Cover for a group on VK online. How to make a cover for a VKontakte group. Download the finished cover for the group

Greetings, friends! In this article we will talk about a recent innovation on VKontakte: covers in communities. This article will be of interest to group administrators, novice web designers, and entrepreneurs promoting their business on this social network. And web designer Lyudmila Puchenkova will tell us about the intricacies of cover design.

A little background

On April 1, the social network VKontakte began global testing of the so-called new design. At the same time, a customizable header was announced. At RIF+KIB (http://2016.russianinternetforum.ru/), representatives of VKontakte said that this will be a block that can become a showcase for an online store on VKontakte, and in the cinema group it will be possible to post a video there. Month after month passed. On August 17, VKontakte switched all users to a new design, but there was still no header. Many began to redesign their communities with a new design, and then on October 31, 2016, VKonakte finally launched headers.

New VK cover design

What do we end up with: now in all communities - groups, publics, events - you can set a wide image:

Characteristics and size of the VKontakte group cover:

size: 795x200 px and 1590x400 px for high definition screens;
format: JPG, GIF, PNG;
loading: from community management, administrator rights required;
recommendations from VK: place important information closer to the center for mobile devices.

This is what the design looks like in the mobile version of VKontakte

In addition, there have been other changes in communities. They touch on the key points of commercial groups, and this can and should be used when creating cover design.

Location of CTA buttons

CTA buttons (“write a message”, “subscribe”, “join a group” and so on) are lined up under the lower right edge of the cover, one after another.
Communities now have miniatures.
Tabs have been added: the pinned entry comes first (if it is in the community), followed by the “community information” tab (now it is available to users). The third tab contains a menu for groups and events. This tab is not available in the public page. The menu is now also always available to users.

VKontakte cover design

Let's look at what data we need to place on the cover:

Name of the business (or its direction).
City, address (if the project is regional).
Phone number for quick ordering (with area code).
Unique Selling Proposition (what makes you different from others).
Appeal (corresponding to your conversion path).

Visually long horizontal cover for better perception can be divided into several parts.

2 piece design example

For example, into 2 parts:

On the first part, we place a catchy photo that reflects the direction of the project, position the photo so that the movement of the user’s gaze leads the user to the second part of the cover, where we place the USP and the benefits of subscribing. Add a call to action.

The cover is easier to understand when divided into 3 parts, linked together by style, each of which makes up a complete block:

3 piece design example

Perhaps, similar to Facebook covers, only the center of the cover will be visible in mobile applications. And that's where I put the company name or logo, city, address and phone number. On the left I place the USP of the project or the benefits of subscription. On the right is the interest of the project’s target audience and/or appeal.

How to post a cover of a VKontakte community

Now let's figure out how to install the cover in your community.

Go to community management (administrator rights required).
You are in settings. Find the “community cover” item, click “download”.
In the window that opens, click “select file.”

Loading the community cover

Go to the folder with the photo you prepared in advance, select it. If a photo is selected in a custom size, it will be cropped at an aspect ratio of 1:3.975.

Select the desired image

Click "save and continue."

Save the result

Done, your cover has been successfully installed in the group.

Cover set

Removing a cover

Please note that a full-fledged avatar, if it was previously displayed in your group, disappears from visibility when you install the cover. Its function is to become a miniature that represents your group in the list of all user groups (its size is 200x200 px) and is present on the wall next to the name of the community (its size is 100x100 px). The most logical thing to do here is to place the logo on a contrasting background.

Changing the community thumbnail

To change the thumbnail, you need to move the cursor to its display under the cover and select the “update photo” item. Upload a photo, set the visible area and save the changes.

The cover in the mobile version of VK is cut off at the edges (on IOS it doesn’t exist at all yet), it’s better to place the main information in the center, and it’s also a good idea to use a pinned banner describing the essence of your offer.

Third-party advertising is prohibited on the cover, do not neglect this VK rule, so as not to lose the function of adding covers to your community or not to get banned;
when creating a document, use the sRGB mode to correctly display the colors of your cover in web space;
do not use bright colors, gradients, small patterns (remember that VKontakte compresses images, red, orange, pure white are especially affected);
save the cover using the “save for WEB” function in PNG format, it is the most resistant to compression;
To speed up loading, you can drag the cover directly from the folder onto the cover upload window.

