With more than 140 million monthly active users, Twitch remains at the center of live-streaming. Whether you’re a gamer, lifestyle content creator, or a brand, there’s a lot you can get out of this platform. However, there are certain technical rules that all users must follow, one of which is getting the Twitch profile picture size right.
Emphasizing on something as trivial as your profile picture may sound weird, but trust me, it matters.
For that reason, in this article, I’ll:
- Share the recommended Twitch profile picture size
- Go over why it’s important to get it right
- Share a quick Twitch size guide
- Walk you through how you can design yours from scratch
- Few profile picture ideas
- Share some additional tips
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is the Ideal Twitch Profile Picture Size?
The ideal Twitch profile picture size (also known as your Twitch avatar) is 800 x 800 pixels. This translates to an aspect ratio of 1:1. Like most social media platforms, your profile picture on Twitch needs to be a square (even though it shows up as a circle – more on that later).
The officially recommended dimensions are 256 x 256 pixels. However, sticking with 800 x 800 pixels will result in higher quality and prevent the image from being too large.
Apart from the size, here are some additional guidelines for Twitch profile pictures:
- The image file size must not exceed 10 megabytes
- Images can only be in PNG, JPG, or GIF formats.
Those are the basics.
If you follow those rules, you’re already half-way there.
From here, it’s just about implementing certain best practices that will help make your profile picture even better.
Why It’s Crucial to Get the Twitch Profile Picture Size Right
As mentioned earlier, some people may not give so much thought to their Twitch profile pictures.
But if you’re serious about your Twitch game, you have to get it right.
Why?
Because first impressions matter.
I don’t know about you, but if a channel’s profile picture looks pixelated, doesn’t show the main elements properly, or just looks awkward in general, I’m going to judge them HARD.
The sameprobably goes for a bunch of other users. And then some.
The point is – you want to portray yourself as if you mean business.
Sure, some popular streamers may intentionally make their profile pictures seem a bit (ironically) awkward. Exhibit-A: Shroud.
But that doesn’t mean you have to follow in their footsteps, especially if you’re just starting out.
Build a fan-base first.
A Quick Twitch Size Guide
Getting the Twitch profile picture size right is just one part of the puzzle.
There are a ton of other graphics that go on your Twitch channel, each of which have different recommended dimensions.
Don’t worry – here’s a quick Twitch size guide that you can always refer to whenever you’re in doubt:
- Twitch Profile Banner – your Twitch banner size should ideally be kept at 1,920 x 480 pixels (aspect ratio of 4:1). The image should either be in JPG or PNG, and must not be larger than 10MB in size.
- Twitch Offline Banner Size – also known as “video player banner,” the recommended Twitch offline banner size is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, which is an aspect ratio of 16:9.
- Twitch Panel Size – these should be kept at 320 x 160 pixels. Panels show up underneath your live streams and can be used to share some information about your stream.
- Twitch Emote Size – ideal Twitch emote size is 112 x 112 pixels (for larger devices). Emotes are custom emojis that you can set on your channel.
- Twitch Video Thumbnails – these should be kept at 1,280 x 720 pixels to avoid having important elements cut out.
- Twitch Overlay – these are graphics that appear during your live streams. These should be kept at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for best results.
That’s pretty much it.
Stick with those guidelines to set up a coherent, professional-looking channel on Twitch.
Designing the Perfect Twitch Profile Picture with Pixelied [in 4 Easy Steps]
Whether you’re creating a custom image from scratch or just using your headshot, you need to make sure that:
- It’s set at the recommended dimensions
- It follows the other recommended best practices
You can ensure all of the above with Pixelied – an easy-to-use, free online graphic design tool that’s giving sites like Canva, Snappa, PicMonkey, and all the other similar tools a run for their money. You can create stunning, professional-level graphics with simple drag-and-drop features.
Here’s how you can adjust/customize your Twitch profile picture on Pixelied:
1. Open the Editor
To get started, simply go to our free Pixelied editor.
This will launch the free editor of Pixelied set to the ideal Twitch profile picture size (800 x 800 pixels).
Here’s what it looks like:
Pixelied offers hundreds of ready-to-use templates for various social media designs, including Twitch offline banner templates, panel templates, and more.
However, Pixelied doesn’t have any templates, because Twitch profile pictures are supposed to be 100% unique.
2. Start Designing
After launching the editor, it’s time to finalize your profile picture from scratch.
There are two things you can try here:
a) Upload an Image of Your Own
If you have a logo, a headshot, or a custom illustration that you’d like to use as your Twitch profile picture, you can easily upload it to the editor.
This is one of the many features of Pixelied which makes it incredibly easy to customize your designs to your liking.
To upload a file, click on “My Files” in the left panel.
Here, you can upload your files (by either browsing on your device or by dragging and dropping them to the highlighted box).
Once a file has been uploaded, it will show up in the area where it says “No Files!”.
For this tutorial, I’m going to use my custom avatar.
To load up your file on the canvas, double-click on it.
