How to Make Graphics for Twitter
If you use Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that lets you post 140-character messages to the world, you might be interested in making custom graphics that express your unique personality or give users information about your brand or company. There are two different graphics you can upload: a larger background that users will see on your actual Twitter page and a smaller profile picture, or avatar, that is displayed every place your tweets or username is listed.
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Instructions
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Understand how graphics work on Twitter. Twitter pages will look different depending on the size of the computer screen, and this is increasingly important with the popularity of tablet devices and smart phones that have Twitter apps. A large widescreen monitor might be 1900 pixels wide, while some tables have a screen width of only 800 pixels. This means that your nifty idea of a background that has images perfectly placed to appear on the left and on the right of the main Twitter content area will not work for all screen sizes. Your best bet is to choose either a tile-able background or an image that stretches the full width, but it won't matter if some of the right end of it is cut off. Plan for any actual message to appear on the left edge.
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Design a background graphic, keeping in mind the information presented above. For an image that fills the entire screen, it should be anywhere from 1600 to 1900 pixels wide and at least 1200 pixels tall. If you plan to have content, especially written content, place it in a narrow column on the left that is anywhere from 120 to 225 pixels wide. Keep in mind that anyone with a smaller monitor might not see content at the bottom, below the 768 pixel mark. You also have the option to make a smaller image and set it to "tile" which means it will repeat the image across and down across the screen. You need to create a "tile-able" image if you choose this option, or look for a pattern that is already tile-able. Keep in mind that the right column of the Twitter content is translucent, so your background image will show through in this area.
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Create the background in an image editing program. If you don't have one, there are several online apps you can use right in your browser, such as Picnik and Phoenix (see Resources). Or you can download a program called Picasa for free from Google (see Resources). If the program only allows you to edit a photo instead of creating a new image, start with a photo and resize the image if necessary.
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Design and create a profile picture for your Twitter page. It's a good idea to use a similar color scheme when creating this image, and also consider how it will look on your Twitter page with the background you've designed. But also remember that the profile picture will show up next to each of your Tweets and in lists, where it will be separate from your background. Choose a picture that is easily recognizable at a small size since it will often be seen at that size.
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Check to make sure that neither your background image nor your profile picture image is larger than 700 Kb (but not smaller than 48 Kb) and is either a Jpeg, GIF or PNG file format. You can check the image size by checking the image properties while you have the image open in your editing software, or you can right-click on the image icon in your file manager and check its properties from there. If the image is in the wrong format or if it's too large, re-save it using the save as option and select an image compression level that makes the file a smaller size. In Picasa, use the "Export" option to resize an image.
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Tips & Warnings
Upload your images to Twitter. Click on the "Profile" link at the top of the Twitter page, then on "Edit your profile" under your profile picture. Then select the "Profile" tab to change your profile picture or "Design" to upload a new background. In the "Design" tab you can also tweak the colors of the fonts and the background behind the Twitter content to match your color scheme.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Burke/Triolo Productions/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