Move the selected image

Here are the main points that you should study if you want to design your VKontakte group in a new design.

Happy ideas everyone!

In we will talk about why the community needs quotation books, what they are and how to make them.

The cover for the VKontakte group is a new design element for the group after the redesign. It seems like it should be easy to take one image, but at the same time finding the perfect one is quite difficult.

The VKontakte cover is one of the first things people will see when visiting your group. That is why it is so important to make a good impression on the visitor, convey a clear understanding of the group’s theme and interest.

In April 2017, it became available to communities. This is a completely new feature and an excellent opportunity to revive (in the literal sense of the word) the design of your group in order to increase the efficiency and impact of promotion.

You will get three things from this article:

Cover size for VKontakte group;
Instructions on how to create a VKontakte cover and how to choose the perfect picture;
Examples of groups with high-quality covers.

What size is the cover for a VKontakte group?

The optimal image size for a VKontakte cover may vary. On computers, the cover image is displayed at 795 pixels wide and 200 pixels high. On mobile phones it adjusts proportionally to the width of the screen. However, VKontakte recommends uploading a picture with a size of at least 1590x400 pixels.

Advice: If you find an image you really like, but its proportions are not the recommended ones, you can still use it! By uploading this picture, you can select the visible area and trim off all unnecessary parts using VKontakte’s internal tools.

When developing a cover design, keep in mind that on mobile devices with a screen width of less than 400px, the edges of the image are cropped at 196px, and approximately 83px is occupied by the phone’s system icons. Consider convenience for mobile users. On VKontakte these are the majority.

Make sure that the text on the cover is sufficiently readable on the mobile phone screen when the cover adapts to its width. Also check that important elements on the cover are not obscured by menu icons and personal messages.

Below is a visual example of what the cover looks like on a computer, and the dimensions from the edge to the active elements of the group are indicated.

VKontakte cover dimensions on a computer

How to make a cover for a VKontakte group

If you have any design skills, create your own cover from scratch using software such as Adobe Photoshop. Choosing this path will allow you to create the design for your business the way you imagine it.

If you don’t want to buy and learn Photoshop, then use online services. Here . At the moment this is the most popular service.

Cover templates for VKontakte group

In order to help you with design development, we have created a template for the cover of a group in VK (1590x400px).

Let's talk about a few additional details about working with our template:

When you open the template, you will see the appearance of your design. You don't have to upload the cover to the group to evaluate how it looks.
To create your own cover, double-click on the “cover” layer. This will take you inside the smart object.
Then you can start creating, all sizes are indicated inside.

You can download this and other templates in the article:.

Your photos

We understand that everyone cannot be a designer. But this does not mean that not everyone can have a beautiful VK community cover. Here are some places you can look to create your header, as well as some tips to show that this approach can make sense for you and your business.

For example, if your group is about books, then you can take a photo of your bookshelves and use that photo as the cover photo. This will hint that you're into books, and you can expect other book fans to respond well to the photo.

vk.com/best_psalterium

Stock photos

If you don't have any personal photos that you would like to use, look for them on photo stocks (sites with free images), there you can find the perfect image for the VK community cover. My favorite sites for finding beautiful photos are Unsplash and Pixabay.

I would like to encourage you to modify/enhance all selected photos to make them more personal. You can use the tools of online editors Fotor, Pablo or Canva. If you want, you can even improve your photography with these tools. For example, choose one of your favorite quotes and add it over the photo.

How to choose a cover

Now that we know how to make a cover for a VKontakte group, the question is what content to choose for it? Are there photos that work better than others?

Let's look at some important points:

Maintain the required cover dimensions (1590px width and 400px height);
Choose high quality images;
Don't overload the image with visual elements;
Choose a picture for the cover, focusing on the general design of the VKontakte group;
Use images that are original and relevant to your brand.

