Video formats for Reels, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn: sizes, safe areas and reframing

Every platform wants a different shape of video. A good delivery is not one file resized five times — it is one master, reframed for each format, with the composition rebuilt each time.

The formats at a glance

Format	Typical size	Where it lives
9:16 vertical	1080 × 1920	Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, stories
4:5	1080 × 1350	Instagram and Facebook feeds, paid social
1:1 square	1080 × 1080	Feeds, ads, carousels
16:9 horizontal	1920 × 1080 (or 4K)	YouTube, websites, broadcast, presentations
2.39:1 cinema	for example 1920 × 804	Cinema, film festivals, documentaries

Platforms update their recommendations regularly, so check each platform’s current guide before delivery.

Safe areas: where the interface lives

On vertical video the app covers part of the picture with the username, the caption and the buttons. As a rule of thumb, keep faces and text out of roughly the top 15% and the bottom 25% of the frame, and always check against the platform’s current safe-zone guide.

Composition that survives the crop

• Eyes on the top-third line in every format, so the face sits where the viewer’s eye goes first.
• Room in front of the gaze: leave a little more space in the direction the subject looks.
• Shoulder to shoulder in 4:5: let the shoulders reach the edges of the frame for a confident portrait.
• Right-third placement in 16:9: the face on the right third, the room telling the story on the left.

Shoot once, deliver five times

Film in 4K and keep the subject in the centre of the frame. A 9:16 crop from a 3840 × 2160 frame is about 1215 × 2160 pixels — enough for a full 1080 × 1920 vertical delivery. The cost is that you must compose for the crop on set, not discover it in the edit.

More than the frame

Each platform also wants its own rhythm: a hook in the first seconds for Reels and TikTok, captions inside the safe area, longer holds for YouTube and broadcast. That is why the version for each platform is cut, not just cropped.

On this site, the deliver page of the edit room shows one master photograph reframed into all five formats, with the crop moving as you switch. Planning content for several platforms? Tell me what you need.