Social Resizers·4 min read

How X Crops Timeline Images and How to Work With It

On X, the first impression of your image can be a crop you did not choose. Shapes that fit the timeline show in full, but very tall or very wide images get trimmed, and multi-image posts are cut into tiles. The difference decides whether a chart stays readable, a face stays in frame, or a punchline gets cut. Here is how the trimming works, how the multi-image grid behaves, and the export sizes that keep your work readable at a glance.

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How the timeline decides what to show

Some shapes pass, extremes get trimmed.

Single images display at the width of the timeline column. A 16:9 image usually shows in full, and a 4:5 portrait gets plenty of height on phones. Very tall and very wide images are the ones X trims hardest, and the trim keeps the middle of the frame.

In practice, a subject near the centre survives every context. The two post presets in Twitter (X) Image Resizer follow that: Post / In-stream at 1600x900 for landscape, and Post (portrait) at 1080x1350 when you want more height on phones.

Quote posts and link cards shrink images again, so plan pessimistically. Put everything that must be read in the central part of the frame, and treat the edges as the first thing to go.

One X image, one crop, calculated

3:2 becomes 16:9.

Take a 3000x2000 photo, a 3:2 ratio, and the 1600x900 preset with Crop to fill. The 16:9 target is wider than 3:2, so the full width stays and the height is cut to 1688 pixels, about 156 from the top and bottom, before scaling down. Press Adjust crop to drag the frame up or down if the subject is not in the middle. The result is 1600x900 with the subject where you want it.

Choose Fit without cropping instead and nothing is trimmed. The 3:2 frame sits inside the 16:9 canvas on a solid colour or a blurred copy of the photo. For photography, a crop usually looks better. For charts and screenshots, fitting protects the axis labels, and a plain white or dark background looks neater than blur.

Notice what neither mode does: stretch the image. Both keep the original proportions and differ only in what they give up, the edges or some empty space.

Multi-image layouts and their hidden tiles

The grid decides, not you.

Posts with two to four images use fixed tiles whatever you upload. Two images sit side by side as tall columns, three get one tall tile on the left with two stacked on the right, and four form a grid of short wide rectangles. Each tile trims your image toward its centre.

The takeaway is not memorising tile maths. Four images in four different shapes produce four unpredictable crops, while images resized to the same preset, each with its subject centred through Adjust crop, keep the set looking deliberate.

Order matters as much as shape. In the three-image layout the first image gets the largest tile, so lead with the strongest picture and let the supporting shots fill the smaller slots.

Header and post images follow different rules

Two wide rectangles.

Headers and post images are both wide, which is why people mix them up. The header is 1500x500, a 3:1 strip that phones crop at the edges and your profile photo overlaps in the lower left. Post images live near 16:9 or 4:5 and show inside the timeline column instead.

Reusing a post graphic as a header usually fails, because the 3:1 strip cuts off the top and bottom. Design the header as its own asset with the lower left kept clear, and use the Header / banner preset with Adjust crop to place it.

A wordmark placed in the lower left disappears behind your own profile photo. The safe place for header text is the vertical middle, to the right of that area.

X image mistakes that waste good content

Ways to lose the tap.

The gap between an image that stops the scroll and one that does not is usually mechanical, not creative.

Posting a very tall infographic and expecting the timeline to show more than its middle
Letting Crop to fill cut the axis labels off a chart instead of switching to Fit without cropping
Uploading four images in four different shapes and getting four unpredictable crops in the grid
Placing the key line of a meme at the very top or bottom of the frame, where trims land first
Ignoring the link card image, so shared links show a poor thumbnail while native posts look fine

Tips and the neighbouring share tools

Centre it, size it, post it.

Centre your subject, export 1600x900 for single landscape images, and keep text large, since small type becomes unreadable at timeline size. For screenshots, choose PNG as the Output format so edges stay crisp. Download all (ZIP) saves every X size at once, with names like twitter-header.

Link previews are their own job. The Link card (large image) preset gives you a 1200x630 image, but X reads it from your page's meta tags, so upload it to your site. Twitter (X) Card Generator writes those tags, and OG Image Generator can design the 1200x630 artwork with your title on it. Posting the same visual to LinkedIn afterwards? LinkedIn Image Resizer reframes it for that feed.