ClearRiver Advertising and Marketing

Good suggestions Keith.  Very helpful

Thanks for the comment Charles. Glad to hear you thought it was helpful.

I just stumbled upon this post and this is really helpful.  I had one question though, you mention that the thumbnail is 50X50px but then say there is just a 15px buffer on the sides, which would make the thumbnail area 170X170.  Which is correct?  Or am I just not understanding that right?  I’m not a designer, just trying to give better instructions to the person who does mine.

Hi Rebecca, I’m so glad that you liked this post, and sorry for the misunderstanding. Let me try and clarify this a little more!

When I talked about using the 170x170px dimensions it was simply a way to help you visualize the area of your image that Facebook will use. The designer never actually makes a thumbnail. In the end Facebook takes that 200x600px profile picture and crops/reduces it to 50x50px. However, I figured out that when Facbook crops and reduces profile images it doesn’t use the full 200px width. Instead, it will move in slightly on the left and right sides (about 17px on both sides) and then it will reduce the image to 50x50px. So that’s where I got the 17px number. All that to say the portion of the tutorial that deals with all of this was just a way to help a designer preview how Facebook will crop the image to the end dimensions of 50x50px.

The thing that your designer should take away from this is to be aware about placing important elements of the design too close to the edges or they may get cut off in the thumbnail. Does that make sense? Sorry it was such a lengthy response. Let me know if it’s still unclear!

Wasted 2 hours designing a more spacious profile picture for my company page and when I uploaded the file 1) it wouldn’t let me use the full height of the graphic 200X600 as my profile picture.  Only about 320 pixels, but then 2) it rotated it landscape so the picture is on it’s side.  I can’t even rotate it back to normal. Totally useless.

Hi D,

I’m so sorry you didn’t have luck getting this tutorial to work for you. Could you provide a link to the Facebook page you are working on? Everything that I talked about in this post should work so I wonder if there is something else about your page or your image that is causing a hang up. I would love to make sure this works for you so please feel free to post more questions or send me the link so I can take a look at what’s going on.

Thanks!

Keith

Sorry Keith,
I apparently wrote too soon.  I’ve been noticing some strange behaviors while trying to upload photos to Facebook, at least for my particular page.  Your tutorial had nothing to do with it as your directions are spot on, at least, if Facebook would cooperate.  I initially tried using a PNG, but changed to GIF and all of a sudden it decided to like it.  I’m not sure if it was just Facebook’s programming that was having issues (whether it was browser/OS - I’m using Firefox 3.6.3 on Mac OS Leopard) or the file type.  Either way it was definitely showing some odd behaviors but now seems to work just fine.  Glad to be able to design and brand more real estate the way I want it!

That’s great! I’m so happy that everything worked out for you and that this tutorial was helpful!

Thanks for yr tutorial.  BUT I’M HAVING PROBLEMS.

I have been trying for 3 days to upload a photo into my profile album.  No success.  I’ve tried uploading a 170x540 jpg and gif.  No luck.  I even tried uploading a jpg photo I use on other websites.  I does not upload.

Uploading photos into status comments works just fine.

Is Facebook having problems now with its Profile Photos?  If not, what else might be causing the problem?  HELP!  especially since I’ve designed a nice verticle photo for the Fan Page, which crops properly for thumbnail, as you explain.

Thanks.

Hi Tom,

I just tried a test upload on a page that I manage and didn’t have any problems, but I know Facebook really seems to be having problems with it’s ability to upload profile pictures lately…@D the one who commented above you was having similar issues but was able to resolve it.

Can you tell me more about what happens? Are there any error messages, does Facebook just hang or freeze up?

How are you saving your GIFs/JPGs? Do you use “Save for web” in photoshop or some other means? I usually try to make sure I’ve stripped all the meta data and color profiles because sometimes that can cause errors.

Thanks for yr prompt response.

I’m working with a very young graphics art student, who is using Serif DrawPlus X4.  He exports the image as either jpg or gif.

