Social and content design

Member lesson

Sizes and safe zones in 2026

Lesson 2 of 11 in Social and content design.

Checked against the makers' documentation on 9 October 2026.

Lesson

Every format on a phone is a shape before it is a size. The shape is the aspect ratio, width against height, so 4:5 is slightly taller than it is wide and 9:16 is the tall frame of a story. The size is the resolution. Pick the shape the platform wants, then the width it keeps, and the height follows by arithmetic. At 1080 pixels wide, a 4:5 post is 1080 by 1350 and a 9:16 story is 1080 by 1920.

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  1. Question 1, locked

    According to Instagram's help, what happens to a photo wider than 1080 pixels when you post it?

    • It is kept at its full resolution
    • It is sized down to 1080 pixels wide
    • It is refused and must be exported again
    • It is cropped to a square
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which strips of a story does Meta's Ads Guide say to keep free of text, logos and other key elements?

    • The top 35%, the bottom 14% and 6% at each side
    • The top 10% and the bottom 10% only
    • The top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% at each side
    • The outer 6% on all four sides
  3. Question 3, locked

    Meta's Ads Guide recommends 4:5 for an Instagram feed image ad, while its aspect ratio help recommends 1:1. What does the lesson say to do?

    • Follow the Ads Guide, then check every crop Ads Manager shows before publishing
    • Follow the aspect ratio page, because it is the shorter of the two
    • Upload only squares, since every placement accepts them
    • Use 9:16 for every placement and let Meta crop it

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