Adjust the picture so that it fits the canvas by dragging it from the corners. To avoid awkwardly stretched-out or compressed designs, Pixelied doesn’t let you change the width and the height of your files separately. Dragging any of the corners will maintain the ratio.
Ideally, the picture you’re using should be in the 1:1 aspect ratio (or very close to it). Otherwise, some parts of it will get cut off.
b) Use an Available Illustration
If you don’t have a headshot, logo, or illustration of your own, you can pick an illustration from Pixelied’s native library.
To get started, click on “Illustrations” in the toolbar on the left.
Pixelied lets you filter the available illustrations as categories (click on the dropdown menu above where it says “All categories”). From avatars to web designs, there’s a lot of great stuff to work with.
Since we’re designing Twitch profile pictures, it would make sense to use avatars.
Click on any of the avatars that you fancy to load it up on the canvas.
Adjust its size and positioning relative to the canvas.
3. Add Bells and Whistles (Optional)
If you want, you can further customize your new Twitch profile picture by adding in a few extra bells and whistles.
In addition to the massive library of popping illustrations, it also offers a wide range of elements and shapes.
Remember – you can also upload custom vectors to the editor and add them to your avatar. Furthermore, if you want, you can also customize the background with captivating colors.
The sky is the limit (just make sure it doesn’t look cluttered).
4. Download Away
When you’re done designing your profile picture, all that’s left to do is to download it.
To do that, click on the Download button at the top right corner of the screen.
Pixelied lets you specify the format (stick with either PNG or JPEG), the quality (with 80 being optimal), and the size you want your image in.
Once you’re done specifying all those things, click on the second download button towards the bottom.
And you’re done!
Tips for Designing Awesome Twitch Profile Pictures
Now that you know the perfect Twitch profile picture size and how to design one, keeping a few tips in mind will make it absolutely perfect.
Let’s take a look:
1. Mind the Circular Crop
First and foremost, you have to remember that on Twitch, profile pictures show up as circles, like so:
When you upload your profile picture, Twitch will place a circular frame over it and prompt you to zoom-in and adjust.
That’s just a basic rule of modern social media UI design. Profile pictures will always appear as circles, not squares.
With that in mind, make sure that you consider this circular crop when designing your Twitch profile picture.
Make sure that all the elements – whether it’s your headshot, illustration, or some logo – are carefully centered and don’t get cut off.
Here’s an example of a profile picture (of Twitch streamer XcaliburYe) that does it right:
The front angle shot is properly centered. There are no awkward close-ups or cut-offs.
2. Keep it On-Brand
Another important thing to consider when designing your Twitch profile picture is to keep it on-brand.
This essentially means following a coherent theme across all (or at least most) designs, including your profile banner, offline/video banner, panels, overlays, and thumbnails.
If you’re just using a picture of yourself (like in the example above), wear a shirt that matches the overall theme of your channel.
Similarly, you can also tweak the background of your profile picture that way.
3. Make it Festive (Change it from Time to Time)
You don’t necessarily have to use the same profile picture throughout the year.
To keep things fresh, you can slightly tweak it based on seasonal themes.
For instance, and this may sound like cliché-city, but you could use Pixelied to add a Santa hat over your avatar around Christmas time, along with some candy canes.
Similarly, some eggs around Eastertime can go a long way towards celebrating the spirit of the holidays. Let that creativity loose.
4. Don’t Clutter It Up
When designing your Twitch profile picture, make sure to not get carried away and end up with a cluttered design.
You need to leave ample breathing room for other users to make sense of what your profile picture includes. And considering the mandatory circular crop, you don’t have that much room to begin with.
For that reason, only keep what’s necessary.
Unless you can wear a shirt with their logo on it, you don’t have to show your sponsors on your profile picture.
That’s what your profile banner, video banner, and panels are for.
5. Adhere to Twitch’s Community Guidelines
Last but not least, make sure that you adhere to the community guidelines of Twitch.
Go through all of the guidelines to ensure that you’re not violating any rule which may get you banned.
Twitch has made these guidelines super-explicit, leaving no room for misinterpretations.
How to Change Your Twitch Profile Picture?
With your Twitch profile picture ready-to-go, all that’s left is to update it on your channel.
To do that, follow these easy steps:
- Log in to your Twitch channel.
- On the homepage, click on the icon at the top-right corner to open a dropdown menu.
- On the dropdown menu, click on “Settings.”
- You’ll see the Profile Picture section at the very top of the settings page. Click on “Update Profile Picture” (if you have an existing profile picture) or “Add Profile Picture” (if you’ve yet to upload one on your channel).
- Browse to the location where your profile picture is stored on your device and open it.
Et voila – you just uploaded your new Twitch profile picture.
Wrapping it Up
Your Twitch profile picture, along with your profile banner, are two of the most crucial elements on your channel.
Considering that, you should take extra care when creating and finalizing either one of those assets.
In addition to getting the Twitch profile picture size right, you should also focus on your Twitch username using a Twitch name generator to come up with some interesting and eye-catching names.
And remember – whether you want to create Twitch profile pictures, banners, or panels, you can always use Pixelied.