What type of images attract people

Here are some components that make images captivating:

Emotions: feelings make people act;
Relevance: including what suits the interests of your audience;
Colors: choosing the right colors leads to increased conversions;
Typography: Choosing the right font makes your message clear;
Hashtags and text: Find the right words that will provoke your audience to take the target action.

These components can be used when creating a VKontakte community cover to make people feel a certain way or take specific actions.

For example, Coca-Cola uses the common red logo on the cover with the caption “taste... feel”, and as a background a happy couple holding a drink. This is, of course, in the hope of getting people to make some kind of connection in the mind that drinking cola means happiness. And it's effective!

vk.com/cocacola

Where are people looking?

When coming up with the perfect cover, it can be interesting to look at some research. I managed to find something interesting on this issue. It is in English, but I will briefly convey the essence.

It has been found that if you want to draw attention to a specific element in an image, then, using the principle of visual queue, the gaze of the person in the photo looking at the element will direct the viewer to that place. This could be an interesting way to use a person's perspective in a VKontakte group cover.

Kissmetrics also found that adding an element that “pops” in the cover can be effective. The important thing is that there should be one such element and one that calls for action.

In the example below, Electronic Arts knows this and makes it clear to people that they can buy the new FIFA17 game.

vk.com/easportsfifa

Thinking outside the box

Covers for the VKontakte group have become a great way to express yourself, a way to stand out. Here are some original ways.

Using a famous personality in the design of a popular public page about startups

Changing the cover for special occasions, upcoming events, promotions or holidays

Using a Cover Page to Send People to Your Site

Using a Cover to Show Off Your Special Offer

Visitors are asked to join the group or write a message.

Examples of groups with high-quality covers

Now that we know how to make a good cover for a VKontakte group, we can take a look at some pages that use high-quality and simple images. We hope you find some inspiration in them.

vk.com/adsnews

vk.com/wbrussia

vk.com/sci_one

vk.com/businessgazeta

vk.com/cds

Because we now do custom work, we will be able to answer your questions about the design of social networks if you have them. Feel free to send them to our email or write them right here in the comments. Together we can make the perfect cover for your VKontakte group and increase the impact of your efforts to promote it.

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

The appearance of communities on social networks is very important. If the design doesn’t catch your eye at first glance, then visitors won’t even pay attention to it. This is why sometimes the most useful content does not find its audience. Today we’ll look at how to make a cover for a VKontakte group using online services or on a computer. When using this information, you not only transform your public page, but also attract new subscribers.

Image Options

The VK administration is constantly improving the appearance of its services, making it more beautiful and convenient for users. Thus, vertical avatars were replaced by horizontal background images in the community header. Moreover, now it is possible not only the classic static display, but the use of dynamic blocks with timers, exchange rates, CRM data and other modules.

For the two options, the size of the group cover in VK is the same. Minimum width and height 795 x 200 px. But the developers advise doubling the parameters of the source file - up to 1590 x 400 px. This allows the public to look equally good on a phone and a widescreen PC monitor.

When developing a design, you need to consider the location of the navigation buttons. The distance from the right edge is 66 px, the distance between them is 10 px, and the size of each is 157 px.

When searching for a picture, it is not necessary to maintain the specified proportions. It is important that the resolution is not less than specified. Below we describe how to adjust it to the required parameters.

Navigation elements should be positioned so that they are visible not only on the PC, but also on the phone. Therefore, let’s look at how to make a cover in a VK group for the mobile version. There are some size features:

196 px on each side simply goes beyond the limits of visibility.
The upper 83 px are occupied by service icons, where the clock, mobile operators and other information are displayed.
140 px on the sides are occupied by pop-up menu and message icons.

Only the 918 x 317 px area remains untouched. This is what you need to focus on.

The exact layout of all elements simplifies the work. But before approving the final version, it is better to publish the image and make sure that important parts are not overlapped by pop-up icons and panels. This helps make the community attractive to users of any device.

