How to Design an Engaging Instagram Post Cover

Guide to creating an Instagram post cover

Social media users pay a lot of attention to appearance, which is why you need to create a cover post with care.

On the other hand, someone who takes the time to create their Instagram cover post is likely to have created valuable content that is worth seeing.

Create stunning Instagram post covers using expert techniques to enhance visuals, boost engagement, and make your content stand out effortlessly

On social media platforms like Instagram, the number of views, likes, and followers is highly influential in attracting a larger audience, so it's essential to work towards increasing views on Instagram.

Learn to design attractive covers for Instagram posts, using specialized techniques to enhance visual effects and easily increase audience engagement.

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Features of Instagram Post Cover

The Instagram post cover plays an important role in attracting the attention of the audience and increasing engagement. This image is the first thing that users encounter when browsing the content, so it should be designed attractively and purposefully. In addition to visual beauty, the cover should convey the message of the post and encourage the audience to click on it and check out the full content. The choice of colors, typography, images, and other visual elements should be coordinated and fit with the brand identity to create a sense of unity.

By designing the cover correctly, you can increase the level of engagement and distinguish your content from the crowd of Instagram posts. This is very influential because users on this platform usually quickly decide whether to stop on a post or skip it.

In this section, we are going to review the important features of the Instagram post cover together.

First image or first second = cover

If your post contains several photo slides, the first image is considered the cover. But if your post is a video, you can design a custom image and add it to the beginning of your video with a video editing software or app.

Good news! In the new Instagram update, there is no need to edit it separately, and you can choose the video cover directly from your gallery and set it as the main image of the post.

Instagram post cover size: standard or flexible?

Contrary to popular belief, an Instagram post cover does not have a specific standard size. When you enter a page or scroll through Instagram Explore, all images are displayed as squares.

How does Instagram choose the cover?

• If your post has multiple slides, the first image is displayed as the cover.
• If your post is a video, the first second of the video (whether horizontal, vertical, or square) is selected as the cover.

Important: When designing a cover for Instagram posts, make sure your image doesn’t go outside the square frame so that it appears properly in Feed and Explore views.

I also recommend reading Optimizing Image Size on Social Media.

The cover photo should grab attention

The Instagram post cover is the first thing the audience sees, so it should grab attention! It doesn’t matter if you are designing a promotional poster or an Instagram post cover; in both cases, following the principles of design is essential.

• Using contrasting and eye-catching colors, High-contrast colors will make your post shine among other content and attract more attention.
• Direct connection to the content of the cover post should reflect the topic of the post so that the audience understands what to expect at first glance.
• Clear and legible title. We recommend placing the post title in a large and legible font on the cover and using a color that contrasts with the background so that it is visible.
• Visual appeal and impact. The cover is the audience’s first point of contact with your content, so the image and selected text should be attractive to attract attention at that moment.

Important note: The more professionally designed the cover, the more visually appealing your page will look and have a positive impact on your audience.

Creating an Instagram Post Cover

There are various ways to create an Instagram post cover, but the best option is to learn to design with Photoshop. This powerful software allows you to create professional and creative covers that will attract the attention of your audience.

Of course, Photoshop is not the only solution! Other tools such as Canva, InShot, Adobe Express, etc., are also suitable options for cover design. But if you learn Photoshop, you will not only be able to create exclusive and professional covers, but you will also add a valuable skill to your abilities that is used in various fields of design.

By choosing the right tools and following design principles, you can create engaging and impactful covers that increase user engagement.

The Best Apps for Designing Instagram Post Covers

If you’re looking for a way to design professional and attractive covers for Instagram posts, you have a lot of options. Photoshop is still one of the most powerful tools for cover design, but if you’re not familiar with it, don’t worry! Today, there are several apps that allow you to design creative covers without the need for complex skills.

1. Canva: an Easy and professional design

Canva is one of the most popular apps for designing Instagram covers, stories, logos, business cards, and more. The program has hundreds of ready-made templates that you can customize with a few simple changes. It also allows you to design from scratch, so you have complete freedom to create unique designs.

2. Picsart Unlimited Creativity

Picsart is another popular tool among content creators. One of the attractive features of this app is the ability to add custom fonts. You can save your desired fonts with the.TFF extension on your phone and copy them to the Fonts/Picsart/My Files' folder to display them in the My Fonts section.

3. InShot Combines photo and video editing

InShot is a powerful cover design app that allows you to edit photos and videos simultaneously. This feature eliminates the need to use multiple different apps. Also, the fonts you have added in Picsart can be used in InShot.

Using these applications, you can design professional and attractive covers for your Instagram posts without the need for complex skills, and interact more with your audience.

Creating an Instagram Highlight Cover

After reviewing the cover of Instagram posts, now it's time for the highlight cover, one of the most important sections of the profile that helps categorize content.

Standard Highlight Cover Size: The Instagram Highlight Cover is designed in dimensions of 1080×1080 pixels. Instagram automatically displays the central circle of the image as the cover, so when designing, you need to make sure that the significant elements are in the center.

How to create an attractive cover for Highlight? To choose the right icon, you can visit the Flaticon site and choose the closest icon related to the topic of your highlight. Also, using harmonious colors and minimal design can make your covers more attractive.

How to Create an IGTV Cover

In Instagram’s new updates, IGTV and videos shorter than a minute have been combined, so you need a suitable cover for all your videos.

Standard video cover size: The dimensions of the Instagram video cover should be 1920×1080 pixels—a vertical rectangle similar to the size of a story.

Important note: The main square of the cover should be centered in the image so that it is properly visible when displayed in the feed.

Summary: Professional and attractive covers have a great impact on attracting audience attention, but don’t forget that valuable and entertaining content is the most significant factor in growing your page. So, in addition to cover design, focus on the quality of the content to witness the significant growth of your page!

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