If a picture paints a thousand words, and so does a company logo.
It speaks volumes about your business without saying a word. And why not? It’s the very foundation of your brand identity that grabs attention and makes a lasting first impression.
Your company logo separates you from the crowd and what people remember about your business.
“Oh, that’s Harry’s Shoe Store!” Or that’s “Sally’s Bakeshop.” - with people seeing your logo on social media, print, or website.
It says everything about you and connotes (you guessed it) feelings of excellence, pride, honor, and integrity.
Thus, a logo design must be precise and meaningful because it connects you with your consumers, fans, and communities and dramatically impacts how your audience perceives your company.
So, if you’re here and ready to create a logo for a business, the burning question is, “What is the right logo size?”
The short answer: It’s different across platforms.
Standard Logo Size
Logo and branding come hand in hand. Hence, you need the correct file size so your logo displays appropriately on where you’re uploading it. Here are logo size guidelines to follow.
Logo Sizing Basics
A brand logo is unique and memorable but can become a mess if displayed in the wrong size.
That’s why you’ll need logo variations to ensure it fits perfectly wherever you upload it.
This leads me to my next point.
Whether you display it in print or on a billboard, you’ll need a scalable graphic design that looks detailed, clean, and vibrant (not blurry or pixelated).
Consider a logo design in different shapes/variations—stacked (vertical), landscape (horizontal), and icon (or brand marks, submarks, or symbol)—so that you can place it on a billboard, website, social media page, and more.
PNG is the best file type for a logo and is excellent for web uses, websites, and social media because it supports transparency. Just remember not to go over 200KB for fast load times.
Vector files (SVG, PDF) are valuable for scalability. They can be resized or reformatted to PNGs or JPGs - without losing quality. You can create them in Adobe Illustrator and convert them into the file format you need.
Pixels refer to dimensions in width and height (e.g., 500 x 500 px), and bytes are file sizes: kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), and gigabytes (GB). What appears on the screen is “resolution” (total number of pixels).
Meanwhile, PPI (pixels per inch or pixel density) is the number of pixels that appear per inch, measuring an image’s quality. The higher its value, the more precise the image will be.
On paper, we measure clarity through dots per inch (DPI), determining the dots of ink for the logo’s printed version.
Other things to remember about logo and design
As we discussed, scalability is essential.
A scalable logo doesn’t lose its authenticity because… well, it never becomes pixelated. It allows you to adjust its resolution, application, and sizes for the logo design.
And one more thing.
It is better to downsize a large logo than to upsize a small logo.
Upsizing a small file can lead to pixelation and poor-quality results.
Lastly, create your brand guidelines outlining how and where your logo can be displayed and what logo sizes to use for consistency and cohesiveness.
Logo sizes for websites
Logos are often displayed in a website's header/banner and favicon. Here are the basic guidelines you need to know.
Headers
The header logo, typically rectangular and small, is in the upper left corner of a browser window, although other companies add it in the top center of their page.
Create a logo that is the right size logo for your website so that it displays properly. The exact logo dimensions depend on the framework you’re using. In most cases, a standard baseline is 250 x 100 pixels.
Other website header logo size variations:
- 160 x 160 pixels (square for vertical layouts)
- 1024 x 768 pixels (for a full header logo)
- 350 x 75 pixels
- 400 x 100 pixels
- 250 x 150 pixels
Favicon
It’s the small, scaled-down logo displayed in the browser tab, helping users identify a website. It can also be your logo’s derivative variation, but it is still recognizable in your branding.
- 16 x 16 pixels
- 32 x 32 pixels
- 48 x 48 pixels
Logo Sizes for Social Media
Pay careful attention to the formatting of your business logo design sizes for social media platform to ensure they always display appropriately. For instance, consider a monogram version of your logo if you’re using a wordmark logo.
YouTube
- Recommended file type: JPG, PNG, GIF, or BMP
- Channel profile picture: 800 x 800 pixels
- Recommended file type: PNG
- Cover photo: 820 x 310 pixels
- Profile photo: 180 x 180 pixels
- Recommended file type: JPEG
- Profile Photo: 110 x 110 pixels
NOTE: An Instagram profile photo is displayed circularly. If some elements will be cropped out, use an icon or monogram logo version.
