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The appearance of any service is very important to create a positive mood, attract people, convenience, etc. Social networks cannot be considered an exception either. A few years ago, new design options appeared in VK groups - covers. Moreover, some developers propose creating dynamic blocks at the top of public pages with exchange rates, time, changing data, weather, etc. CRM and other modules.
Many users ask questions: how to make a header at the top of a VKontakte group, what size should it be, are there ready-made templates, can they be found in PSD, how to add (install) it? Let's sort it out in order.
Some administrators still prefer the old view at the top of the public page - an avatar with one pinned post. When using an image with a maximum size of 200x500, the image size in the pinned post should be 510x308 pixels. Instead of a picture, you can attach a video that will continue the avatar stylistically. If a separate header is installed, the avatar will become a miniature (a round picture cropped from the avatar).
- The header (cover) must have one of two sizes - 795x200px or 1590x400 pixels.
- The second format allows you to beautifully design a VK group for viewing on large monitors.
- The upper part is created in any graphic editor, which we will talk about a little later.
- To prevent the image from being distorted, when saving it in Photoshop, you need to use the “Save for WEB” tool, where you select sRGB. This manipulation will get rid of the ripples.
- What images and texts should you use?
How to make a menu for a VK group in a new design
The process of designing a VKontakte group menu consists of the following steps:
- Preparing a list of menu links (this could be pages, community sections or external sites).
- Preparing the background image.
- Applying inscriptions and menu “buttons” to the background image.
- Cutting an image into parts.
- Enable wiki page.
- Loading a graphical menu and formatting it with wiki markup.
The background image should be 510 pixels wide, and the height depends on the number and placement of menu items. To work with images, you will need a raster graphics editor; below are examples using the free and lightweight Paint.Net.
You should immediately plan the placement of menu items so that the picture can be cut into fragments of the same size. This is important for the menu to scale properly on the screen of smartphones or tablets.
Vertical menu of the VK community with items in one column
Open the image in the editor. Using the editor's "Text" tool, write the menu items on top of the background. To make menu labels visible, they can be highlighted in several ways:
- Circle it with a frame;
- Change the background color under the letters;
- Add a shadow to the letters.
In the screenshot below, each item is highlighted in one of the following ways.
The next step is cutting the image into parts:
- Add another layer.
- In a new layer, draw three lines dividing the image into equal parts.
- Turn on the Magic Wand tool and click on one of the areas.
- Switch to the image layer and copy the selected area to the clipboard.
- Create a new image and paste it into it from the clipboard.
- Save this image as a separate file.
- Repeat the previous 4 points for each fragment.
The process of cutting an image can also be performed using a convenient online tool www.imgonline.com.ua/cut-photo-into-pieces.php.
Next, in the “Community Management” menu, go to the “Sections” item and in the “Materials” item, select “Restricted” (this means that only the group administrator can create and edit pages).
Click save and go to the main group. Near the section with information about the group, a “Latest News” item appeared.
Go to this section and click edit. Change the title to “Menu” and then click on the camera icon to add an image.
Click on the added image and in the properties window specify the link to the desired section.
VKontakte automatically reduces images to 400 pixels and inserts extra tags. To fix this you need to go to markup editing mode.
Each image tag begins with “[[” and ends with “]]” and consists of three parts separated by “|”: the image ID, properties, and link. You need to adjust the size of the pictures and insert the “nopadding” tag into their properties. The properties of pictures are listed through “;”.
After saving the changes, menu creation is complete.
What size should the cover be in VK?
The recommended cover size for a VKontakte group is 1590x400 pixels . However, community owners can use graphics in other sizes. For example, when viewing a public page from a computer, the cover is displayed in size 795x200 pixels. For mobile device users, the community header adjusts to the screen size.
A universal cover that will be displayed equally on both computers and mobile devices.
Smartphone users see a “cropped” version of community covers - 190–200 pixels are cut off on the sides. When creating graphics for the VKontakte public page, do not forget about this feature, otherwise the call to action or logo will be cut off, and this will negatively affect both the brand and conversion.
When creating a cover for my VKontakte community, I did not take into account the recommendations of the social network, so on smartphones the cover is cropped.
If you took a photo or found a picture in a photo bank that perfectly describes your business, but does not correspond to the recommended VKontakte sizes, do not be discouraged. Such graphics can also be placed on the cover of the community - just specify the visible area and crop the image in the built-in editor of the social network.
What should be on the cover of a community
When creating a “header” for a VKontakte group, remember that it should contain only basic information and nothing superfluous. If you receive clients in offices, be sure to indicate on the cover the addresses, telephone numbers and opening hours of the branches. If you are going to sell any goods through the public, for example, original soft toys, demonstrate them in the “header”.
Use the following guide if you are unsure of what elements to place on your community cover:
- Title. Don't overdo it with creativity. Potential subscribers should immediately understand from the title where they are and what useful information they can get from the public page.
