Practical image sizes for websites, email and social sharing
Choose sensible pixel dimensions and compression for faster pages, clearer email and flexible social posts.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-29Start from the display size, not the camera’s full resolution. A 1200–1600 px wide image is often enough for articles and email, while responsive websites should provide more than one size for different screens.
Web pages
Do not deliver a 5000 px image into a 700 px content column. Resize near the largest rendered size and provide higher-density alternatives when the design needs them.
Use responsive image markup so smaller screens do not download desktop-sized files. Keep the aspect ratio stable to prevent layout movement.
Email and sharing
For email, moderate dimensions and JPG or WebP compression usually matter more than extreme resolution. Test the final message because email clients may resize wide images.
Social platforms change their recommended crops over time. Keep a high-quality master and export platform-specific copies rather than repeatedly recompressing the same file.
Quality and file size
Resize before aggressively lowering quality. Removing unnecessary pixels often reduces size with less visible damage. Check text, faces and gradients at the final display size before downloading.