Website Image Size Guidelines Cheat Sheet (2023)

The visuals you incorporate in your website are pivotal in producing a captivating and appealing design. Even if you choose a simple or distinctive appearance, select from pre-arranged themes, or wholly create an exclusive design – the dimensions of these photos determine the impact your website will have.

The internet has become an essential part of our lives, and people now access it using different devices. In previous years, desktop computers were the most widely used tool to get online, but that is changing. Projections predict that more than 60% of web traffic will be mobile-generated in the next years.

To ensure a pleasant shopping experience for mobile customers, you must optimize images for them properly. Otherwise, they might see an image that is too small and requires scrolling or zooming, or worse yet, no images.

This guide will provide you with the up-to-date image size standards for website design in 2023, allowing you to optimize your visuals and make sure they appear sharp on any device. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your images remain stunningly beautiful!

In this guide:

• Best Image Size for Websites
• Types of Website Images
• Best Image Formats for Web
• Mobile Image Size Recommendations
• Why is Image Size Important for Websites?
• How to Find Out Image Sizes for your Website?
• How Can Product Photo Editing Services Help Optimize Your Images?

Best Image Size for Websites

Here are some terminologies to better understand the image size guidelines:

• Pixel width: 2500 pixels is the ideal size for extending an image to a full browser width. Anything smaller than that may run the risk of being cut off or appearing distorted if it needs to fill out the entire screen.
• Image size: Choosing the ideal size for your images depends on their function; for instance, background images ought to be bigger than blog post photos.
• File size: We highly recommend that you utilize images no larger than 2 megabytes for optimum website speed. Anything greater could significantly slow down your site loading time.
• Image attribute: Although image attributes (also known as alt text or alt tags) are merely textual elements and do not influence your website’s performance, they still play a crucial role for those with visual impairments who rely on screen-reader software. For this reason, it is important to always keep these attributes in mind when designing and adding images to your website.

Maximize your website’s aesthetic potential with this cheat sheet of optimum image sizes for desktop web pages.The most popular resolution among users is 1920 x 1080 px, so we’ve tailored the standard sizes to suit that display. Make sure your images look their finest at all times without any extra effort required on your part—just refer to our quick and easy guide before you upload anything onto the page.

Not only does the size of your images matter, but so does their file weight. To ensure optimal performance and speed on your website, make sure to compress all of its images.

Types of Website Images

Having the proper image size can make all the difference, impacting user experience and website performance while providing a boost to Search Engine Optimization. No matter what type of file you’re using for your images, having an understanding of general size specifications is critical in order to have success with your website.

Background Image

Incorporating a rich background image can completely transform the entire look and feel of your website. For maximum impact, these visuals should be high-quality images that are large in size and fit perfectly on the page. This will add an extra element of ‘wow’ to your brand identity without fail.

For maximum image resolution, the pixel per inch (PPI) value should be at 72. The optimal background size is 1920px by 1080px but can go up to 2400px by 1600 or 16:9 aspect ratio. Nonetheless, your design may require a larger upper limit of 20MB; in which case it will automatically resize according to the device being used for viewing.

Utilizing wide-angled shots will ensure that background images serve their desired purpose. However, also bear in mind to always keep the file size small without compromising quality. The smaller the file size, the faster the website will load!

Hero Image Size

Showcasing Hero images on your website can draw the attention of visitors and make for an impactful viewing experience. To get the best result, ensure that your image is sized between 1280px by 720px (16:9 aspect ratio) to 1800 px wide – allowing you to fill up either half or all of the page’s height.

For optimal visuals and load speed, hero images should be kept at 72 pixels per inch. This ensures clarity of the image while also keeping it lightweight enough to ensure a page loading time of two seconds or fewer.

Mobile devices are the undisputed kings of web traffic now, with almost 90% market share. If you want your hero images to display perfectly on mobile browsers, make sure they’re sized at 800px by 1200px; otherwise, content management systems will automatically scale them to fit a smaller screen size.

