How do I get my vector art to have crisp lines on instagram?

Question

As soon as I upload my art to Instagram, the quality decreases. I have tried everything I can think of. I have used 1080x1080 image resolution, and larger, exported it in many different files (JPG, EPS, SVG). The quality never changes and always ends up the same.

If anyone knows how to fix this problem, it would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

Instagram will, just like many other social media sites, convert your image into a .jpg and then compress the living daylights out of it. They have to store huge amounts of images on their servers, and those need being paid as well. Hence, they compress as much as they can.

The only thing you can do about this is taking care that compression doesn't hurt your image too much. In your case, it is most probably the blue / magenta contrast in a tilted shape that causes the problems. In cases like these, the .jpg artefacts really show.

Try and optimise your image as a low-quality .jpg to see what will end up on instagram. That way, you know what's coming. A small change in colour or even cropping can make a huge difference.

Answer 2

The problem with your example image is jpeg artefacts. Social media sites like twitter/facebook/instagram rescale (resample) and turn all images into jpeg and add lots of compression. This is to keep the file size small so that images can be quickly downloaded on mobile devices with slow internet connections, and also to save bandwidth to reduce the strain on their servers.

The only real fix is to optimise the images to jpeg yourself, rather than allow these sites to do it for you. Try to rescale your images to the exact size they will be displayed at, save as jpeg, and add as much compression as you dare while trying to keep the file size at 100kb or less.

Facebook has a page that explains how to get the best out of your images - link here

Alternatively, don't use these social media sites to share your images. Use other services which don't mess with your images so much.

Answer 3

I found this workflow that seems pretty good. As others have said, the problem is compression and working between PC-WEB-Mobile. To avoid further compression from Instagram, you have to upload your images directly from your phone. I used Google Drive but you can use any online storage solution.

My workflow as follows worked fine for my Instagram Avatar, but It seems to work with all (write me back if it suits you or not):

1. Create a new empty file in photoshop with the final size of the image in RGB color mode (320px X 320px for Avatars / 1050px for images, anything above will be reescaled and compressed to death loosing quality). You have to work with the native specifications of destination, in order to avoid any trouble.
2. Import vector art to Photoshop as smart objects. Edit as you like.
3. Export the file using save for web in JPEG High preset quality 60% / optimized checked / Resampling quality in Bicubic.
4. Upload image in Google Photos (I guess any other does the job).
5. Publish your image from your phone.

I hope it helps.

Cheers!

PD: I am not a native speaker, so excuse me if there is some errors.