Guide

What size should a social share image be?

Before memorizing “Facebook wants X, X wants Y,” ship a card whose title sits in a safe zone. Platforms crop and cache. Safe margins beat a brittle pixel table.

How to make a free default share image: free Open Graph image.

1. Crops happen—safe margins beat memorizing pixels

Chat previews, feed cards, and compact embeds do not share one crop. Titles on the edge and logos in corners get clipped.

Practice: put the main title in a center-upper safe area, leave side padding, keep critical text off the rim.

Small chat thumbnails are harsher. Tiny type or too many lines turn into mush. Prefer fewer words that stay readable.

Indie habit: design the card at arm’s length on your phone. If you cannot read the title, neither can a stranger in Slack.

2. ~1200×630 as a common starting point (not law)

Many posts cite about 1200×630. Treat it as an illustrative common starting point, not eternal official law, not a legal size.

Recommendations change. Before you lock assets, open each platform’s latest public docs. When you need multi-platform coverage, export one illustrative-size card, then tweak per docs if needed.

This page does not invent current Meta/X official pixel comparison tables. Stale “must be xxx×yyy” blogs are breadcrumbs only. Docs + real preview win.

3. Generate in Ogmake (OG-1) then check platform docs

Open Ogmake, generate a title/brand card, export. Hang a stable URL, then check target platform docs for crop or safe-area notes.

Base flow: free Open Graph image. Support: [email protected].

Do not wait for a perfect pixel spreadsheet before shipping a default. Ship the card, verify previews, adjust once—not ten times from folklore.

4. Cache delays after swaps

Debug tools may not show the file you just replaced. Cache is normal.

After a swap, re-fetch with the official debugger. Still old? Wait or follow that tool’s cache guidance. Do not rewrite meta ten times if the URL already points correctly (unless the URL truly is wrong).

Different clients can disagree for a while. Confirm the URL serves the new bytes, then wait out cache.

Tip: changing the filename (og-default-v2.png) often forces a cleaner refresh than overwriting og.png in place. Boring, effective.

5. Docs + tool default—no invented Meta/X tables

Reliable order:

Make a usable default in Ogmake.
Read target platform docs.
Tweak size or margins if docs require it.
Check a real preview in the platform debugger.

Do not treat an outdated blog pixel chart as scripture.

If a platform publishes both “recommended” and “minimum” sizes, prefer recommended and still keep safe margins. Minimum sizes that look sharp on a blog post often fail in a dense feed crop.

When two platforms disagree slightly, start with one safe card and document any per-network crop. Most indie sites survive on one good default longer than on three unfinished variants.

6. Site default vs per-article; photo pipeline separate

Site default: shared across the site or a section—stable brand.
Per-article: swap when a post’s title deserves its own card.

Finish the default first. Add article cards by priority. Faster than arguing pixels for every draft on launch week. Sitewide how-to: default social share image for sites.

Real photos (HEIC, EXIF strip, watermarks) use Heiclocal / Metastrip / Stampdrop. Link preview cards use Ogmake. Keep pipelines separate.

A photographed product hero can inspire an OG card, but the share card is usually a designed layout with readable type—not a raw camera JPEG with GPS still attached.

If you do use a photo inside an Ogmake-style card, treat the photo as a background layer and still strip it with Metastrip before wide redistribution of the source file.

FAQ

Must 1200×630?
No. Common start only; follow latest platform docs.

Same asset for X and Facebook?
Often fine as a start—still verify each platform’s docs.

Upload to Ogmake?
Local generation per product positioning.

Safe margins or exact pixels first?
Margins first. Pixels second, from current docs.

Disclaimer

Ogmake is not an official social-platform tool. Previews follow fetch/cache; sizes follow each platform’s latest docs. Support: [email protected].