LinkedIn banner photos: the one with your face, sized right

01The specs (2026)

• LinkedIn cover image upload size: 1584 × 396 pixels. A 4:1 aspect ratio.
• Max file size: 8 MB.
• Formats: JPG, PNG, GIF (static only). LinkedIn does not render animated GIFs on profile backgrounds.
• Safe zone, desktop: the profile photo sits at the left side of the banner, overlapping the lower third. Keep the left 300 pixels clear of anything critical.
• Safe zone, mobile (iOS/Android app): the banner crops to about 1128 × 396 centred. The outer 228 pixels on each side get clipped on mobile. If something must be visible on every device, keep it in the centre 1128 × 396.
• Profile photo overlay: the circular profile photo (400 × 400) sits at roughly x=104, y=196 on desktop. Don't put text, faces, or detail under it.

LinkedIn does not publish a dedicated personal-profile cover-photo help page; the LinkedIn Pages image specifications document the same 4:1 ratio for company pages. The 1584 × 396 personal-profile dimension is the industry-confirmed spec across the major design references (Figma, Hootsuite, Snappa, Kapwing). The mobile safe-zone crop and overlay coordinates above are measured from a current LinkedIn profile layout on 2026-05-01. LinkedIn does re-layout their profile UI periodically; re-check the safe zone in a browser developer tools "responsive" view before a high-stakes upload.

Fig. 01

02The three compositions that actually work

1. Face on the right, clean colour field on the left.

Photographer's trick for banners. Subject occupies the right third of the frame, the left two-thirds are a clean background (solid colour, out-of-focus wall, or a simple texture). Reads as a portrait on desktop, reads as a portrait on mobile (because the left third that gets clipped is just background), and the profile-circle sits cleanly in the dead space on the lower left. This is the composition most senior LinkedIn banners use.

2. Centred environmental portrait.

You in your working environment (lab, stage, office, studio) centred in the frame, with 228 pixels of visual padding on each side that you're willing to lose on mobile. Works when the environment is the point (you're a surgeon in scrubs, a chef in a kitchen, a mechanic in a workshop). Doesn't work if you're in front of something that's only readable on desktop-width.

3. Pure texture / graphic.

No face at all: just a colour field, a subtle pattern, or an abstract that matches your headshot. Works because it doesn't fight with your profile photo for attention. The worst banners are the ones that put a second different-looking headshot of the same person on the banner; the pure-graphic version avoids that problem entirely.

03The compositions that fail

• A wide headshot of you centred with your face right behind the profile-photo circle. On desktop the profile photo literally covers your banner face. Looks unintentional.
• A group photo or team photo. The faces get too small at 1584×396 to read. Use a group photo in the Featured section instead.
• Text-heavy banner with your value prop in large letters. Most of it gets clipped on mobile. Keep text to 4 words or fewer, centred.
• Landscape city photo with no context. Doesn't add information about you. Most viewers skim past it.
• Canva template with generic lines and "MARKETING EXPERT" in a serif font. Reads as stock to anyone in a role that matters.

04Shooting a banner yourself (if you're going the DIY route)

• Shoot 35–50mm equivalent, not wide. Wide lenses distort faces at the edge of the frame, which matters for the right-third composition.
• Shoot in landscape orientation at 4:1 crop. Most phones let you set a 4:1 crop in-camera; if yours doesn't, shoot wide and crop later with plenty of headroom.
• Background matters more than outfit. A plain wall, a window, or a simple out-of-focus environment. The banner is mostly background; make it good.
• Natural light from a large window at 45 degrees to your face. Same as any portrait. Banner doesn't need special light.
• Take 20 frames, not 3. The composition needs to be precise on the crop; you'll keep the one that crops perfectly.

Fig. 02

05Colour, typography, and one-word banners

If you're adding a single line of text or a tagline:

• Left-align it, offset from the profile-photo circle so it doesn't compete.
• Sans-serif at 48–72 pixels. Anything smaller is unreadable on mobile; anything bigger is shouting.
• One accent colour borrowed from your headshot. Pull a colour from your jacket, the wall behind you, or the natural skin-tone. Banners that match the headshot read as one image.
• No drop shadows. No gradients on the text. No stock icons. LinkedIn banners are over-designed almost universally; restraint reads as senior.

06The AI route (when it's faster than a reshoot)

A real banner shoot adds maybe $100–$300 to a headshot session if the photographer is already set up. But most people book a headshot and forget to ask for a wide crop. And the square or vertical headshots that come back don't crop to 4:1 without losing the face.

MyPhotoAI generates headshots in a portrait frame (3:4 or 1:1). For banner use, the workflow is:

1. Generate the headshot in our headshot category (42 styles, $15 Starter).
2. Export at full HD, then place the portrait into a 1584×396 canvas on the right third, with a solid or gradient background to the left. Takes 5 minutes in Canva, Figma, or Photoshop. Pull a background colour from the generated image for consistency.

We don't currently generate native 4:1 banners. The AI step produces the portrait, and the banner composition step is a crop-and-place job that's faster to do manually than to prompt for. This is the honest workflow and it produces a banner that looks considered rather than templated.

07A checklist before uploading

• 1584 × 396 exact.
• Nothing critical in the outer 228 pixels on each side.
• Nothing critical in the lower-left circle where the profile photo sits.
• Your profile photo and your banner look like one image (same colour tone, same era, same you).
• No stock photography and no Canva gradient backgrounds.

Try a LinkedIn-ready headshot US offer: Starter includes 3 HD photos for US$5; Plus includes 10 for US$10; Everything includes all photos from one shoot for US$10. Your checkout shows the applicable price. Each purchase covers one shoot. Related reading:

Fig. 03