# Instagram carousel cover: the first slide that earns the swipe [Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-carousel-cover) The first slide is the whole decision: the feed shows it in full, and your profile shows nothing else. Here is how to write and lay out that cover so people swipe. ## The short version - An Instagram carousel cover is the first slide of the post, and it is the only slide the profile grid shows. - Design the cover at 1080×1350 pixels so the feed shows a tall frame and every later slide shares that shape. - The cover should make one specific promise in large type, held in the centre of the frame. - The profile grid crops a 4:5 cover to a 3:4 tile from the centre, so words near the left and right edges can be cut. - Share one ground and one type between the cover and the next slide, so the swipe feels like the next page. An **Instagram carousel cover** is the first slide of the post, and the only one that has to earn the swipe. Make it 1080×1350 pixels, with one specific promise in large type near the centre. The feed shows that whole frame, with dots underneath. Your profile shows only this slide, as a narrower 3:4 tile with a carousel icon in the top right. A vague line, or one sitting in the crop, means the later slides never get seen. ## What an Instagram carousel cover has to do Someone scrolling does not owe you a swipe. The dots are easy to miss, so the words have to say what they get if they stay. On the profile the tile is small and no later slide appears. [Instagram's carousel help](https://help.instagram.com/269314186824048/) says the feed shows the first photo with dots below it, and the profile shows that same first photo. The cover is a contract: a result, a problem, a count, or a place in a series. Later slides keep it. A logo on its own is not a contract. Followers may open from habit. Everyone else decides from this frame. | Cover job | The line does this | A line that works | | --- | --- | --- | | Promise | Names the result of swiping | Brief a client in one page | | Question | Names a problem they have | Why do covers get ignored? | | List tease | Gives the count, not the items | Five mistakes, then the fix | | Series | Marks this part of a run | Part 3: type at 40 px | One job per cover. The eyebrow and the detail support it. They do not add another. One job only. A question, a list and a part number on the same slide fight, and the type shrinks until none of them lands. The eyebrow names the audience. The detail holds the count. A second topic is a second post. ## Cover lines that earn the swipe Write the line before you open a canvas. If it needs a second sentence, that sentence is slide two. About six to ten words is a useful ceiling for the promise. A 1080 by 1350 carousel cover with the headline Brief a client in one page A promise cover names what the swipe delivers. A portrait carousel cover asking Why do covers get ignored A question cover names the problem, then stops. The answer is the rest of the carousel. 'Brief a client in one page' says a method is inside. 'Thoughts on pricing' could be anything, so there is nothing to swipe for. A question has to be just as specific. A portrait carousel cover reading Five mistakes, then the fix, as slide one of six The number stays on the cover. The items are the reason to swipe. A portrait series cover reading Part 3: type at 40 px on a repeated ground The part number is the news. The topic line says which run. All five items on the cover removes the reason to swipe, usually by shrinking the type. Give each item its own later slide. [Tips carousels](https://gradiently.design/guide/tips-carousel) carry a list through the whole post. The cover only has to make that list feel worth opening. ### Skip - A logo, and no promise - The word swipe as the whole message - A paragraph where one line should be - Words pressed against the side edges - A shape the next slides do not share ### Do this - One specific promise in large type - A short cue under the promise, not instead of it - An eyebrow for the series or the audience - The line held in the centre - The same size and ground as slide two > **Cover the cue** A swipe cue can sit under the promise. Hide it. If the slide no longer says what is inside, rewrite the line. ## The size of the cover, and the grid crop Design the cover at 1080×1350 before any later slide exists. The first image sets the shape of the carousel. Square 1080×1080 is for artwork already square. Landscape 1080×566 is for a wide photo. Neither gives words enough room. [Instagram's resolution note](https://help.instagram.com/1631821640426723/) keeps a photo at its uploaded width between 320 and 1080 pixels when the ratio is between 1.91:1 and 3:4. At 1080 wide, height runs from 566 to 1440. Wider files scale down to 1080. A ratio outside that range is cropped. 