Choosing a background for the cover of a VK group

The background screen of your public page should be as consistent as possible with its content and inspire confidence among visitors. Good results are shown by the author's photographs. Pictures of machines in production, cakes in your kitchen or satisfied clients in a hairdressing salon “come in” better than hackneyed pictures from Yandex search. If there are no such materials, you can use a free stock photo database, for example, Unsplash. The service offers a huge selection. But key queries must be entered in English. A good Russian-language stock is Pixabay. But the number of freely available files is limited.

However, you don’t have to be a designer to do everything yourself. You just need to know the basic rules and techniques.

Not only the text reveals the theme. A suitable illustration does this itself. It is enough to bring to the fore a key event, event or person.

In recognizable niches, you can adhere to a minimalist strategy. The brand comes first. An abundance of inscriptions, on the contrary, can ruin everything. A fan interested in the logo begins to study the details himself.

People are also attracted to feelings and emotions. A couple in love in the background creates a calm atmosphere, and the bright red font conveys the necessary information.

With the help of a community cover on VK, you can stimulate people to take a targeted action. A pointer to the menu encourages visitors to explore sections of the public. And if you make an intriguing signature nearby, they begin to look for a mysterious solution and linger with you.

An arrow pointing to the subscribe button helps users stay with you further. However, you should not limit yourself to just visual highlighting. Already at the first stage of getting to know the audience, you can interest them with a benefit or bonus. A nice gift, a promise to solve a problem, or a catchy phrase stimulates action.

In this case, not only direct, but also indirect levers of influence on the target audience are suitable. Marketers' research on eye trails has shown that we tend to look where others are looking. This can also be used to our advantage to focus on the elements we need. Despite the bright, expressive image of the characters, we concentrate on the text even without direct reference to it.

The latest VK innovations – dynamic covers for the group – help make the page interactive. The community header contains blocks that change over time. These can be neutral elements: clocks, exchange rates, weather in the region. But most of all, photos of friends and acquaintances attract attention. The built-in modules “most active”, “best commentator” or “last subscriber” show the avatar of the distinguished person in the header. However, there are many possibilities. We'll talk about them in a separate article.

Color solutions play an important role. A correctly selected range of colors attracts the target audience just as well as a catchy slogan. This is actively used by marketers. Orange and yellow tones are characteristic of cheerful people. Green is associated with health, sustainability and money. Blue – symbolizes calm and reliability. It is preferable for the male half of the participants. Shades of red perfectly attract attention. Indispensable for promotions and sales. Using more than three colors will unfocus the eye. It is better to use color resonance, shades and halftones.

A current picture for the cover of a group on VK helps you get into trends. An upcoming event always attracts attention. Announce relevant events even if you are focused on a broader topic.

We design the community header

Professional web designers work in specialized applications: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Creative Cloud and others. But they are quite complex for novice users. Despite the abundance of functions and capabilities, beginners rarely use them. Often, only the functions of cropping and transforming images, overlaying text and pictures on top of the background layer remain in demand. All the same things can be easily done without installing resource-intensive programs.

Let's look at how to create a cover for a VK group in the online graphic editor canva. To work on it, register by e-mail or using social network buttons.
After authorization, click on the top right “Use special sizes” and set the parameters 1590 x 400px. Select a background template from the gallery presented on the website or upload your photo. If necessary, stretch it to the required size using the “handles” in the corners. All that remains is to add navigation and labels. The application is shareware, so all modules with the appropriate mark can be used without restrictions. Add text, logo, pointers, arrows and other elements you like.

After the final formatting of each part, we save the results to the hard drive by clicking “download”. The main part of the work is ready. Now let's look at how to add a cover to a VK group.

Setting up a community header

The old version of public pages uses an avatar. It is made in the form of a vertically elongated block, which forms the right sidebar. When changing the design, this arrangement changes to horizontal. But there are no corresponding switches in the settings. The change occurs automatically.
Through the “actions” menu, go to options. We go to the appropriate section and see the download button:

Specify the path to the background image on your hard drive. It occupies the position we need at the top of the public.
After reading the article, even beginners have no problems with how to upload a cover in a VK group. In this case, you create the background yourself. And knowledge of marketing techniques allows you to adapt it to the seasons, social events and global trends, thereby attracting even more visitors.

