University at Buffalo (UB)
Downloading SmugMug Images for Social
UB's SmugMug is a great resource to find photos for your social media content. Follow the instructions below to download images that are appropriately sized for your social pages.
How to download SmugMug photos at a resolution suited for digital use
At any point, you can right-click and 'Save image as' to download a copy. But this does not provide any control over the image proportions (resolution), which is very important.
The following steps allow you to download an image at the desired resolution.
Step one: Click the Share icon. This is located in two locations.
- When viewing a gallery, the Share icon is below the image, in the lower right corner. (An identical icon in the upper right is used to share the entire gallery!)
- When viewing an individual image, the Share icon is located to the left of the image, near the top left corner.
Step two: Click the Embed tab. In the drop-down menu labeled 'Choose a size,' select a specific resolution.
Optimal social media image sizes by orientation:
- Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Vertical (story): 1080 x 1920 pixels
- Horizontal: 1200 pixels wide
Note: exact dimensions will depend on platform and type of content.
Hero Photo or Hero Slide Deck use:
- X3Large – 1600 x 1067 pixels - If the full width of the photo will suffice for the banner crop.
- X4Large – 2047 x 1365 pixels - If you need a little more information to crop into.
Any image used within a 960 pixel center column:
- Large – 800 x 533 pixels - Image less than 1col / 960 pixels.
- X-Large – 1024 x 683 pixels – Full-Size / 1col / 960 pixels images will zoom in pretty well.
- X2-Large – 1280 x 853 pixels - Allows for a little more impact when adding zoom to the photo component.
Step three: Click 'Copy JPEG URL.'
Step four: Paste the copied URL into your browser location bar and press Enter.
Step five: When the image loads, right-click the image and select 'Save image as...” to download the image onto your computer.
Image Sizes Vary
Remember, image sizes across social media platforms vary, so check each channel's image specifications to ensure that you are selecting photos that are optimal sizes.