TikTok
- Recommended file type: JPG or PNG
- Profile photo: At least 20 x 20 pixels
- Recommended file type: GIF, PNG, or JPG
- Background picture: 1584 x 396 pixels
- Profile picture: 400 x 400 pixels
- Up to 10MB
X
- Recommended file type: GIF, PNG, or JPG
- Profile picture: 400 x 400 pixels
- Up to 5 MB
- Recommended file type: JPG or PNG
- Profile picture: 165 x 165 pixels
- Up to 10 MB
Google My Business
- Recommended file type: JPG or PNG
- Profile picture: 720 x 720 pixels with a minimum resolution of 250 x 250 pixels
- Up to 5 MB
TIP
We recommend PNG files for social media posting! These files support transparency and are higher quality than JPEGs (JPEGs are good for photos, but for social media logos? No).
Logo sizes for print
Your logo must be formatted appropriately whenever you print it for advertising or merchandise.
Use an SVG file, which retains its quality whether you upsize or downsize it. Different logo variations are valuable, allowing you to format it per channel or space.
And remember, digital formats use red, blue, and green (RGB), while print uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). We recommend CMYK in logo design because it can be easily converted to RGB.
Standard Logo Sizes for Print Include:
- Mugs: Standard 11 oz mug: 7.5 in x 3 inches
- Business cards: 3.5 in x 2 inches (US Standard)
- Hats: 3-3.5 inches wide (*Hat types and sizes vary)
- T-shirts: 14 inches x 15 inches (Max size for the print area) or 4 ⅜ inches x 5 ⅜ inches for a logo on the chest pocket
- Tote bags: Depending on the bag (but the ideal is 14 inches x 16 inches)
Logo sizes for email signatures
Adding your logo to an email signature appears professional and enhances your branding effort.
We recommend a logo image file size of 320 pixels by 70 -100 pixels maximum for email signatures.
To ensure the logo is optimized for mobile devices, use a PNG file format of no more than 10KB. However, depending on your email service, you can follow their guidelines for the correct size.
Logo variations and lockups
You can take advantage of having multiple logo variations. Use typography (wordmark) and image (unique symbol) together or separately for branding.
Logo variations
- Color: transparent background, multi or full color, white, black, or inverse
- Wordmarks and symbols (logo lockups) can be logos with or without slogans, monograms, symbols, or full logos.
FAQs
What is a logo’s standard size?
200-300 pixels wide is a good foundation for a logo size. It’s visible and large enough to display correctly on most devices and screens, although not too large to consume much space.
What size should a PNG logo be?
PNGs are common for company logos because of their lossless compression and support for transparency.
The size depends on the use case. Ideally, it must be 500x500 pixels for websites and 250x250 pixels for social media.
However, for print, something larger, like 1000x1000 pixels, is recommended.
Should I use JPG or PNG for my logo?
We recommend a PNG file for business logo design because, again, it supports transparency and lossless compression, retaining their quality without any pixelation at any size.
What is the aspect ratio of a logo size?
It is the ratio of the logo’s width to its height. 1:1 is an ideal aspect ratio, but 3:2 or 4:3 are also good.
What is the size of a high-resolution logo?
It is typically 300 dpi, which is ideal for printing and optimization.
I’m printing my logo on a shirt. What’s the right size?
It depends on the logo's placement and the t-shirt's size. A size of 3-4 inches wide is a good reference point.
What logo size should I use on a business card?
A size of 1 to 1.5 inches (25-38 mm) wide may be enough, but it depends on your business card’s design. But in all cases, the logo must not overcrowd the design.
What is the logo size for a billboard?
Generally, it’s between 3 and 6 feet or 0.9 and 1.8 meters in height, depending on the billboard size. For maximum impact, the logo must occupy 10-20% of the total area.
Final Thoughts
It takes strategy, careful planning, and A LOT of creativity to create an eye-catching, memorable, and unique logo design for brand identity.
Once you’ve created a fantastic company logo, optimize it for all platforms where you will upload and display it. To ensure the file size is perfect for all your needs, use
Logogenie, the best logo maker that helps bring your ideas to life with memorable, eye-catching brand logos. Try it today!
