Using media in your content is an easy way to boost engagement and get creative with your Pages and Posts. This guide is full of recommendations—like media sources and dimensions—to create the best experience for your members.
| When creating content in Activate, prioritize for mobile devices. The great majority of your Members will be using the app on mobile. Activate was built on the concept of "mobile-first" for Members. |
The Library
The Library is where you add, sort, and store images for content creation. Upload logos, banner images, backgrounds, pictures of your workplace, and whatever else you need to create a bank of images to use in your Pages and Posts.
Any images you add when you're creating new content will show up here too. Click the list view icon for more information like upload date, image size, and file type.
Images
Here are some guidelines for selecting and using images in your content. Just remember to preview your content to make sure your designs are clear, attractive, and good to go on multiple platforms.
File types
Activate only supports JPG and PNG files. JPGs tend to have smaller file sizes, but PNGs are usually higher quality images. Just be sure you use what's best for the scenario, and remember to optimize all of your images and designs for mobile.
If you need sources for high-quality, free images, check out sites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay.
Text and images
Try not to use images that have text—the text might be distorted or cut off by resizing, also it can be an accessibility issue as screen readers cannot read text in images.
Instead, the hero block is a great way to put your text over a background image. Abstract images work best when using the hero block as they can be cropped and zoomed without concerns.
Avoid placing logos or text on the uploaded image. If a logo or text must be placed on the image, place it at the center of a 1:1 image. Having the key visual at the center of the frame improves the likelihood of the most important aspect of the image being visible.
File size
The maximum file size you can upload is 20MB. If you can't upload something, try resizing or scaling with image editing tools.
When uploading images to the Media Library, they undergo quality compression of 90% with a max width of 2400px. This means if an image is 2600px X 2600px, it will be reduced to 2340px X 2340px (90% of the original size). This will always top out at 2400px.
| If your images appear grainy, re-upload the images, ideally greater than or equal to 2600px X 2600px, and update them in the content builder. |
Avoid using "Full Width Mode on Web" setting
Turning this setting off limits the content to around 840px width. This prevents the stretching of images which can lead to pixelation. Images automatically fill the container.
Mobile Image Dimensions
Sometimes images are resized and optimized for different devices, so it's hard to recommend an exact resolution. Here are some general, average dimensions for a mobile device:
- Tall: 896 x 560px
- Medium: 896 x 308px
- Short: 896 x 229px
The aspect ratio, however, is pretty important.
Different ratios suit different purposes:
- 16:9 is good for landscape images.
- 1:1 is a balanced, square image.
- 4:5 makes for good portraits.
- 9:16 is best for backgrounds—it usually fills the whole screen.
Web Image Recommendations
- Images should be at least 1920px wide. 2400px wide is optimal.
- Images work best on Activate when placed in a 1:1 aspect ratio.
- So the ideal image uploaded to Activate should be 2400 x 2400 px.
- Marginal difference, but PNG files tend to work better than JPEG on the web.
Resolution
Pixel density is the measurement of how many pixels fit into a square inch of screen space. The more pixels, the sharper the image will appear.
As long as the image is least about 1024 pixels wide horizontally, the image should display clearly. The standard resolution for web images is 72 PPI (often called “screen resolution”). Most modern cameras, even on mobile phones, have a resolution of over 10 Megapixels, well above the minimum requirements.
| 💡 If the image is blurry, it might have been compressed when you received it from someone in a message, downloaded an email attachment, or accessed the image from a website that tries to reduce file sizes. Track down the original high-resolution version or create a fresh image. |
Grid layouts
Arrange images and text into grids using containers. In the example below, images and associated text are placed in row containers to save space and create different ways for members to view content.
Video
To add videos to your content, embed YouTube video IDs or MP4 links from any other video hosting platform.
To embed a YouTube video, drag & drop the YouTube block into your Post or Page. Copy and paste the ID number of the video into the YouTube Video ID field. For example, the video embedded in this Post has the ID: https://youtu.be/TpRYrg3Djdc.
You can always make a private YouTube channel if you don't want to share your videos outside Activate.
For any other video, use the video content block. Any site that stores or shares videos with URLs ending in .mp4 will work.
Height stretches the video vertically while under Layout, Full Width stretches the video to the edges and Padded adds white space around the sides.
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