Following the massive update to brand pages that came with Timeline, Facebook recently pushed out a subtle update to profile picture sizes. They’ve increased the dimensions slightly, and this update could throw off any page that had precisely blended the profile picture with the cover photo.
As pointed out by Jon Loomer, Facebook has increased the dimensions of profile pictures from 125 x 125 to a more generous 160 x 160 pixel square. Even though the profile picture will now be displayed at 160 x 160, the image you select to upload must be at least 180 x 180 pixels. As shown in the graphic below, profile pictures also have 5 pixels of padding around the edge, meaning the total space taken up by them on screen is 170 x 170 pixels.
For many pages, this won’t have a drastic impact. In fact, if your profile picture is simply a logo surrounded by white-space, you may not even notice the expanded dimensional space. But, if you’ve carefully orchestrated your page’s profile picture to fit in with your cover photo (as seen below), you may run into problems with picture alignment! Also, If you haven’t thought of a creative way to combine your two photos, now would be a great time to think about it!
We spoke about the changes to Facebook pages that came with Timeline earlier, but for those that still haven’t made the switch to updating their page, we suggest you do so now. I’ve visited a few big brands that still haven’t made the switch (as evidenced by the lack of a cover photo), implying that they aren’t even active enough on Facebook to have made the transition to Timeline. And why would anyone want to interact with a brand that isn’t willing to put in the time to personalize their page?
Check out a couple fun examples of cover photos combined with profile photos below to get your creative juices flowing!
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