Pinterest Pin Resizer

Two ratios matter, and one of them is a hard limit

Pinterest prefers a 2:3 ratio, which at the standard size is 1,000 by 1,500 pixels, and that shape fills the vertical feed at full height. There is also a ceiling: Pinterest crops any pin taller than about a 1:2.1 ratio, roughly 1,000 by 2,100 pixels, in the feed. A tall infographic that runs past that limit does not get scaled, it loses its bottom edge, which is usually exactly where a logo or a call to action sits. That is why an over long vertical graphic gets truncated rather than merely displayed smaller, and it is the failure most people hit with infographic pins.

RecurPost: Pinterest pin dimensions and specs

A square pin takes a third less feed space

The feed sets every pin to a fixed column width, so at that width a 2:3 pin is one and a half times taller than a square one. That is not a small difference: a square pin occupies roughly a third less vertical space, which makes it less prominent in exactly the scroll where attention is won. A landscape pin is worse still. This is the underlying reason the 2:3 ratio is not merely a recommendation, and it is why a square product shot placed in a pin without thought tends to disappear.

• The feed uses a fixed column width, so height comes from the ratio.
• A 2:3 pin is about 1.5 times taller than a square pin at that width.
• A square pin takes roughly a third less feed space and is less prominent.
• A landscape pin is the least favourable shape of all.

NoteAt a fixed column width, a 2:3 pin simply occupies more of the scroll.

File size and the text limits that go with it

Pinterest rejects images over 20 MB, which is a generous ceiling and rarely the binding constraint. The limits that actually bite are the text fields: a pin title is cut at 100 characters and a description at 800. A title truncated mid sentence is worse than a title written to fit, and because Pinterest search is a genuine traffic source, the wording in those fields carries search weight rather than acting as a caption. A few strong words describing the actual content will outperform a clever phrase that gets cut or that nobody searches for.

NoteThe title limit of 100 characters is the constraint people hit, not the file size.

Carousels, where every card must match

A Pinterest carousel holds two to five cards, and each card is a full pin at 1,000 by 1,500, so a carousel is a set of related files rather than one tall image. The rule that causes problems is that every card in a single carousel must share the same ratio, so a square card cannot be mixed with a vertical one without breaking the swipe and cropping the cards at the centre. Each card also carries its own title, description, and link, which is what makes a carousel useful for a step by step guide or a set of product variations, and why carousels often earn more saves than a single image.

• A carousel holds two to five cards, each a full pin at 1,000 by 1,500.
• Every card in one carousel must share the same ratio.
• Mixing square and vertical cards breaks the swipe and crops the cards.
• Each card has its own title, description, and link, which suits a guide or a range.

NoteEvery card in a carousel must share one ratio. Mixing them crops the cards.