Image file requirements

Each social network handles images and GIFs differently. There are only a few requirements for image uploads (listed in the table in this article). The Composer lets you know if your images have any issues with these when you’re creating posts.

The social networks take care of the rest when your images are published from Hootsuite. Each network accepts a wide range of dimensions and resolutions, and optimizes images to look their best on its platform. Optimization methods include image resizing, reformatting, scaling, and cropping.

Tip: If you want more control over the final look of your images, edit them in the image editor. Use the Transform option to scale your images with aspect ratios made to fit each social network. See Work with images for more details.

*Additional GIF format requirements:

• Resolution between 120px x 120px and 1280px x 1080px
• Number of frames fewer than or equal to 350
• Number of pixels fewer than or equal to 300 million (width x height x frames)

Understand aspect ratio

An aspect ratio describes an image or video's shape using a proportional relationship between its width and height. Aspect ratios are written as a formula of width to height, like 3:1.

For example, a square image has an aspect ratio of 1:1. The height and width are the same. The image could be 200px × 200px, or 1600px × 1600px, and the aspect ratio would still be 1:1.

A portrait-style image might have a ratio of 2:3, where the height is 1.5 times longer than the width. So the image could be 500px × 750px, 1000px × 1500px, etc.