Instagram grid maker

The posting order is the whole trick

Instagram puts the newest post top-left and pushes everything else right and down. A split image therefore has to be uploaded backwards: bottom-right tile first, top-left tile last. Each tile here is numbered with its posting position, so you can work down the list without thinking about it. Get it wrong and there is no reordering feature — the only fix is deleting the posts and starting again.

Choosing an image that survives the cut

• Start big. A 3×3 grid is 3240×3240 pixels at full quality. A small image stretched to fill it will look soft on every tile.
• Keep faces and text away from the seams. Instagram draws a thin gap between posts, so anything crossing a tile edge is visibly interrupted. Use the zoom and offset controls to move the cut lines onto empty space.
• Assume each tile is seen alone too. Followers meet the tiles one at a time in the feed, where a fragment with no context passes by unnoticed. Grids work best when each piece is at least interesting on its own.

What it costs you

A grid locks your next three, six or nine slots and only pays off on the profile page, which is a small share of where your posts get seen. It is worth it for a launch or a profile refresh, and rarely worth it as a running format.