Facebook Images.

[sc00t]

I hate Facebook.

I've got a poster I've designed for a client that they want to post to their timeline, but when I test it (I've tried several canvas sizes) it's compressing the image and making it blurred.

Can anyone tell me the perfect artboard size to use in Photoshop/DPI/Save settings, etc to ensure this poster does NOT blur when they use it on Facebook?

I've googled it, and been on a lot of awful websites which have supplied me with loads of useless information that is incorrect/not working.

It is a potrait, not landscape, poster.

Thanks guys!

S

 

[Tom Mann]

My name is Tom, and I hate Facebook, too. LOL.

Leaving aside my gripes about issues such as social manipulation, curating what is presented in your feed, completely re-defining words like "friend" which have a long established meaning, etc., for the purposes of this forum, my main gripe with FB is, like you, what they do to high quality images. I understand that they down-rez and compress images to save enormous amounts of storage space. I also understand the motivation behind graying out the bottom 1/4 of folks' cover photo (ie, the banner at the top of your home page), but that doesn't mean I have to like these aspects of their "service".

My way of dealing with FB is to do everything in my power to avoid having people think they can use FB to transfer high quality images. One of my clients insists that some of my photos appear on FB. I comply but only post relatively low rez images together with an oft-repeated statement that to download the higher rez versions, viewers have to contact me (or I'll give them an FTP address, a Dropbox URL, etc.). FB just isn't the way for photographers to transfer high quality images.

If you have no choice but to use FB, then you are stuck with the questions you asked.

This is a good, recent (2017) guide to the various display sizes:
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/images-photos-facebook-sizes-dimensions-types

The best advice I can give to retain quality for photos uploaded to someone's timeline is to *never* exceed 2048 pixels in either dimension. I think there is a MB limit, as well, but I forget what it is. Here is an article that mimics my advice never to exceed 2048 px:
https://fstoppers.com/education/how...photos-facebook-and-fix-common-mistake-105378

Also, you should be aware that they compress the red channel vastly more than the other channels. This is especially important when uploading saturated, small size graphics for profile pix, and other similar uses. We discussed this fairly extensively on this forum back in December of 2013. Pay attention to the red circles in his image:
Blurry parts of the picture

HTH,

Tom M

 

[sc00t]

Hi Tom,

I uploaded an image using the article you linked at the potrait size it states (476x716px) and same result.

Scott

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Scoot -

First, just to double-check, you are trying to place the image in a post on your timeline, right?

Don't forget that the 476x714px (note: not 716) dimensions are the dimensions that most viewers will see such images as they are scrolling through their feed. This small sized image is essentially equivalent to the low quality / low resolution in-forum previews we have here on PSG. If you intentionally down-rez your image to those dimensions, you have just irreversibly thrown away a huge amount of quality, and someone clicking on the image preview in their feed will never recover it.

If that's what you have been doing, assuming you are starting from a much larger original, instead, try this:

1) Crop the full rez version of your image (say, 3000x6000px)to the desired final aspect ratio (ie, 476 to 714, or 1 to 1.5). This should yield a cropped 3000x4500px version. Next use image/size/ (with resample ON, method = bicubic sharper, preserve aspect) to down rez the cropped version to 1366 x 2048 px. Then upload that to FB.

If it works the way I am familiar with, the in-feed preview of the image will look about as good as one can expect from such a small version, however when you click on it, it should open a new window that will show it at the dimensions you uploaded (ie, 1366x2048). Of course, this won't be as good as your much larger, 3000x4500px cropped version, but it certainly should look a lot better than the 476x714 preview version.

Pls. let me know what happens.

T

PS - I did the arithmetic in my head. I hope I got it right, LOL.

 

[sc00t]

So basically 1:1.5 (width x height) ratio you're saying?

Ill have a go in go in the morning

 

[Tom Mann]

Yup, set the ratio to be 1:1.5 and make the long dimension the maximum FB will allow, ie, 2048 pixels, and you should be fine.

Tom M