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Facebook makes it easy to change cover images. It also makes it easy to end up with poorly cropped cover images that make your page look less professional.
I found myself repeatedly cropping and uploading the same image to my Facebook page so it would center the subject, not be covered up by the profile photo, and be dark enough along the bottom so you could read the white text and buttons. Finally, I said “no more.” My solution was to create a 24-bit transparent .png guide that makes it easy in Photoshop to preview what you’ll see in Facebook before you upload a new cover.
Click here to download the facebook cover image guide.
The blue rule is the final cover image size, the green rule is the subject area, the horizontal area below it is where Facebook adds buttons and your name in white block letters, and the gray box is where your profile photo will overlay the cover image.
It’s pretty simple to use.
1. In Photoshop, open the image you want to use for your Facebook cover and make a duplicate image layer.
2. Open the facebook-guide.png file in Photoshop and drag it from the gray box to your cover photo as a new layer.
3. Move the facebook-guide around until you’re happy with the crop. You can also resize the image layer beneath the guide. Just make sure you don’t make the image layer any smaller than the blue rule. On smart phones, the cover photo is cropped in on both sides and the profile photo moves to the right, so verify the subject is also in the mobile guides.
4.If you cannot easily read the white text, create a new horizontal rectangle shape layer along the bottom of the image and fill it with a dark color you’ve picked from the image using the eyedropper. Experiment with changing the opacity of the shape layer or adding a gradient for a cool effect.
5. When you’re happy, set the crop size to 851 x 315 px @ 72 dpi in Photoshop and drag the crop on top of the blue box.
6. Hide the facebook-guide layer.
7. Save your final cover photo image as a jpg file for the web. I typically use 80% quality, sRGB embedded.
8. Exit without saving so you don’t change the original files.
