How to read your result
One hero shot, seven places to put it, and each wants something different
A product photo that goes on Instagram, in a Story, on LinkedIn, as a YouTube thumbnail and on your website needs five different shapes, at least two formats and several file limits. Doing that by hand is an afternoon of cropping. This does it in one pass, from one photo, and hands you one ZIP.
- Every placement at its own size, format and limitChoose a pack and each photo comes out once per placement. A YouTube thumbnail is always JPEG under 2 MB, because that is what YouTube accepts; a website picture uses the modern format you choose. The table under "How we worked it out" lists every placement, its source and the day we checked it.
- You choose what survives the cropA centre crop is right until the subject is off centre, and then it cuts off a head or a product. Tap the subject once and every crop in the set keeps that point in view.
- Story and Reel safe zones, drawn on the previewThe top and bottom of a Story or Reel sit under the name, the caption and the buttons. The preview under "Safe zones" shades those areas, and your focal point is placed in the clear middle rather than the exact centre.
- The grid crop, shown before you postInstagram's profile grid shows a 3:4 middle of each post. A square or 4:5 post loses its edges on the grid, and the preview shows exactly how much.
- One ZIP, a folder for each packNo fifty separate downloads and no browser asking whether to allow them. Each file can still be saved on its own from the list under "Show the working".
- A size limit that never fails silentlyIf a file will not fit under its limit at a sensible quality, the size steps down until it does, and the list says exactly what was done.
How we prepare images on client sites
Photographs off a shoot are usually several thousand pixels wide and many megabytes each. Nothing on a website or a feed needs that. The routine is always the same and it takes minutes.
Resize first, convert second
Resizing is where most of the saving comes from. Converting a six thousand pixel photo to WebP still leaves a six thousand pixel photo in a newer wrapper. Take the longest edge to 1920 first, and the file shrinks before the format has done anything.
Crop for the placement, not for the photo
A platform crops whatever you give it. Doing the crop yourself, around the subject, is the difference between a product in the middle of a Story and a product hidden under the reply bar.
Name the file before it goes up
Image search reads filenames, and a camera gives you a serial number. Renaming is easy now and awkward later, because changing a filename on a live site breaks every link to it.
One format for the website, JPEG for everything else
On a website you control, WebP at around 85 per cent quality gets most of the benefit with none of the risk. Social platforms and email are another matter: JPEG is the format every one of them accepts.
When the pictures are light and the site is still slow
Image weight is often the largest part of a slow page, but not the only one: scripts, an overloaded theme or a slow host can matter as much. Our WooCommerce store audit covers the rest, and if the photos themselves need making rather than shrinking, the UGC (user generated content) portfolio shows the shoots we run.
Preparing portfolio and media kit images
Brands judge a creator's stills in seconds, usually on a phone. A few habits make the difference.
Make the set once per shoot
Pick your strongest frame from each shoot and make the Instagram, Stories and YouTube packs from it in one go. You then have a portrait, a square, a vertical and a thumbnail ready for a pitch, a media kit or your own feed.
Keep the product in the clear middle
Brands reuse creator stills in Stories and adverts. Set the focal point on the product so it stays clear of the buttons in every vertical crop, and check the shaded preview before you send anything.
Name files so a brand can find them
A file called yourname-brand-serum-portrait-1080x1350.jpg tells a busy marketing team who, what and where in one glance. Type it once under "Filenames" and the whole set follows.
Next, price the work and write the profile
Once the stills are ready, the UGC rate calculator works out what to charge and the bio generator writes the profile that goes with them.
When a file comes back wrong
What if a file will not get under its size limit?
The tool first looks for the highest quality from 40 per cent up that fits. If even 40 per cent is too big, it steps the size down by 10 per cent at a time until the file fits, and the list says what it did, for example "fitted at 1728 by 1152, quality 40%". If a file still cannot fit, it is marked in the list rather than quietly left out.
Can it open iPhone HEIC photos?
Only in Safari, which is the one major browser that can open HEIC (Can I use). In Chrome, Edge or Firefox the tool tells you which files it could not open. Open this page in Safari instead, or set the iPhone camera to Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats, and new photos will be JPEG.
What happens to a transparent PNG?
In WebP, AVIF or PNG the transparency is kept. JPEG cannot store transparency, so those pixels take the background colour you choose, white unless you change it. The preview shows a chequered pattern wherever transparency will be kept.
How many photos can I do at once?