Surely you have already appreciated the innovation of the VKontakte network - the cover of public pages and communities. A fairly large photo banner that opens in front of the user the moment he enters the group. What is it for? The banner attracts attention and allows you to briefly and clearly tell about the community, its interests, and features. Often this is the factor that attracts the user to subscribe to the public page and further view its posts in the news feed. But how to make a group cover on VK so that it is beautiful and attractive? We will give you the most useful recommendations.

Correct community header

Before you make the cover of a group on VK, you need to decide: what will it have to express? We will give you some relevant tips to achieve your goal:

Unusuality. The cover is what your current or future subscriber sees first. If it contains a unique feature, surprises with its design, includes an interesting play on words, an intriguing story, then everything indicated will only benefit you. Many people use such an interesting cover format for the VK group as a continuation of what is depicted on it in the attached inscription on the wall.
Trends. The banner must be modern. As a last resort - classic. But not a “accordion” - it contains elements of what was once relevant in the Internet environment. Therefore, it is worth thinking about framing it in the spirit of the latest events discussed, a recently released film, and adding the participation of heroes of memes that are popular today. It goes without saying that the covers in this case need to be updated periodically.
Use easy psychological techniques to help you pay attention. For example, an image of a person looking in a certain direction - where you have placed important information - is quite effective.

What should a hat not be like?

Let's look at how to make a group cover on VK so that it does not evoke negative emotions among community visitors:

Nobody likes spam banners - memes with requests to join a group. In the overwhelming majority of cases, even if the idea is presented in a rather original way, users ignore the calls.
If you want to indicate in the header a list of the services you provide, then the idea is obviously a failure. Maybe it’s worth hinting at them intriguingly with comics, collages, photographs?
Indicating a contact phone number in the banner, or even worse, a link to another site, is tantamount to handing out leaflets at the crossing. No one will retype the link from the image into the address bar. It is better to dedicate a separate post to your contacts, a section that will always be visible to users, from where it is convenient and easy to copy the necessary information.

What should a good cover look like?

So, when creating, photographing or searching for the right stock image, keep the following in mind:

The community hat should contain an unspoken call to a certain action, emotion.
The image must be relevant to your audience.
Choose pleasant, calm colors or, on the contrary, bright, acidic colors - it all depends on the specifics of the group.
Don’t ignore the font either: don’t settle for boring “Word” variations, but don’t go towards writing that, due to its quirkiness, can be difficult to make out.
Don’t forget about the semantic load and the correct hashtags.

Now let's look at more specific variations:

Using an image of a famous person advertising your community or product.
The consonance of the hat with high-profile events, holidays, activities, promotions - both general and related only to your group.
The content of an unspoken attractive call to switch to another resource (make sure that the transition is easy and understandable for the user).
Placement in the header of a special offer, the main news of the public.

About cover size

As you noticed, the banner parameters are not standard when compared with the usual avatars. In order for the image you choose to look good, the size of the VK group cover should be as close as possible to 1590 x 400 pixels. Such parameters for a banner can be set in advance when creating it in a graphic editor.

When creating a collage, you need to consider how the picture will be reflected on subscribers’ devices, so as not to place the necessary information in areas that will be hidden:

In a computer browser - 795 x 200 pixels. The image is not cropped, but only compressed.
As for mobile devices, the header is displayed slightly differently. It is trimmed according to the width of the device screen. For example, if the latter is 400 pixels, then your cover image will be trimmed by 146 pixels on each edge. Add more space allocated for system buttons. Because of it, the banner will become 80-140 pixels narrower on each edge.

Easy cover creation

Let's look at the easiest way to make a group cover in VK:

Take a photo that somehow resonates with your community's theme.
Find a suitable stock image in Google, Yandex.Images, and other resources. Beautiful covers for a group on VK can be found using a similar request.
If you think that the image is too detached, then you can fill it with new elements and text in popular online editors such as Fotor, Pablo or Canva.

Creation in Photoshop

The best program for VK group covers and for visual design in general remains Photoshop. However, you should turn to its help if you are a fairly confident user and know how to create high-quality collages, process photos, cut out objects, work with layers, correction and filters. Otherwise, you risk getting a low-quality cover with a bunch of mistakes, which will not please or attract your potential audience.