We have already created our website banner and uploaded it with no problem to the website, using Serif WebPlus X4:  http://www.bluesasianetwork.com

When I try to upload the photo via clicking the photo box, I choose the picture—and then it looks like it is uploading, but it runs and runs and runs, with nothing getting onto the site.  When I first created the page and tried to upload the graphic, I got an error message, saying cannot handle this file, or something like that.

I have managed to upload the images via email, but I cannot get them into my Profile Pictures album.

You can see what I’m doing by searching for Blues Asia Network on Facebook.

What is particularly surprising is the fact that the page does not upload even small jpg photos that I’ve posted in other locations on the web with no problem.

Hi Tom,

Well, I did a little test for you and downloaded the banner image from your site. I then opened it in Photoshop and saved for web and uploaded the JPG to Facebook and it worked fine.

My guess is Serif WebPlus X4 is not exporting clean JPGs to Facebook. Try saving your JPGs/GIFs through another program and see if you have better results.

Thanks!  Looks like you identified the problem.  I’ll have my young designer redo the graphic in Photoshop.  That might take a day or two as he will have to slip the assignment between in classes and homework.  Will report the results back here.

OK, we made a copy of the vertical Blues Asia Network logo in Photoshop and saved for web.  It does not upload either.

Let me clarify:  I am trying to upload it as the profile picture of my Blues Asia Network business page.  The business page won’t even accept the profile photo from my RB main page.

As a test, I tried uploading the graphic as the profile photo on my regular FB account, under the name of tomcolvin.  The photo uploads there with no problem at all.

I read somewhere a few weeks ago that FB would be changing the way its business pages work.  FB apparently intends to monetize the business page [formerly Fan Page], restricting logo graphics only to pages with a large number of “fans,” or who pay a big fee.  MAYBE THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Hi Keith,

I was just going through this and trying to implement it, but I keep failing at my biggest problem…my logo (Deutsche Presseakademie) has a nice little square which I wanted to make my thumbnail. But whenever I change the thumbnail and drag it along the picture, it changes from the fully focused version (which is not blurry at all when Facebook first crops it) to a totally blurred icon..it is driving me insane.

Any suggestions?

@Tom Clovin, When I tested the image from your site on my test FB page (which has no fans and is not published) I did upload it to the profile picture, so I’m not convinced it is FB putting any restrictions on your page. If you trust me, maybe you can give me access to the page and I can try and troubleshoot it for you? Send me a message via email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and maybe we can coordinate something.

@Rita Dantas can you tell me what the URL of your page is so I can see the blurred thumbnail? I’ve never heard of this problem so I’m curious to actually see the problem first hand if possible.

Thanks!

I can, yes, of course: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Berlin/Deutsche-Presseakademie/130017653702459?ref=ts&ajaxpipe=1&__a=9

I wanted to wait until solving the problem, but then finally we twittered the address and have now a couple of fans…it is really weird, I have always moved thumbnails around without ever experiencing this: the very moment I click on it to move it, it gets blurry, which it still isn’t in the facebook cropped version.

But hey, at least I have an original problem…

Oops, solved with a new picture, thanks for your help though!

Hi Rita,

Gute Arbeit!

I’m glad you figured it out. Did you change anything in the new photo you uploaded? I’m curious about what made it work - any ideas?

Tschüss.

This one was made for this spot by our graphics team, but I still have no clue why that happened with the other one, it was jus something I had never experienced before…

Hi Tom,

Got it fixed for you!

The strange thing was when I was logged in as you I could not get it to work either. So I began to wonder if the problem was your account. I then made myself an admin for your page, logged out as you and logged back in as myself and presto I was able to upload the image. I have NO idea why you cannot upload an image to your own page ... Maybe some kind of privacy setting or something??? Who knows but you might want to check it out.

Take care,

Keith

Thanks, Keith, for your perserverance.  Most people would have given up on it long ago.

One valuable lesson:  FB does have a mechanism in place to block intrusions into one’s account from people in different locations.  Never heard anything about that.

On the other hand, FB “help” is patnetic.  Takes heroes like Keith to get things running.

Thanks for the great post Keith, I’ve got a much much better profile pic now! I’m going to use it to highlight current promotions too.

