(Last Updated On: December 19, 2017)

Instagram image — the first image in your blog post

You want the first image in your blog post to be the same one as your Instagram image. That way there is continuity when people go from your Instagram post to your blog post.

Size of Instagram image

By default, Instagram will crop your image to make it square. If you want an uncropped rectangle, it must be in the proportion of 1.91:1

You don’t want your image to be fuzzy on a large computer screen. So, 300 pixels would be a good height. In that case the width would be 573 pixels. (300 x 1.91)

Change Instagram image size in 8 steps

To change your image size to 571 x 300 pixels, add bars to the bottom or else the sizes. Use either Photoshop or GIMP.  (GIMP is much cheaper.) Here is how to change the size using GIMP:

1. Open image in GIMP

Go to File > Open to open the image that you used in your blog post.

2. Change height to 300 pixels

Go to Image > Scale Image to change the height to 300 pixels

3. Decide upon colour of bars

Drag eyedropper tool from Toolbox to picture. Select a colour for your bars.

 

4. Change background colour

 

Use double-headed arrow to move colour to background colour

 

5. Create new rectangle

a. Click on your Instagram image
b. Click File > New
c. Change width to 573
d. OK

 

6. Copy & paste image onto new rectangle

a. Cmd C to copy image into clipboard
b. Cmd V to paste image onto 573-wide rectangle
c. Click on coloured bar to anchor image to coloured rectangle

7. Name image

Click File > Export As to name new image as a PNG file

 

 

8. Upload rectangular image to Instagram

Three things to remember before clicking on Share:

• Make a comment that includes your blog post URL
• Have 2 hashtags in comment
• If you use Uplet to upload image to Instagram, click on angle brackets

 

 

 

 

YouTube

To get a better visualization of sizing your image, watch the 2-minute YouTube video below.