Make A Social Preview Image For Your Link
3 min read
A shared link has two parts: the destination and the preview someone sees before opening it. A clear image can identify the page even when platforms shorten its headline. Create the image, then connect it to the page through your publishing system.
The Social Preview Image tool makes a 1200 x 630 PNG from a title, subtitle, site name and three colors, and it draws the image in your browser. It suits a text-led article or landing page that needs a recognizable preview without a full design workflow.
Start With The Page's Main Point
Use the title to say what the destination contains. A hypothetical guide could use "A Checklist For Your First Product Launch" as the title and "Scope, test and release" as the subtitle. The site name identifies the publisher without repeating the headline.
Keep each line short enough to read when the preview is small. If the headline needs a paragraph, shorten the image text and let the page title carry the detail. The image travels on its own, so say only what the page itself supports.
Choose Colors For Reading
The form has background, text and accent colors. Use your brand palette where it gives enough contrast and change it where it does not. What matters is that the text stands apart from the background at thumbnail size.
Check the preview, then open the downloaded PNG. Look for clipped words, text that runs past the edge and small lines that become hard to read. Try a real headline as well as a short demo title, because a long one can lay out differently.
Connect The Image To The Page
Downloading a PNG does not change your site. Upload the file somewhere your site and crawlers can reach, then point the page's og:image and twitter:image tags at its address. The tool page gives the same instruction. Your publishing system may have fields for these values instead of asking you to edit HTML.
Keep each image tied to the right page. A shared default image is fine, but an article-specific image should not end up on the next post because a setting was copied over. After saving, inspect the page's live metadata and confirm the image address loads.
Test The Shared Result
1200 x 630 is the size the tool exports. Platforms can still crop, resize or cache a preview. Share the live URL in the place you plan to use it and check which title, image and description appear.
Try the Social Preview Image with a sample title first and inspect the PNG. Then make the real image, host it, connect the tags and test the deployed page.