Hi Keith,

I’m having the same problem as well, and have already sent you a message via FB, in hopes that I can give you Admin right to one of my pages.

Having read your last reply to Tom, I think it’s because you have pages with a lot of followers. Which would mirror what Tom said about pages with larger followings.

If that is the case, then it will be frustrating for me, as I’m creating pages for several new clients, and I can’t get it to work on any. Nor can I get the same size image to upload to my personal profile.

I’d love to contact Facebook about this, but they seem to have issues with getting back to people. Very frustrating.

Thanks for your post, just wish it worked for me. :}

Kath

I just found this in Facebook’s Help Center: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=830

Read: How do I add or change a profile picture?

I wonder if only a select few can still actually add a picture that is more than three times as tall as it is wide.

Hope I’m not being a pest, but I found this: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Roadmap_Photos

on the Facebook Developers page. Funny, because I can’t get that dimension to work either. I even tried 99 x 476, and no go. :{

I’ll stop posting now, and wait for your answer. :}

I’m all set, I figured it out!

Maximum image size is no longer 200x600.

Thank you for your post!

Kathy, can you now upload to all yr clients’ accounts?  I found the FB “help” page to be the most useless help I’ve ever encountered.  They won’t do anything apparently unless you send a series of screenshots—which seems pointless when all one sees is a blank screen.

BTW, I tried all kinds of photo sizes, even the thumbnail from my personal FB page—none of them would upload.  And I still have not figured out why.  Thank goodness Keith found a work-around.

Hi Tom,

Yes, I can now upload to all my client pages. Which I’ll be doing on Monday. Excited!

I wrote about my experience today on my blog. It’s been a rough few weeks trying to figure all this out. :\

Kath

Hi Kathy,

Well, it looks like you made some great discoveries! Thanks for finding Facebook’s new guidelines: “We’re changing the size of the largest profile picture to 180 pixels wide by 540 pixels high (down from 200 pixels by 600 pixels).” Even though this seems to be true I find it strange that I can still upload images 200x600px, even on new pages that I have created in just the last couple days…so strange. However, given your experience and Facebook’s new guidelines I’ll probably be making all my future profile images keeping the 180x540 dimensions in mind and also that you cannot upload a photo if it is more than three times as tall as it is wide.

I’ll try to make some updates to this post this week so it’s up to date with this new information

Thanks again for posting your findings!

-Keith

Hi Keith,

Thanks, I actually posted a How-to on my blog - http://bit.ly/9dAoyk - and tracked one of the posts back to you.

Thanks again for this post, it helped point me in the right direction.

I look forward to collaborating with you more in the future. Great post!

Kathy

Awesome write up. Just saw it linked from SEOmoz.

This is really cool! But when I insert a picture into a new layer-it becomes very blurry. I tried resizing the image to 200wide and 100high (or something close)and then pasted it into the new layer, but still blurry. How do you make the inserted photo clear like the original?

Hi “Facebook Developer” can you clarify your question a little more for me? Are you talking about adding an image to a Photoshop layer? What are the pixel dimensions of the image you are cutting and pasting into the new layer? Instead of cutting and pasting images to new layers I usually just open the image I want in PS and then drag and drop the image into my working file which then automatically creates a new layer.

Thanks,

Keith

Hi Keith I’ve tried it and it really worked. So there is definitely nothing wrong in this article. people must try out to do everything in accordance to your guidance and everything will be fine as with me.
I have something to ask you. Can you please write an article about templates and how to upload those templates in facebook. I’d really like my profile and fan page to be as customizable as it’s possible.
Regards,
Suren

Hey Keith!

Thanks for the mention in your Update! :D

Kath

No problem Kathy, thanks for making the post better!

THANK YOU!!! I’ve just made my page look a thousand times more awesome! You’re a gem!

Thank you…I am currently building my Business page on Facebook, this info. helped me to incorporate several photos instantly giving customers a better idea of my products…great info. Thanks

This article is really awesome. The thumbnails were really giving me some massive headache for so long. And now I’m so relieved that I can do whatever I want with it, and not only sit and watch what Facebook does with my images.

Thanks!