Spotify playlist cover size: 1080×1080 covers that read small

The Spotify playlist cover size to design at is 1080×1080 pixels, a square. Spotify accepts other square sizes and scales them, but 1080 gives enough detail for a large screen without a heavy file. The harder part is that covers are mostly seen tiny, in your library, in search and in shared links, so the best covers have one short title, heavy type and strong contrast. Fine detail, small words and photographs full of texture all disappear at that size.

Spotify playlist cover dimensions

Keep a margin of about 90 pixels inside the square, so the title never feels pressed against the edge. The square is the same shape as an Instagram square post, which makes it easy to share the playlist there too.

Design for the thumbnail first

Open your library and look at how small the covers are. That's the real canvas. A cover has to say "this one" at a glance, among dozens of others, before anyone reads a word.

• One to three words. "Focus", "Sunday cooking", "Run club". Save the long description for the playlist's description field.
• Heavy type, big. Capitals around 200 pixels tall in the 1080 design still read when the cover shrinks to a small thumbnail. Bold fonts lists faces that survive it.
• One dominant colour. At thumbnail size, colour is recognised before shape, and shape before words.
• Contrast everywhere behind the words. A pale word over the bright half of a gradient vanishes. Colour contrast explains how to check.

Photos can work, with care. Choose one with a single clear subject and plenty of plain space, then tint it in one or two colours so it reads as a shape rather than a scene. A duotone effect is the classic way to do it, and it also gives a set of photo covers one shared colour scheme even when the pictures are very different.

Squint test: blur your eyes, or shrink the cover to the size of a postage stamp. If you can still tell what it says and which playlist it is, it works. The same discipline applies to YouTube, where thumbnail text has to read at a similar scale.

Make a playlist series look like one curator

If you curate more than one playlist, the covers are your shop window. A series that shares one layout says the same person made them all and makes people curious about the rest. Fix the typeface, the title position and the margins. Change only the title and the colour, giving each playlist its own mood.

Making a dozen covers by hand is where series drift: a title moves a few pixels, a size changes. Gradiently's bulk create (a Pro feature) takes one cover and a spreadsheet of titles and makes every version in one pass, so the series stays exact. Each Mark keeps its calmest area behind the title, so the words read on every colour. Batch creating content explains the method.

How to change a Spotify playlist cover

1. 1

   Design at 1080×1080

   One short title, heavy type, a margin of about 90 pixels and one dominant colour.

2. 2

   Check it small

   Shrink the file on your screen to thumbnail size, then look at it on your phone as well. Fix anything that stops reading.

3. 3

   Export as JPG

   A high quality JPG keeps the file small. If you see banding in a gradient, add a little grain before exporting.

4. 4

   Open Edit details

   On the playlist, open the menu, choose Edit details and tap or click the image to replace it.

5. 5

   Write the description

   Use the description for the details the cover can't carry: the mood, who it's for, how often it's updated.

Artists who make playlists of their own music can carry the look of their album cover design and Spotify Canvas onto playlist covers, so everything on their profile feels like one body of work.