Export for Instagram at 72ppi

[mitchell-collar]

Hello everyone. I’ve been posting to my Instagram my designs, and I have learned that Instagram compresses the hell out of images and ive been uploading in PNG form but have been told to switch to JPEG. I want to export my illustration from illustrator at a 1000x1000 and I have read around that it is suggest to do it at 72ppi I have been doing it to 300ppi or whatever ever it’s called and I noticed it converts it from 1000x1000 to 4,168x4,168.I was told that if you do 72ppi it will keep it at 1000x1000 does this also make it loose iamge quality? Also are dpi and ppi the same thing? Please correct me if I’m wrong anywhere! Thank you.

Sincermy,

Mitchell

[Ton Frederiks]

Keep 72 ppi (for some people also known as dpi (but that's wrong)).

The number of pixels counts.

[mitchell-collar]

Will this help the quality when I upload it to instagram for example? And also what is the difference in PPIs used for?

[Ton Frederiks]

As long as you do not go above the 1080 pixels, you should be ok.

The ppi is used for printing and tells how many pixels should be used in an inch.

Illustrator uses 72 ppi as default. Don't try to change that when exporting from Illustrator.

Use pixels as units in Illustrator when preparing stuff for the Web.

[mitchell-collar]

Okay thanks. What is better for social media sites like Instagram a PNG or a JPEG? Also is there anyway to get around how Instagram compresses vectors/graphics so much?

[Monika Gause]

mitchell-collar  schrieb

Okay thanks. What is better for social media sites like Instagram a PNG or a JPEG? Also is there anyway to get around how Instagram compresses vectors/graphics so much?

They need to fit all those images onto their servers. They also don't want you to waste bandwidth. So they compress. Always.

[mitchell-collar]

Thank you for confirming I aporeciate it.

[mitchell-collar]

I guess what I am also asking is when you have your art board size at 1000x1000 and export it to 72 ppi it will stay the same 1000x1000, but why does it change it to 4,168x4,168 when I use 300ppi?

[Jacob Bugge]

mitchell,

As I (mis)understand it, the 4,168 is English notation meaning 4168, so it is 4.168 times larger corresponding to the ratio of 300 to 72 which is 4.16666...

[mitchell-collar]

So then does that mean it is no longer 1000x1000?

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Pixels are confusing in Illustrator, as you've found. The thing is, you CANNOT design a size in pixels in Illustrator, but it lets you choose pixels as a size! What it does is assume 72 ppi and work with that. So, for example, if you choose a size of 144 x 720 pixels, Illustrator immedately converts it to 144/72 by 720/720 = 2 by 10 inches. No more pixels anywhere (because it's a vector app).

Finally, you come to export a PNG or JPEG that will be made of pixels. Now, you get to chose a resolution (ppi value) for the first time. So, let's suppose you choose 300 ppi. It's got to be 2 by 10 inches so it will be 2 x 300 by 10 x 300 pixels = 600 x 3000 pixels. Not the pixels you first chose, because it never really was pixels.

But the trick is to choose 72 ppi when you export PNG or JPEG. It's got to be 2 by 10 inches so it will be 2 x 72 by 10 x 72 pixels = 144 x 720 pixels. Hooray! It's the number we started with.

Too complicated? Then just believe you will only get the size in pixels you expect if you export with 72 ppi.

[mitchell-collar]

Thank you very much for your clarification. Does this play a part in image quality at all?