Title banner proportions

[Klausus]

What proportions should i chose for my title banner when i made a game release?
The banners of other games are not clickable, therefore i have no clue

 

[LightmanP]

21:9 preferably since that is the aspect ratio used for images in Latest Updates page.

 

[MissFortune]

The answer above is basically right. Just to be slightly more specific, 1600 (w) x 400 (h) are the dimensions used by most devs and is used above for both the banner and cover image. Anything similar should look good, though. But 21:9 certainly, as mentioned, fits the Latest Updates page the best.

 

[79flavors]

Do you mean for the "Latest Updates" pages here on F95?

This being what is shown today.



I don't know if thumbnails are generated using the game's cover image or not. Some looks like they are, but since I've never uploaded a game - I'm not sure.
According to the Game Uploading Rules, the only restriction is that cover image should be a maximum of 500KB (or 5MB for an animated GIF). I don't see anything specific about the banner image.

Each banner thumbnail is roughly* 310px x 106px (which would be an aspect ratio of 155:53).

* I say "roughly" because I'm working from browser screenshots and manually dragging sizing boxes around things. My aim or my eyesight could be slightly off.

Taking two games at random, Kronos Time Titan and Dawn of Malice, these are their cover images:

Kronos Time Titan (1920 x 480 @ 329KB - ratio 4:1).​

​

​

Dawn of Malice (1280 x 720 @ 196KB - ratio 16:9).​

​

As you can see, neither really have an aspect ratio that matches the generated banner thumbnail, but the Dawn of Malice image is probably the easier of the two to explain (assuming the F95 is using some automated tool)...

The cover image is resized to be roughly 310px wide. But the resulting image is too tall. The resizing tool aligns itself along the center line of the image and crops it above and below that center line in order to create an image of the correct dimensions.




Now it could be the author uploaded a cover image and a banner image separately. Or it could be that the banner thumbnail was generated by resizing the cover image. Checking a few games with animated banner images, the first image (presumably the cover image) of the thread is also animated... leading me to think it's an automated tool. I somewhat doubt it could crop a GIF file at top/bottom though. Whatever the tool is, it's capable of cropping GIFs too. (See: Ice Maze).

4:1 is certainly a good starting point, with images of 1920x480 ,1600x400 or 1200x300 being reasonable examples.

Though if you want to stick to the 310x106 guideline I mentioned earlier... perhaps 1920x660, 1400x480 or 1280x440 are sizes to aim for. Though personally, I think I'd aim for a 1920x1080 cover image - with special attention to the 1920x660 middle part of the image that could end up being the thumbnail when it is cropped.

Edit:

It seems the banner is something entirely separate from what I've been describing and is unused by most games on the recent updates list.
Where a banner has been added for the game, it is shown as a 1200x300 image (ratio 4:1) behind the game details.

So for a game that includes it (like What A Legend), it looks like this:


But a game that hasn't added a specific banner (like Pale Carnations), it looks like this:


So it looks like there are 3 images that you should care about, here on F95:

• The banner (ratio 4:1 ... 1200x300, 1600x400, 1920x480, 2160x540.
• The cover image (any size, but ideally at least 1280px wide). Max size 500KB (or 5MB for animated GIF).
• The thumbnail (~310x106 - generated by resizing and cropping the cover image).

 

[mickydoo]

My patreon banner is 2335x889. Reason is you cannot right click and save patreon banners so I used snagit and copied it and just put mine over the top of it photoshop.

I use the same banner on here, the sight resizes it to around 1000x250, once again I had to use snagit as I cannot download it unless its full size.

I just picked a random Latest one, click on it and saved it, its 1356x291.

In all my life on forums etc, banners, sigs, avatars, I just download someone else's and put mine on top in photoshop the same size.

 

[79flavors]

Wait, so how do you then add that banner image? I can't find anything about it in the uploading rules or the templates. Only the cover art is mentioned there. Or maybe I'm missing it.

Keep in mind, I'm not an author or forum admin in any way. So the information I rely on is inferred from other people's posts.

If memory serves, the title banner is the image shown "behind" the game's information (like name, tags, etc.). It is added by the thread owner and is an option on the "topic info bar" normally shown when you create a new thread (or edit the top post if you are the owner). For we mere mortals, that includes the thread subject, tags, etc. But within the games forum, there's also an option to add a title banner (I believe). Obviously, since I'm not a thread owner in that forum, I personally have never seen it - but I think I saw a screenshot of someone else who was asking about it. I'm guessing so few games use it, because it can only be added/edited after the thread is created by the thread owner. The uploaders/mods will just create a thread, it's likely only the game's author (when they ask for thread ownership) will be interested enough to add a custom title image.

The cover image is the first image within the post itself. It is shown in full.

The thumbnail (shown on the main "latest releases" page) is just a copy of the cover image. It is automatically resized down to a thumbnail size. If the resulting image is too "tall", it is cropped around the center line to be the correct height (in effect, losing the top and bottom portions of the image). A clever artist would make use of this.

I may be mixing up the terms "cover image" and "title image". Because I haven't seen the edit box, I can't confirm if my terms are the correct ones. But I'm think I'm correct, based on the info in the uploading rules or the template mentioned within there.