Your headshot appears in dozens of places, and each one has different requirements. LinkedIn crops to a circle. Email signatures display at postage-stamp size. Business cards need print resolution. Slack shows a 36-pixel thumbnail in the sidebar.

Using the same uncropped photo everywhere means it looks great in one place and wrong in several others. This guide covers what each platform needs and how to optimize for it.

What size headshot do I need for LinkedIn?

LinkedIn requires a minimum of 400x400 pixels but recommends 800x800 pixels for optimal quality. Your headshot displays at 400x400 on your profile page and smaller in feeds and search results. LinkedIn uses a circular crop, so center your face and keep important details like your chin and top of head within the middle 70% of the frame to avoid edge cutoff.

The circular crop is the critical factor most people miss. A perfectly framed square photo can lose your ears, forehead, or chin once LinkedIn applies the circle mask. Test your photo before uploading by viewing it in a circular preview tool or temporarily setting it as your profile picture to verify the crop works.

What are the headshot requirements for different platforms?

Each platform has unique specs. LinkedIn needs 800x800 pixels (circle crop). Email signatures work best at 300x300 (displays at 80-120px). Slack recommends 512x512. Business cards require 300 DPI at print size. Twitter wants 400x400. The key is starting with a high-resolution source file (at least 800x800 pixels) so you can export multiple crops and sizes from one original without quality loss.

Most platforms use circular crops for profile photos (LinkedIn, Twitter, Slack), so plan your composition with that in mind. Business cards and speaker bios typically use rectangular crops, giving you more creative framing options. Keep backgrounds simple and solid-colored since they compress poorly at small display sizes.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is where most professional headshots live, and it's the platform where your photo has the most measurable impact. Profiles with headshots get 14x more views than those without.

Specs:

• Recommended: 800x800 pixels minimum
• Display: 400x400 on profile, smaller in feeds and search results
• Crop: Circular
• File size: Under 8MB
• Format: JPG or PNG

Style guidance: LinkedIn is the most conservative professional platform. Clean background, direct eye contact, professional attire appropriate to your industry. This isn't the place for creative expression. It's the place for credibility.

The circular crop means anything near the edges gets cut off. Center your face and keep important details (chin, top of head) well within the center 70% of the frame.

For the complete guide, see Best AI Headshot for LinkedIn.

Email Signatures

Email signature photos are the smallest display context for your headshot. They typically render at 80-120 pixels wide. At that size, only the basics read: your face, your general coloring, and whether you look professional.

Specs:

• Source file: 300x300 pixels minimum
• Display: 80-120 pixels wide
• Format: JPG (smaller file size for email delivery)
• File size: Under 100KB to avoid slow loading

Style guidance: Tight face crop. Remove any background that becomes an indistinguishable blur at small sizes. High contrast between face, clothing, and background ensures the image reads clearly even at thumbnail size.

Avoid anything visually complex. At 100 pixels wide, subtle lighting nuances and background gradients turn into visual noise.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Email Signature.

Slack and Teams

Workplace chat platforms show your headshot in two contexts: the sidebar (tiny) and the profile panel (larger). The sidebar thumbnail is often 36-48 pixels. At that size, you need to be recognizable, not beautiful.

Specs:

• Recommended: 512x512 pixels
• Sidebar display: 36-48 pixels
• Profile panel: 128-256 pixels
• Format: JPG or PNG

Style guidance: High contrast matters most. Your face should be distinguishable from the background even at 36 pixels. Solid backgrounds outperform busy ones. If your team uses Slack all day, your photo is seen hundreds of times. Make it recognizable.

Consider using a slightly different crop than your LinkedIn photo so people don't mix up contexts when they see your face in the sidebar.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Slack.

Business Cards

Business cards require print-resolution images. This is the one context where a low-resolution AI headshot or phone crop won't cut it.

Specs:

• Resolution: 300 DPI minimum at print size
• Typical print size: 1x1.5 inches (300x450 pixels at 300 DPI)
• Color space: CMYK for offset printing, RGB for digital printing
• Format: TIFF or high-quality JPG
• Bleed: Add 0.125 inches on all sides if the photo extends to the card edge

Style guidance: Simple compositions work best at business card size. Your face should fill most of the photo area. Detailed backgrounds become muddy at small print sizes. Text readability near the photo matters: ensure the background doesn't compete with contact information printed alongside it.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Business Card.

Speaker Bios and Conference Programs

Conference organizers request headshots for programs, event apps, speaker pages, and promotional materials. Requirements vary, but most want something that looks good in both digital and print contexts.

Specs:

• Resolution: 600x600 pixels minimum (many request higher)
• Format: JPG or PNG (high quality)
• Orientation: Portrait, head-and-shoulders
• Background: Clean, non-branded (your headshot shouldn't advertise your employer on a multi-speaker panel)

Style guidance: Speaker headshots benefit from slightly more energy than a standard corporate headshot. You're being presented as someone worth listening to. Confident expression, slightly more dynamic framing. But still professional — the photo appears next to your credentials.

Remove any company branding from the background. If you're speaking at a competitor's conference, a branded backdrop creates an awkward visual.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Speaker Bio.

Social Media (General)

Cross-platform consistency matters if you use your professional identity across multiple social networks. Your headshot should be recognizable whether someone sees it on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, or your personal website.

Specs (vary by platform):

• X/Twitter: 400x400 recommended, circular crop
• Instagram: 320x320 minimum, circular crop
• Facebook: 170x170 display on desktop, circular crop
• YouTube: 800x800 recommended

Style guidance: Choose one headshot and use it everywhere. If your LinkedIn photo is blue-background and your X photo is outdoor, people don't connect the two. Consistent visual identity builds recognition.

If you use social media for both professional and personal contexts, consider two photos: professional headshot for LinkedIn and work-related platforms, slightly warmer version for personal accounts.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Social Media.

Company Website Team Pages

Company team pages have a unique constraint: your headshot has to look good individually AND match the visual consistency of 5-50 other headshots on the same page.

Specs:

• Resolution: 800x800 pixels minimum
• Display: Varies by design (typically 200-400 pixels)
• Format: JPG or PNG
• Crop: Often circular in modern templates

Style guidance: Consistency trumps individual quality. Matching backgrounds, similar framing, similar lighting style across all team members. An AI headshot generator achieves this automatically since each person's photo is generated with the same style parameters.

For the complete guide, see Company Website Headshots.

Book Jackets

Author photos for book covers have the strictest print requirements of any headshot use case. The photo must hold up at 300 DPI reproduction and look good in both color and black-and-white.

Specs:

• Resolution: 300 DPI at print size (minimum 5x7 inches source)
• Format: TIFF or high-quality JPG
• Color space: CMYK for print
• Both color and B&W versions

For the complete guide, see Book Jacket Author Photo.

Dating Apps

Not strictly professional, but many people repurpose professional headshots for dating profiles or want a headshot that works in both contexts. The key difference: dating photos benefit from more warmth and personality than corporate headshots.

For the complete guide, see Headshot for Dating Apps.

Quick Reference: Dimensions by Platform

One Headshot, Every Platform

Narkis.ai generates high-resolution headshots that work across every platform. Download multiple crops and sizes from one session: tight crop for email signatures, wider framing for LinkedIn, print-ready resolution for business cards.

For a complete overview of professional headshots, see our professional headshots guide.