Instagram landscape size: when 1080×566 makes sense

The Instagram landscape size is 1080×566 pixels, a wide 1.91:1 frame. It is the smallest of Instagram's three feed shapes: at the same width, it is less than half the height of a 1080×1350 portrait post. That makes it a deliberate choice rather than a default. Use it when the subject is genuinely wide, a panorama, a row of products, a screenshot, and design it knowing your profile grid will show only its centre.

Instagram landscape dimensions

If you upload something wider than 1.91:1, Instagram asks you to crop it. If you upload a wide image at a larger size, the app scales it down to 1080 wide and recompresses it, so exporting at exactly 1080×566 keeps sharpening and compression in your hands. The full set of shapes lives in Instagram post size, and the idea of ratios in general in aspect ratio.

How a landscape post looks in the feed

Feeds are scrolled vertically, so every post competes for height. A landscape post leaves the posts above and below it visible at the same time, which means less of the reader's attention is on yours. That is the honest cost of the format, and it is why most accounts use portrait for anything designed and save landscape for images that would be ruined by cropping.

What the profile grid does to a landscape post

Your profile shows every post as a 3:4 tile cropped from the centre. A landscape post is the worst fit for that tile. Scaled so its height fills the tile, a 1080×566 post keeps only about the middle 425 pixels of its width, roughly two fifths. The left and right of the image simply aren't there on your profile.

The practical fix is to put the subject, and any words, in the centre. If your headline starts at the left edge, the grid will show the middle of a sentence. More on how tiles are cut, for every shape, in Instagram grid crop.

When the landscape size is the right choice

• Panoramas and wide scenes: a coastline, a dining room, a stage. Cropping them to portrait loses the reason you took the photo.
• Product line ups: six mugs in a row read better wide than stacked.
• Screenshots of websites and dashboards: desktop screens are wide, and squeezing them into a tall frame makes the interface tiny.
• Video stills and film frames: a 16:9 frame crops to 1.91:1 with very little loss.
• One design for several wide platforms: the same layout sits close to a link preview image and an X post, so one wide master can serve all three with small adjustments.
• Deliberate contrast in a carousel series: an occasional wide post can break a grid of portraits, as long as its centre still works as a tile.

Avoid landscape for announcements, quotes, menus and anything mostly made of words. Text needs height to be set large, and a 566 pixel tall canvas forces small type that the feed then shrinks again.

Designing a landscape post that survives the grid

1. 1

   Start at 1080×566

   Set the canvas to the exact size and draw a guide box around the middle 425 pixels of the width. That box is your grid tile.

2. 2

   Put the subject and the words inside the box

   Spread the scene across the full width, but keep the headline, logo and focal point in the centre band.

3. 3

   Keep the type short and big

   Two to four words at a generous size. A wide canvas tempts you into a long single line; resist it.

4. 4

   Use the sides for atmosphere

   The left and right thirds are seen in the feed but not in the grid. Background, texture and space belong there, not information.

5. 5

   Preview both views

   Look at the full post at phone size, then crop a copy to a 3:4 centre and check that it still says something.

Landscape posts in carousels

A carousel takes its shape from the first slide. If the first image is landscape, every slide is shown at 1.91:1, and taller images get cropped to fit. That can be lovely for a wide photo story, a walk along a street told in six frames, but it is a poor choice for tips or step by step carousels, which need height for their words. See Instagram carousel size before you commit to a shape for a whole set.

If you need the same post in several shapes, make each one as its own layout. Gradiently lets you design once and lay the design out again for another size, or for every size in one step with Pro, with the background rendered fresh for each frame instead of stretched, and Auto ink choosing light or dark type for every line so the words still read in the new arrangement.