Facebook’s image compression can be frustrating when you want to share high quality photos and graphics. The compression smooths images and reduces file size, but also decreases image quality. Luckily, there are some steps you can take to improve image quality on Facebook.
Why Does Facebook Compress Images?
Facebook compresses images uploaded to their servers for a few key reasons:
- To save server space and bandwidth
- To optimize images for different screen sizes
- To improve page load times
Without compression, uploading high resolution images would take up a massive amount of storage space and slow down page loading. But the trade-off is lower image quality, especially for detailed graphics and photos.
Understanding Facebook Image Resolution
When you upload an image to Facebook, it’s automatically resized and optimized for different devices and connections. The largest version Facebook stores is 2048 pixels on the longest edge. But most users see smaller versions around 820 pixels wide in the news feed.
So even if you upload a very large image, higher resolutions are discarded during compression. This means there’s generally no benefit to uploading extremely large images in the first place.
Tips to Improve Image Quality on Facebook
You can’t completely prevent Facebook compression. But here are some tips to upload better looking images:
1. Resize Images Before Uploading
downsample or resize your images to around 1200 pixels on the longest edge before uploading. This reduces the amount of compression Facebook needs to apply.
Use image editing software like Photoshop, GIMP, or online tools to resize. Make sure to downsample photos to preserve image quality. Avoid just cropping or scaling a large photo, which doesn’t reduce file size.
2. Upload High Quality JPEGs
JPEG is the best image format for maintaining quality after compression. Save images as high quality JPEGs with the lowest compression level possible.
Avoid PNG or GIF files, which get compressed much more due to their lossless compression. Pay attention to the visual quality rather than pixel dimensions when exporting JPEGs.
3. Enhance Details in Problematic Areas
Areas of fine details like grass, trees, or complex textures get blurred the most by compression. Brush over these areas in Photoshop to subtly enhance details.
Avoid over-sharpening which can cause visual artifacts. A light touch helps compensate for some loss of detail.
4. Add Borders to Avoid Color Banding
Banding can occur in gradations between colors due to compression. This can be reduced by adding 1-2 pixel borders in a solid color around images.
The borders help blend color transitions that would otherwise get posterized by compression algorithms.
5. Avoid Text Overlays
Small text gets blurred and distorted during compression. Avoid using text as overlays on your images.
If necessary, make sure text is large and save at a high JPEG quality level. Apply a solid color drop shadow to help text stand out against busy backgrounds.
Third Party Uploaders
Third party photo uploading tools also promise better image quality on Facebook. They claim to get around compression limitations.
Services like Social Media Image Resizer or Kraken.io let you upload large images that stay high resolution for Facebook visitors. But this only works for images displayed on your own profile or page.
Images you share to friends or groups undergo the usual compression process. There are no proven methods to bypass compression sitewide.
Facebook Photo File Size Limits
Facebook limits cover photos and profile picture image files to certain maximum sizes, listed below:
| Photo Type | Max File Size |
| Cover Photo | 100 MB |
| Profile Picture | 5 MB |
| Shared Photo | 20 MB |
Keep photo files under these limits when uploading. Going over the size limit leads to more compression and lower quality.
Higher Quality Image Previews
You can view full resolution image previews on Facebook for photos you’ve uploaded:
- Click on a photo to open it at full width
- Right click and select “Open image in new tab”
- This opens the highest resolution stored by Facebook
Quality is still lower than the original due to compression, but it helps evaluate sharpness and detail.
Conclusion
While you can’t completely avoid Facebook image compression, following best practices helps improve quality:
- Resize images before uploading
- Use high quality JPEGs
- Enhance details in problem areas
- Add borders to reduce banding
- Avoid text overlays
- Stay under file size limits
Optimizing your images requires a bit more work initially. But it results in better looking photos on Facebook in the end.