Up to 50 photos, and up to 400 files in one go. A phone runs out of memory before a laptop does, so if a large batch slows down, do it in two halves. Photos are processed one at a time so that a big batch does not stall the browser.
How we worked it out
The sizes, and where each one comes from
Every placement is a row in the table the tool reads, with its source. Platforms change these, so each row carries the day we last checked it. If a platform changes a size, we change the row.
| Pack | Placement | Size | Format and limit | Source, checked |
|---|
Methodology, and what this tool cannot do
The size table. Every placement is one row of data in the page: its size, its shape, its format, its file limit, its safe zones, its source and the day we checked it. The tool, the preview and the table in this section are all drawn from that one list, so they cannot disagree.
How a crop is made. The photo is scaled until it covers the placement on both sides, then the spare edge is trimmed. Where the trim falls is set by your focal point, held inside the photo's edges so that nothing blank is ever shown. For Stories, Reels and TikTok the focal point is placed in the middle of the clear area rather than the exact centre.
How a size limit is met. Each file is first made at your quality. If it is over its limit, a search finds the highest quality from 40 per cent up that fits. If 40 per cent is still too big, the size is reduced by 10 per cent at a time. Each step is shown in "Show the working".
How each file is checked. After encoding, the tool reads back what the browser actually produced. If a browser quietly made a different format from the one asked for, the file takes the right ending and the list says so.
What it cannot do. It cannot keep camera data, it cannot open HEIC outside Safari, it cannot make animated files (a GIF gives its first frame), and it cannot beat a dedicated build pipeline on encoding quality, because a browser gives every tool the same encoder.
Nothing here is transmitted. Your photos are opened, cropped and encoded by your own browser, and the ZIP is built on your device. There is no upload and no sign up. A link you copy or have emailed carries your settings only, never a photo.
Questions people ask
Does this tool upload my images anywhere?
No. Every step, from opening the photo to building the ZIP, runs on your own device using the browser's built in image handling. Nothing is fetched from anywhere else while the tool runs, and a link you copy or have emailed carries your settings only, never a photo.
What does "make the set" do?
You choose the packs you need, such as Instagram, Stories and Reels, LinkedIn, YouTube and Website, and each photo comes out once for every placement in those packs. Each file has its own size, format and file limit, and they arrive in one ZIP with a folder for each pack.
How do I stop a crop cutting off a head or a product?
Tap the subject on the photo. Every crop in the set then keeps that point in view instead of cropping from the centre. The small previews in the result show each placement before anything is made, so you can move the point and watch every crop follow.
What are Story and Reel safe zones?
The strips at the top and bottom of a vertical post sit under the account name, the caption and the buttons, and a little of each side is covered too. The figures we draw come from Sked Social's Instagram size guide for Instagram and from Moda's TikTok guide for TikTok.
Which format should I choose for my website?
WebP for almost everything: it is small and keeps transparency. AVIF is smaller still but slower to make. Safari cannot make WebP or AVIF files from a web page (Can I use), so on an iPhone or a Mac in Safari those options are switched off and JPEG is chosen instead. The tool also checks every file it makes, so a file is never given the wrong ending.
Why are the social media files always JPEG?
Because every platform accepts it and some do not accept WebP. YouTube takes JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG thumbnails up to 2 MB (ThumbnailTest, citing YouTube Help), and LinkedIn and Pinterest take JPG and PNG. JPEG keeps a photo far smaller than PNG.
Is the camera and location data kept?
No. Each new file is drawn fresh by the browser, so the camera model, the date and any location stored in the original are not carried across. For web use that is what you want, because a photo taken at home can otherwise publish where you live. Keep your originals if you need that data.
Why does renaming the files matter?
Search engines read image filenames as a clue to what the picture shows, and a camera gives you a serial number that says nothing. Type a description once and every file in the set is named from it, numbered with a leading zero so that 02 sorts before 10.
What size should images be for social media in 2026?
Instagram feed posts are 1080 by 1350 for portrait, 1080 by 1080 square and 1080 by 1440 for the taller 3:4 shape; Stories, Reels and TikTok photos are 1080 by 1920; LinkedIn landscape is 1200 by 627; a YouTube thumbnail is 1280 by 720 and a Pinterest pin 1000 by 1500. The table under "How we worked it out" gives every size with its source and the date we checked it.
Who built this
If you would rather watch than read
Travel, food and influencer content from our founders, and the channel where the long form work lives.
The agency channel. UGC (user generated content) examples, client work and finished campaign videos.
