Best Image Formats for Social Media: Stop Instagram Compression
Article•By Team
Why does Instagram ruin my photo quality?
You spend hours editing a photo, upload it, and it looks pixelated. This usually happens because you uploaded a file that was too large or in the wrong format, forcing the social platform to aggressively compress it.
The Golden Rules for 2024
1. Instagram & Facebook
- Preferred Format: JPG (Quality 85-90%)
- Avoid: PNG (unless it's a graphic/logo). Instagram converts PNGs to JPGs poorly, often causing "banding" in gradients.
- Tip: Resize your image to 1080px wide before uploading. If you upload a 4000px image, Instagram's resizing algorithm will ruin the sharpness.
2. Twitter (X)
- Preferred Format: PNG (for text/graphics), JPG (for photos).
- Note: Twitter now supports WebP, which is great for saving data.
3. LinkedIn
- Preferred Format: JPG or PNG.
- Avoid: WebP (Support is still spotty on LinkedIn uploads).
How to fix your images?
Don't let the algorithms crush your quality.
- Convert your PNGs to JPG using our EZ File Changer.
- Compress them slightly so they are under 5MB.
- Upload the optimized file.