1080×1350 sits inside the range. - Cover in the feed, 1080×1350: 1080 × 1350 - Grid tile, about 1012×1350: 1012 × 1350 - Square, if you must, 1080×1080: 1080 × 1080 The feed shows the full 4:5 cover. The profile keeps a narrower 3:4 tile from the centre. One orientation applies to every photo and video in the post. A square second slide behind a portrait cover gets cropped, often through the words at its edge. [Instagram carousel size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-carousel-size) covers the rule in full. The grid crops a 3:4 tile from the centre. A 1080×1350 cover loses about 34 pixels each side. [The grid crop](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-profile-grid-crop) uses a safe area about 80 pixels in from each side and about 100 from the top and bottom. Keep every line inside it, and leave the top right clear for the carousel icon. Shrink the cover to about a third of a phone's width. If the promise fails there, it fails on the profile. Then check the full 4:5. Let the side crop take background only. ## How to lay out the first slide Three levels, then stop. More than that and the cover turns into the contents page you were trying not to make. - **Eyebrow.** Series name or audience, smaller than the promise. - **Promise.** The line someone must read. Largest, in the centre. - **Detail.** A count or a cue, still readable on a phone. [Visual hierarchy](https://gradiently.design/guide/visual-hierarchy) is why one dominant line beats three equal ones. Group the lines tightly, with more empty ground around them than between them. A promise around 80 to 110 pixels, and the other lines near 40, is a working range, not a platform rule. Cut words before you cut the size. [Font size for social media](https://gradiently.design/guide/font-size-for-social-media) goes further. > If the promise only fits by getting smaller, it has too many words. Put the group on the calmest part of the ground. A line across a bright band and a dark band fails in one of them. Skip a filled box or a soft shadow behind the letters: both cover the ground you chose. [Text on a gradient](https://gradiently.design/guide/text-on-gradient) is the test. Judge the smallest line where the ground is lightest. ## Build the cover as the first page Same ground, same type, same place for the main line. Only the words change. If colour, type and layout all jump, slide two feels like a new post. A repeated ground is enough. A ground that continues through the join is stronger. [One image across many slides](https://gradiently.design/guide/seamless-carousel) is that method. [Carousel design](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-carousel-design) covers the slides after this one. In Gradiently the cover is page one of a single design. Later slides are more pages on the same Mark, so the ground stays while the words change. Keep page order as swipe order. [Carousel pages](https://gradiently.design/guide/carousel-pages) covers reordering and export. 1. **Write the promise in one line** Say what the swipe delivers, in about six to ten words. A second sentence is the next slide. 2. **Lock every slide at 1080×1350** Use that size for the cover and every later slide. The cover's orientation applies to the whole post. 3. **Place three levels in the centre** Eyebrow, promise, detail, with the promise largest. Stay about 80 pixels in from each side, clear of the top right. 4. **Repeat the ground on slide two** Same background, type and headline position. Change the words. 5. **Read the tile, then the full frame** The promise must still read at about a third of a phone's width, then again at full 4:5 with the cue hidden. 6. **Export the cover first** Upload in swipe order. The first file is the thumbnail, and it sets the crop. A story is 1080×1920, a different shape, not a slide of this carousel. Do not crop the cover down to it. In Gradiently, copy to sizes lays the page out again and leaves the original alone. Every size at once is part of Pro. One new size is free. [Copy to sizes](https://gradiently.design/guide/copy-to-sizes) is the routine. Repeat the promise as the photo's alt text, in one plain sentence. Do not leave it only in the caption. Put the cover file first when you upload. A later slide at the front becomes the thumbnail by accident. ## FAQ ### What is an Instagram carousel cover? The first slide of a carousel. The feed shows it in full, with dots below, and the profile grid shows only that slide. ### What size should an Instagram carousel cover be? 1080×1350 pixels, and the same size for every later slide. The cover's orientation applies to the whole post. ### What should the first slide of a carousel say? One specific promise: a result, a question, a count, or a series number. A logo alone is not a reason to swipe. ### Does the carousel cover get cropped on your profile? Yes. The grid keeps a 3:4 tile from the centre, about 34 pixels off each side of a 1080×1350 cover. Keep the promise in the middle. ### Can later slides use a different shape from the cover? No. Every photo and video takes the cover's orientation. Design them all at the same pixel size.