Website Banner Size

When designing web ad banners, there are a variety of sizes to choose from. The most popular ones include vertical, portrait, leaderboard, full/half-page and square banners with the majority choosing 250px by 250px or a 1:1 aspect ratio for their image size.

Vertical/sky scrapper banners measuring 160px by 600px are a popular choice. To ensure your banner images display properly and look their best, design them according to the specified dimensions and compress the image file size. Additionally, be sure to keep the focal point of your image towards the center in order to avoid any cropping on mobile devices.

When designing banner images for mobile devices, use ratios of 1:9, 1:1, or 4:5 to optimize the visuals. Make sure that image file sizes don’t exceed 20MB without sacrificing clarity and quality.

Blog Image Size

When adding visuals to your blog, always keep in mind that these images should be optimized for sharing on social media channels. Typically, the optimal size for blog graphics is 3:2 aspect ratio or 1200px by 630px. For landscape format photos, a suggested resolution is 1200px by 900px; meanwhile portrait format works best when sized at 900px by 1200px.

For a faster-loading blog, you should upload high-quality images with small file sizes; 150KB is the upper limit. Additionally, ensure that your images are 72ppi and centered on the focus area so that your CMS can easily adjust their size as needed.

Logo Size

As the visual representation of a brand and its contents, logos are essential features for any website. Logos can either be placed in the top left corner or center at the top of a page. It is recommended to upload logo images as square ratio 1:1 or rectangle format 2:3 for optimal resolution and clarity on webpages.

For logo files, the PNG format is suggested due to its transparency that allows it to seamlessly blend into any website. For desktops, logos should have a maximum height of 100px regardless of the width.

Favicon Size

Favicons are small, iconic images that represent a website in the browser tab. Favicons need to be optimized for display on different types of devices; it should small enough not to take up too much space but large enough to still be recognizable.

Favicons for websites should always have a 1:1 aspect ratio, typically in sizes of 16px by 16px or 32px by 32px. This is what all browsers will use to display favicons appropriately; however, if you don’t want the image stretched on larger screens, additional images with a perfect square aspect ratio are recommended. ICO and PNG are the most recommended image formats for creating a favicon for the best cross-browser results.

Best Image Formats for Web

Here are the most popular image formats you can choose from for web optimization.

• JPEG: JPEG is known as the best format for photographs, due to its superior compression capabilities and good color quality. It supports 8-bit RGB images which allows it to produce smooth gradients and sharp lines without introducing any artifacts into the image.
• PNG: PNG is recommended for graphics with a transparent background such as logos, icons, and illustrations as it supports full-color images with an alpha channel. It also offers better compression than JPEG but can lead to larger file sizes.
• GIF: GIFs are mostly used for simple animations or images with limited colors such as icons and logos. It supports up to 256 colors and can support animations, making it a good choice for short web clips.
• SVG: SVG files are vector-based which means they’re resolution independent and allow you to scale images without losing quality or clarity. They also provide better compression than other image formats, making them suitable for logos, icons, and illustrations with complex shapes.
• WebP: WebP is an image format that offers better compression than other formats and even supports animation. It’s supported by most modern browsers but has limited support for older versions.

Mobile Image Size Recommendations

For a smooth mobile experience, all images on your website should be designed to fit both desktop and mobile versions. Failure to do so can lead to distorted visuals if the image size is too large for smaller screens. To ensure clarity when scaling down, make sure that you set the correct dimensions while creating or editing an image.

Images with a 1:1 aspect ratio will display flawlessly on mobile devices, but there may be some cropping of images that use an 16:9 or 3:2 aspect ratios. Thus, when creating responsive images it is best to keep the focus area in the center for optimal viewing on all device types.

Why is Image Size Important for Websites?

When it comes to websites, image size matters for an array of reasons: user experience, page speed and ranking. Poorly sized images can detrimentally affect all three metrics simultaneously. The best way to make sure you are optimizing these factors is by employing the optimal sizes on your website with each individual use case in mind. This will help maximize all three at once.

