Andrew! Hope your new Facebook Page grows as well as your wonderful plants!
This is great, but can you add the “how to” part of using Aviary? Went to the site and it’s not user-friendly.
Thanks,
Robin
PNG or JPG depends on your photo itself.
The common rule is that use use jpg if it is a real life photo and png for images.
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Thank you Tycho, that’s useful to know.
I HOPE TO BE WINNER
Hi,
Do you have any idea if PNG graphics are accepted by Facebook as when I try to save with a JPG image I’m getting some artifacts in the picture. The PNG is totally crisp.
Twitter: TinaCook
says:
Hi James,
Yes, I use PNG always. You can upload to Facebook.
Thanks for stopping by,
Best, Tina