Icons and Names for Facebook and Instagram Effects
Effect icons represent your effect in the camera. You'll upload your icon along with your effect once it's ready to publish.
Icons for Facebook effects should always use the templates we provide. For Instagram effects the template can be useful, but it’s ok to make your icon without it. Either way, you should always follow the guidelines on this page. Otherwise, your effect can be rejected.
There are different templates and guidelines depending on whether you're submitting an effect to Facebook, or Instagram.
Effect icons for Instagram
You can use our template file to get started. It looks like this:
Guidelines
Your icon should clearly represent the effect.
When you're using the template:
- Artwork should stay within the outermost green line shown on the template.
- Most of the artwork should fit in the red circle on the template.
- If your icon uses a face, use the template provided and only use your own face - not someone else's.
Before you submit your icon, make sure that:
- It's a PNG or JPG file.
- Layers have been flattened.
- It has square, not rounded corners.
- The color space is sRGB.
- The dimensions are a minimum of 200 x 200 pixels.
- It doesn't include any transparency.
- It doesn't use any of the Instagram color gradients, below.
Including text
Avoid including too much text - it will be difficult to read on a phone screen. If your icon does use words or logos, they should:
- Not include the name of your Instagram account or the effect name. Instagram will already display this information when the effect is being used.
- Be large, clear and readable.
Examples
These icons follow our guidelines, and our best practice suggestions:
Best practice for Instagram and Facebook
Creating an expressive and memorable icon will help people notice and recognize your effect.
Whether you're publishing an effect to Facebook or Instagram, icons should:
- Have simple shapes, sharp lines and bright colors.
- Focus on representing the main theme of your effect - rather than all the detail in the full effect.
- Have a simple background.
- Capture the essence of the effect - to give people a good idea of what will happen when they use it.
It's worth testing how your icon looks at the actual size, on a mobile device.
Effect icons for Facebook
Icons for effects shared on Facebook won't be used for attribution in News Feed.
Icon formatting guidelines
Your icon should clearly represent the effect.
Before you submit your icon, make sure:
- It's a JPG file for icons with no transparency, or a PNG with transparency turned on.
- The file size is no bigger than 1MB.
- You've used the square icon provided in the template file.
- It's a maximum of 480x480 pixels square and 72ppi.
- Most of the artwork fits in the red circle on the template.
If you've used text or a logo, keep in mind that text legibility is very limited. It's likely most people won't be able to read the text properly.
Provide a short alternative text label for your icon
This makes your effect more accessible to people with visual impairments, who are using screen readers. These labels aren't visible on-screen.
Instagram effect names
Effect names must have 20 characters or less. This includes numbers, spaces, currency, punctuation and any other symbols.