So, having entered the program, click on “File”, then “Create”. For the cover it is better to set the following parameters:

Size: 1590 x 400 pixels.
Resolution: 72 pixels in 1 inch.
Color mode: RGB (8 bit).

And then there is room for creativity: create layers from stock or personal images, cut out certain objects, add text, use filters and program tools. The main thing is to have a clear plan in your head for what you want to get in the end.

How to set the cover in a group on VK?

Let's first figure out how to generally change the banner in the community of which you are the administrator:

Under your group's avatar, on the right side of the page, click on the three dots "..."
A drop-down window will appear in front of you. In it, select "Community Management".
An administrator window will open. Find the "Settings" section and click on it.
You will immediately see the line “Community Cover”. That's what we need.
How to add a cover to a VK group? Just click on "Download".
You will see brief recommendations on the image format and size of the VK group cover.
It is worth choosing a high-quality, high-resolution photo.
Here, as when choosing an avatar, you have the opportunity to choose which area of the image to place on the cover: use the mouse to move the bounding rectangle to stop at the most successful area. By the way, the photo can be turned upside down.
Be sure to click on “Save and Continue” on the cover window. Don't rush to close the page!
In the settings window, do not forget to click on “Save”.

Now you can look at what happened!

Editing the cover

We have also prepared a number of tips in case you want to edit, change, or delete an image. To do this, you just need to hover your mouse (if you are an administrator) over the banner. Three schematic prompts will appear:

"Upload" - installing a new photo. You already know how to add a cover to a VK group.
"Edit" - rotate the image, change the area that will be visible in the banner.
"Delete" - remove the existing cover.

We analyzed the creation and publication of the cover in the VKontakte group from idea to concrete implementation. We hope that these recommendations will help you create a wonderful banner!

I think many community leaders, and even ordinary subscribers, have repeatedly paid attention to dynamic VKontakte covers, who constantly update information in the community.

This is what a dynamic cover looks like.

It looks great both on computers and on mobile phones.

So, dynamic cover in VK- this is a fairly new type of content, which, unlike a simple avatar (), conveys all the relevant information necessary for community subscribers.

Why is it needed? Firstly, it looks very harmonious, and secondly, it updates absolutely any information right in the group in place of the avatar.

I tested all the services available today for creating dynamic covers and chose most effective, safe and also free.

List of widgets that can be installed on the group cover:

"Subscriber" widget- types of this widget: last subscriber, best commentator (in terms of number/likes), best liker (reposter), most active subscriber, any user specified by you;
Weather widget- displays the weather forecast of the selected city (there are icons + your own);
Text widget- displays any text written by you;
Widget "Text by ULR"- displays any text specified by URL (any statistics, changing phrase/quote, etc.)
Date and time widget- displays date and time (many settings);
Timer widget- starts a timer until any date or time (countdown to an important event);
Widget "Currency rates"- displays current information about exchange rates (huge selection of rates);
YouTube widget- displays a channel, video or video by link;
And a few more useful ones mini widgets;

A dynamic cover will also increase the activity of subscribers.

How to make a dynamic cover for a group in VK

To make it easier, I created step by step instructions using a specific example:

1. First of all, let's go to the service for creating dynamic covers using the link.

https://dycover.ru

2. On the page that opens, click on the button "Try for free".

3. We allow access to your VKontakte account.

Don't worry - it's completely safe;

5. Allow access to the group.

6. We connect the group to the service.

7. Now that the group is connected, you can create a cover image. That's what we do.

8. We indicate cover title and click on the “Create” button.

Dynamic covers for VKontakte groups

9. At this stage, load the background, insert any widgets and putting things in order Your dynamic cover.

I made a test cover in 3-4 minutes to check the functionality. With the right approach you can create gorgeous cover, spending very little time.

For now for free you can create a dynamic cover only for 1 group, with limited functionality.

Therefore, in personal account You can remove restrictions from the group for only 100 rubles per month .

This the most favorable conditions- prices on other services from 300 rubles ;