- Subtitle. With its help, you can decipher or supplement the title. Try to be concise in your wording.
- Logo. If your company has a beautiful and high-quality logo, place it in the group header. This element will increase awareness of your brand.
- Contact details. You can also indicate your phone number or email on the cover of the group. For example, if you deliver food to your home and your company has a single phone number for receiving orders, place it in the header.
- Photo by target audience. Another way to convey to a future subscriber that the group will be useful to him. However, before posting a photo or picture with your target audience, do not forget to conduct an analysis and draw up portraits of potential clients.
- Product photo. If you are going to sell products through public, use high-quality photographs of the products in the header.
To help you better understand how to properly design the cover of a VKontakte group, look at successful and unsuccessful examples.
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Examples of good and bad covers for a VKontakte group header
Let's start with successful examples. The owners of this public have done a great job with the graphics - the cover contains a title, subtitle, logo, contact information, USP and a call to action.
Another example of a successful cover. The “header” is not overloaded with information - it only contains the title, logo and product photos. Detailed information about the community's activities is posted in the status.
Laconic, simple and tasteful. There is nothing superfluous on the cover. All the necessary information - hours and work schedule, address, contact numbers - are indicated in the community information.
Not a very good example of a VKontakte group cover. Yes, the header contains contact numbers, a title and subtitle, a logo and a USP. It’s just not entirely clear in which cities the company operates and what services it provides. There is no decoding in the community status either. Future subscribers will have to read the text in the public information to understand whether they need the company’s services or not.
Another example of a bad cover. The community administrator decided to put all the information in a “header” and ended up with a deadly mixture. Moreover, on a smartphone the cover is cut off on the sides - the user will not see the list with the assortment, contact information and part of the logo.
Now that you roughly understand how to make a VK group cover and what to place on it, it’s time to move on to practice. And the simple and free online editor Canva will help you with this.
Article on the topic: A complete guide to the VKontakte article editor
How to create a cover for a group on VK online
To create an elegant cover, you don't always need to download all kinds of programs. There is a convenient and multifunctional online service canva.com. Its wide range of advantages helps you painlessly make a hat for a VK group online in a few minutes.
1. Register first. Select 1 of 5 registration topics. Depending on your choice, the service will provide you with current templates. Further registration is very simple and consists of 3 options:
- via facebook;
- google account;
- standard via login - password.
2. Selecting a template and Adding your team - you can skip it as this can be done later. And since VK is not yet in the templates, on the “I want to create...” page, click “More types of designs.”
3. Click “Custom sizes” and specify the already familiar VK header sizes.
4. After moving to the “downloads” tab, click “Upload image”. Select the desired picture.
5. Afterwards, click on the downloaded image and it will appear in compressed form on the working field. Using black dots, stretch it to the desired size.
6. Filling. Canva offers a large set of features that will add a special twist to your cover:
- Elements is a collection of colorful additions.
- Text has a huge selection of fonts, but not the entire range works on the Russian keyboard.
- Background - gives you the opportunity not to use your own picture, choosing one of the proposed backgrounds or filling it with the color you like.
7. After preparation, in the recommended format, click “download”.
After these 7 steps, a free online cover created for the VK community is already subject to publication.
Canva helps create a beautiful header for a VK group, which has a very simple interface. Even a child can figure it out. And having understood all the intricacies and capabilities of the service, you can get a very original and stylish hat for your group.
Header sizes on VKontakte public in a new design
After the redesign of this social network took place, a new design element appeared - the cover. This is a large landscape image measuring 1590 by 400 pixels. The header for the VKontakte group is a static image. Large enough to place on it a bright, memorable photograph or picture and the name of the public, the company slogan, the name of the site, work schedule and other inscriptions.
How to make a header for a VKontakte group yourself
In order for the community header to look beautiful, all its graphic components must be designed in the same style (set of colors, logos, fonts) or be part of the same picture. When creating a VKontakte group yourself, the first step is to prepare a background image. This could be a thematic picture from free photo banks (for example, pixabay.com).
Open the image in a graphics editor. Crop or scale to size: length 1590 px, height 400 px.
Next, you can apply the necessary inscriptions (group name, slogan, call to join the community). Now you need to upload the cover to the community; to do this, go to the “Community Management” menu item:
Click on “Download” in the “Community Cover” field.
In the next window, select the cover file previously prepared on your computer and click “Save and Continue.”
Now your group will have a new cover. Keep in mind that in this case the vertical picture of the large avatar on the right will no longer be shown.
Recommendations for choosing an image for the header:
- The picture or photo must correspond to the theme of the community.
- Use high quality images.
- Do not violate other people's copyrights in images (currently, free stocks offer a large number of photographs and illustrations).
- Don't overload the cover with details.
- If you place a photo of a person on the header, it is better that he looks not at the visitor, but at the most important element on the page (menu, website address, message about a promotion, call).
- Use high-quality fonts and ensure that the text is legible at any scale.
