Create a Custom Twitter Background
The Twitter Background Measurements
Please realize the width between the left browser edge and the left edge of the white Twitter posts area is 245 pixels and the width between the right browser edge and the right edge of the white Twitter posting area is 250 pixels. When creating the design of your new background, leave five pixels space on both sides.
photo credit: celine nadeau
These are the general standard measures accepted by majority of Twitter background designers:
Image width: 1920 pixels
Image height: 1200 pixels
(this is good for user that have larger screens – you can adjust as you get better at creating)
Left graphic width: 245 pixels
Right graphic width: 250 pixels
Background Design
If you want to create a custom Twitter background which represents your business you should have your logo, your photo, your blog’s URL, and your slogan handy.
Photoshop, Fireworks, Power Point, or Paint are ways you can create the background.
- Create a new graphic that is 1920 x 1200. This is the background image for your Twitter profile.
- Create a box starting from the left edge out to the right no more than 245 pixels. I like to create the box to extend the height of the image 1200 pixels. (in this case my background color is white but you can choose any back ground color – the box I chose black but whatever you like that’s what matters)
- Insert a picture on the left side of background image. (I make sure the image doesn’t pass my right side box I created – this is my ruler)
- Now add your logo, design, name, or whatever.
- Now add anything else you want.
- Now save the file (if you have photo software Fireworks, Photoshop save the file as png or psd this will allow you to go back and edit the image with ease for future changes)
- Export your graphic as either a GIF or JPG file. Make sure its no more than 800K. This is the maximum size allowed by Twitter for a background image. Now its time to upload.
How To Upload Your New Twitter Background Image
- Login to your Twitter account.
- Click on Settings in the menu at the top.
- You will now see a Picture Here tab.
- Click on the one marked Design.
- Scroll down to the bottom and click on the Change Background Image>> link.
- You will see a text field with a Browse button next to it.
- Click on that button so that you can search and upload your new Twitter background image.
- Once you finish, make sure the Tile Background check box is empty. Otherwise your new image will repeat on the screen.
- Click on the Save Changes button at the bottom, and you are done!
Additional Resources
Graphic design applications like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks are a few good design apps.
- Twitter Background Guidlines via Comcast.com has additional info on designing a background around Twitter’s layout.
- Where can you find good images? via Presentation Zen has a thorough list of royalty-free stock images.
- Improve PowerPoint’s GIF, BMP, PNG, JPG export resolution via PPTools has additional info on exporting slides as images with PowerPoint.
- Twitter Treats has a growing collection of free custom Twitter backgrounds.
- Several personalized Twitter backgrounds can be found on Flickr’s Extended Twitter Background screenshot Pool and under the twitterbacks tag.
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