Facebook's header image: how to control compression?

Question

I am trying to set up a Facebook page for a business. The page is here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hotel-Jacobeo/311595949045476

And the problem I'm having is that Facebook recompresses my header image and creates really ugly artifacts, as you can see. Those artifacts aren't in the original image nor in the version of the image that appears in the gallery, as you can also see if you click on it and download it. (Admittedly, the image features a large area with flat colors, which doesn't help with JPEG compression... but that's the way the business looks from the outside).

I've tried uploading the image with more and less JPEG quality (from 95 to 60), and with bigger and smaller sizes (2000 x 2000, 900 x 600, etc.). Nothing seems to help. What else can be done?

Answer 1

I expect you'll want to upload an image that is the exact size as the Facebook Cover photo, so that there is no resizing done.

According to What are the dimensions for the Facebook Timeline cover photo? the dimensions are 851 × 315 pixels. (There's some other good advice in the answers to that question as well.)

That said, Facebook is pretty notorious for "ruining" uploaded images.

Answer 2

When it comes to Facebook, PNG is ideal over JPEG. JPEG is already compressed when you save it and Facebook will compress it more. If you want clearer pictures on Facebook, try PNG instead.

Also make sure to use the recommended size of 851 x 315px.