Improves user experience

Having correctly sized images for every situation increases the user experience by making it easier to view without needing to zoom in or scroll down. This provides a much more pleasing viewing and navigation experience.

Also, if users are able to identify the focus area of a photo easily, they can get an overall better understanding of the content and its message which will ultimately lead them to a more positive website experience.

Improves website page speed

When images on your website are large file sizes, the server is compelled to take more time loading a user’s page. This outcome is what experts call “contentful paint” in image SEO lingo. Fortunately, by downsizing pictures (mainly their files size), you can ensure that your pages load up quickly and seamlessly for all users regardless of device type.

By reducing the size of images on your website, you can greatly improve page speed and ensure that users don’t get frustrated when browsing through your webpages.

Improves website ranking

Website ranking is an indicator of your site’s overall performance and visibility, with higher rankings associated with a greater online presence. Specifically, it can showcase how close to the top (or even peak!) of search engine results pages your webpage appears when someone searches for particular terms.

To determine the content that appears at the top of its search engine rankings, Google utilizes a variety of metrics in its algorithm. At present, image quality and user experience are among those metrics considered.

How to Find Out Image Sizes for your Website?

With the wide range of website creation platforms, from WordPress to Shopify, Wix and Squarespace, designing a distinctive site comes with the challenge of selecting images in recommended sizes for optimal performance.

Designing a website with the appropriate image dimensions can be intimidating. But don’t worry, here are some helpful tips to ensure you find the correct size for standard platforms:

Shopify Themes

• Shopify allows users to upload images of up to 4472px by 4472px, with a limit of 20MB per image at 72dpi.
• The minimum size required for product images on Shopify is 800px by 800px.
  Check if your Shopify theme comes with a guide to the recommended image sizes.

Here’s our quick guide to Shopify Image Guidelines to learn more about the optimal sizes for your Shopify store.

WordPress Themes

• The recommended size for WordPress featured images is 1024px by 1024px to ensure that it looks great on all devices.
• Most WordPress themes have a full documentation file that helps users find the best image sizes for the theme.
• If you changed the image size to suit your design and display, make a note of it.

Here’s our quick guide to WooComerce Image Guidelines to learn more about the optimal sizes for your WooCommerce store.

Custom Websites

• When hiring a custom-built website developer, it’s important to ask for documentation that outlines the best image sizes. Doing so helps ensure your website looks professional and functions properly.
• “To quickly and efficiently find the dimensions of a picture on Google Chrome, right-click it then select “Inspect Element.” The required measurements will be clearly visible as highlighted within the code.

How can Product Photo Editing Services Help Optimize Your Images?

Product photo editing services can help optimize the images used on your website. Professional product photo editors are experienced and knowledgeable on the requirements of different platforms and can adjust your images to the right size, format, and quality.

Through product photo editing services, you can ensure that the images used on your website are of optimal size, resolution and quality. This way, users will appreciate the clarity and better un-compressed images, leading to an improved user experience.

Ediitng services can enhance all aspects of images including color balance, contrast levels and backgrounds. These adjustments will ultimately help make them look more professional and showcase your brand in a positive light. Once edited by experienced professionals, all you have to do is upload them onto your site with ease.

By using professional product photo editing services, you can be assured that all of the images used on your website are optimized for maximum user experience and page speed optimization. This will ultimately result in better rankings and higher visibility online, leading to more web traffic and potential sales conversions.

At Pixel by Hand, our team of experienced product photo editors and graphic designers will work with you to create professional, high-quality images tailored for your website. We’ve worked with hundreds of eCommerce brands worldwide and we guarantee the best quality images for your website.

Our list of product image editing services include: background removal, clipping path clipping masking, eCommerce photo retouching, shadow creation, color correction, ghost mannequin services, and more. We also provide detailed tutorials that help customers understand how to use their edited images on different platforms.

So whether you’re using Shopify, WordPress or custom-built websites, Pixel by Hand is here to make sure your website looks professional and functions properly. Contact us today in the chatbox below! Avail our FREE trial today.