LinkedIn post design: carousels, quotes and announcements

Good LinkedIn post design looks professional and distinctive at once. Use 1200×1200 square or 1080×1350 portrait for single images, a PDF document for carousels people page through, and a 1200×627 image for link previews. Then give every post the same colour family and type, so people know it's yours before they read your name.

Square post 1200×1200

1200 × 1200

Portrait post 1080×1350

1080 × 1350

Link image 1200×627

1200 × 627

Profile banner 1584×396

1584 × 396

The post formats that work on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is read at work and on the move, by people deciding in a moment whether a post is worth their attention. The formats that do well share one thing: they deliver a clear, useful idea quickly. Pick the format by what you are saying, not by habit.

How to design a LinkedIn carousel

A LinkedIn carousel is a PDF uploaded as a document post. LinkedIn shows it in the feed as a set of pages people swipe or click through, with a page count. Because it's a document, every page keeps its own design exactly, and people can read the whole thing without leaving the feed.

1. 1

   Choose one page shape

   Portrait 1080×1350 or square 1200×1200. Use it for every page; mixed shapes look broken in the viewer.

2. 2

   Write the cover as a promise

   The first page is what people see in the feed. Say what they will learn, specifically.

3. 3

   One idea per page

   A heading and a short explanation. If a page needs more than about 40 words, split it.

4. 4

   Keep the layout fixed

   The same background, margins and heading position on every page, with a small page number.

5. 5

   End with a summary and one action

   A recap worth saving, then a single next step: follow, comment or visit.

6. 6

   Export a PDF and give it a title

   Upload it through the document option in the post composer, and write a clear document title.

The same thinking applies to Instagram carousels, with a few differences in how slides are uploaded; see Instagram carousel design for the hook slide and continuity techniques.

Quote and insight posts

On LinkedIn, the best quote is often your own: one sentence from a talk you gave, an article you wrote or a lesson from a project. Set it large, attribute it to yourself, and use the post text to explain it. Quote post design covers the typography.

Announcements: hiring, launches and milestones

LinkedIn is where companies and people announce the things that matter to their careers and customers. Each type has a clear lead fact, and the design should make that fact the largest thing. For the full method, see how to design an announcement post.

• Hiring: the role is the headline; team, location or remote, and how to apply go underneath.
• Launch: the product's name and one line on what it does, with the link in the post text.
• New role or promotion: your new title and organisation, set simply; a photo can carry the warmth.
• Milestone: one real number and what it counts, never a rounded-up guess.
• Event or talk: the title, the date and where to join, in that order.

Professional but distinctive

LinkedIn feeds are full of the same corporate blue, the same stock photos and the same free templates. None of it is wrong, and none of it is memorable. Professional means clear, accurate and well set. It doesn't mean generic. A colour family of your own, used on every post, does more for recognition than any single clever design.

Type and legibility on LinkedIn

Many people read LinkedIn on a phone, where a post image is only as wide as the screen. Set headings large, keep body text on images to a minimum, and use a typeface with an open, generous shape. Fonts for social media has recommendations that hold up at that size.

For a personal account, the posts, the banner and the profile photo work as one system; personal branding shows how to set it up once. In Gradiently, a design made for Instagram can be laid out again at LinkedIn's sizes with copy to sizes, and your brand kit keeps the logo, colours and fonts the same everywhere.