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A route

I want to create social content.

Posts, stories and covers that read on a phone, in every size at once. 12 guides, about 39 minutes in total, in the order that gets you there.

The route, in order

  1. Formats, safe zones and legibility on a phone screen.Design social posts that read on a phonePick the right format, keep text out of the interface, size type for a phone held at arm's length, and design a series that holds together.Beginner4 minDesign craft
  2. Every size in pixels and a live view of what each platform covers.Social media sizes and safe zonesSizes: Instagram post 1080 × 1350 (4:5), square 1080 × 1080, story and reel 1080 × 1920 (9:16), YouTube thumbnail 1280 × 720, LinkedIn banner 1584 × 396, X header 1500 × 500. Safe zones: stories lose roughly the top and bottom 250 px to the interface; reels lose more of the bottom (about 420 px) and a column on the right to the buttons; thumbnails lose the bottom-right corner to the duration; banners lose the lower left to the profile photo. Pick a format below to see what is covered and what is left.Beginner3 minDesign craft
  3. One design, every size, one download.Resize one design to every formatTurn one finished design into posts, stories, thumbnails and banners, as a ZIP of PNGs, as separate designs, or as linked boards.Intermediate4 minEditor
  4. The size, and the three rules that make a thumbnail read at 200 px wide.YouTube thumbnail size and the three legibility rules1280 × 720 px, 16:9, JPG or PNG under 2 MB. That is the file. The design problem is that it is shown at about 200 to 400 px wide in a list next to twenty others, so: three words maximum, set at 120 px or larger on the 1280 px canvas with an outline or a band; one face or one object, big, cut out and placed on a flat or blurred background; one bright colour that the competing thumbnails are not using. The duration badge covers the bottom right corner. Test by shrinking the canvas to the size of a postage stamp; if the words still read, publish.Beginner2 minDesign craft
  5. Why posts go soft on the feed and the export that avoids it.Why social images look blurry after upload, and how to export themEvery platform resizes an image that is not its display size and recompresses every upload. Give it as little to change as possible: design at the platform's exact size (Instagram post 1080 × 1350, story 1080 × 1920, Facebook cover 1640 × 624, LinkedIn banner 1584 × 396), export at 1×, use PNG for graphics with text and flat colour and JPG at 90 per cent for photos, upload the exported file rather than a screenshot, and turn off any data-saver or low-quality upload setting in the app. Text smaller than about 36 px on a 1080 px canvas softens badly whatever you do.Beginner2 minDesign craft
  6. Three to five layouts in every format, filled in five minutes a week.Design a social template system you can reuse weeklyDesign three to five layouts for the posts you actually make (an announcement, a quote, a product, an event, a tip), not twenty. Build each from the brand kit so colours and fonts are right by default, lay out the master at 1080 × 1350, then make the other formats as linked boards with Cascade to touchpoints. Mark what changes each week (photo, headline, date) and lock everything else. Save each layout with File, Save as template. Each week: open the template, swap the photo and words, run Update formats from master, export the boards.Intermediate2 minDesign craft
  7. A slide per board, in order, in one file.Design an Instagram carousel with boardsBuild the carousel as one design with a board per slide: File, Boards…, add Instagram post boards (1080 × 1350) side by side. Slide one is a cover that promises something; each middle slide makes one point; the last slide says what to do next. Keep the margins, headline position and page number identical on every board so swiping feels continuous. Export with Ctrl+E: choose All boards, PNG at 1×, and tick Number files in board order (01, 02…); the zip comes out in slide order.Beginner2 minDesign craft
  8. Text that reads on any photo, and when a band beats an outline.Outline text so it reads on any photoSelect the text layer and, in Properties, click Add next to Outline, pick a colour and set Outline width. That is the quick way. For control over where the stroke sits, use a Stroke layer style instead: position Outside keeps the letter shapes intact, Inside keeps the text the same size, and the style follows the text when you retype it. For hollow letters, add a Stroke and set Fill opacity to 0. Outlines read best at 2 to 4 per cent of the text size (a 100 px headline takes a 2 to 4 px stroke); thicker starts to look like a meme, so before going thicker try a darker photo or a band behind the text.Beginner2 minEditor
  9. A launch post taken into every format, step by step.Turn one launch post into every social formatUse a Studio job to design one key visual, build linked versions for every social format, keep them in step when the copy changes, and deliver a named zip.Intermediate6 minWorkflows
  10. Every preset and its pixel size, from Instagram to LinkedIn.Size presets: every format and its pixel sizeEvery size preset in the Editor and Studio, with the exact pixel size, what it is for and how the print sizes relate to millimetres and dpi.Beginner6 minReference
  11. Keep every post on brand without re-entering colours and fonts.Keep brand colours, fonts and logos readySave your brand colours, fonts and logos once, and have them ready in every design you open in the Editor.Beginner2 minEditor
  12. Several formats side by side in one document.Work with boards (artboards)Put several boards of different sizes in one design, then add, move, resize, duplicate, tidy and delete them.Intermediate4 minEditor