Making a Facebook Cover Photo with Pixlr: Tutorial

17th April 2017

This blog isn't to justify how brilliant Pixlr is. The reason we’re doing this blog is because Pixlr is so damn brilliant. Of course, if you have Photoshop or whatever – go off and use that, otherwise, if you are a micro or small business owner . . . then you really want to check out Pixlr.

Right. Let’s get started.

Update: See the bottom of this article for a YouTube Video

Let’s say we are going to make a Facebook cover photo.

Go to www.pixlr.com and click on Pixlr Editor
Select the first option: Create a new image. Set the width at Choose 828px(width) × 315px(height). This is the height for a Facebook cover photo.
To bring in an image from your computer: Layer > Open image as layer
To resize the image

Edit > Free Transform. Resize by dragging the blue boxes inwards: Keep your finger on the SHIFT key to keep proportions
To add text

Click the ‘A’ button from the ‘Tools’ section on the right hand side of your screen

Note that you can edit the size of the text, the font, and the colour in thix box. The fonts are fonts that are on your own computer.

To edit that text at any time, simply click on the text layer, and then go back and click the ‘A’ button, and then the text box above will appear.

Remember, what makes Pixlr so great is the layers. Make sure that you select the layer that you want to work on:

To save the Image: File > Save

YouTube Video: How to make a Facebook Cover that works on Both Mobiles and Pixlr

This video shows how to make a Facebook Cover photo using a template that I made for myself in 2016, after Facebook changed the dimensions. For the Facebook guidelines, see here ... come back after you get confused.

After reading the Facebook confusing guidelines, I decided to make a template, with a little bit of maths and a little bit of trial-and-error. I made this video showing how you can use the template to make a Facebook cover photo including images and text, that will work well on mobiles and desktops.

If you have made a Facebook Cover Photo with Facebook, please post the link to your Facebook page in the comments below!

Hi, I'm Dorcas. I make websites. I lecture in Digital Marketing and related stuff in the UCD Smurfit School. I do consultancy. I do talks. I've written a book on WordPress (available here).