Dimensions for Online Sharing

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Today’s Question: I have a question about the Export settings that I saw from your recent webinar. I noticed that you set up your export preset for Instagram so the long edge of your photos would be 2000 pixels. I am curious about the best settings for other sites such as Facebook. Or is there a good setup for all web sharing?

Tim’s Quick Answer: When sharing photos digitally the pixel dimensions are the only resolution setting you need to concern yourself with. In general, somewhere around 2,000 pixels on the long edge is more than adequate for any online or digital sharing.

More Detail: In the case of Instagram, 2,000 pixels on the long edge is actually larger than you need. Instagram will scale the image down to 1,080 pixels wide and up to 1,350 pixels tall. The reason I use 2,000 pixels for the long edge is that I synchronize the exported photos to my phone, so I can share the images via Instagram as well as directly on my phone.

For digital sharing the key consideration is the resolution of the display being used to present the image. I feel that 2,000 pixels on the long edge is a good setting in general. For more monitor displays or mobile devices, this will provide more than enough resolution to ensure good quality for the image.

Even for displays with a higher resolution, such as high-end 4K monitors, a resolution of 2,000 pixels on the long edge will provide good image quality. Each display configuration may be different, of course, but I feel that 2,000 pixels on the long edge is a good general-purpose setting for digital sharing.

For those interested in seeing the photos I have shared on Instagram, you can find my feed by pointing your web browser here:

https://www.instagram.com/timgreyphoto/