Twitter Background Templates

I have designed and redesigned my Twitter background a few times, and I know how much “fun” it can be.  I especially hated that I always had to upload my background to actually see what it looked like and if I had correctly positioned things on the page properly for the most OPTIMIZED look.  So, I decided to go ahead and make myself a template designed to help me easily create aesthetically pleasing Twitter backgrounds optimized for 1280×1024 (the most common resolution to optimize Twitter around, and the same resolution that I generally surf the web in as well) displays.  I decided that if I could create myself a template that “matched” (I knew that there would be SLIGHT variations in browser displays: firefox, internet explorer, opera, etc.) the layout and dimensions of Twitter, I would know exactly how much “real estate” I had to work with during my design process.  I figured that this could drastically reduce my edit times, and help me to ensure that things were going to look the way I wanted them to BEFORE I uploaded to Twitter and hoped for the best!

When I finished creating myself a little “template” image at 1280×1024, I looked over my handy work and thought, “Dude, I think this could help a lot of people!”  So at that, I decided to continue slaving away and to “spread the wealth.”  I decided I would whip up several templates optimized for 1280×1024 displays, but with the template itself being various sizes: 1920×1200, 1440×900, 1680×1050, etc.  I figured this way PRO DESIGNERS (of which, I am most definitely not one) could use my templates to comply with their customers’ requests, while at the same time ensuring that the background remained optimized for the majority of the eyes that would see it.  This would also give them a nice visual aid when they have those pesky customers who say, “It doesn’t look right on my screen.” While that customer is using a widescreen 26″ Dell display at 1680×1050 to do their surfing, when the vast majority of users will not be.  This would allow you to say, “OK, here’s your image at 1680×1050, but as you can see anything to the right of this point, or below this point is going to be unseen by most web surfers.  You want to make sure that what we build is going to look best for the majority of your visitors, right?”

Template @ 1920×1200 Optimized for 1280 Viewing

So, I did just that.  I created my template to be optimized for 1280×1024, but I made them for multiple design sizes.  After that, I got to thinking… ‘Ya know Jace, if you share these templates with others a lot of them aren’t going to keep vertical space in mind.  You clearly have the left/right boundaries marked, but you need to show them how to make best use of their vertical space too!”  So, I went back in and I added “perforations” to my templates to demonstrate at what point your design was “wasted” by designing “below the fold” because it wouldn’t be seen.  I marked how much of the vertical space would be visible at 1280×1024 in both Firefox and Internet Explorer (assuming that your visitors have all standard toolbars, plus one other: i.e. Google or Yahoo!) and then I decided to mark the same points for widescreen resolutions of 1280×768.

At this point I smiled to myself and thought… ‘Man, this is pretty cool!’

I figured it was time to share these templates with the world, but THEN my stupid willingness to help as many people as possible got the better of me.  Even though I was already tired and worn out, I got to thinking — ‘While most people do optimize their Twitter profiles with a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels in mind, some still want to optimize theirs to 1024 for older monitors and eyes.’ In doing so, you do sacrifice a lot of valuable design space, but if that’s the resolution you want to target, that’s what you have to put up with.  So… I actually went back and made 1024 optimized versions of all of my templates!

One thing to note is that the templates are in PNG format, so you can use them with YOUR editor of choice: PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, GiMP, Paint.NET, or whatever else.  Simply open the template size you wish to work with and add new layers below the template layer.  Alternatively you can do your design work and then import the template into a new layer in your image to see what it should look like after you save and upload to Twitter.

And here’s the best part… I’m giving these away to all of you without cost!  Yeah, I know… I’m such a nice guy! *wink, wink*

All I ask in return is that if you find these templates useful, FOLLOW ME on Twitter.  And heck, if you’d like to continue “spreading the wealth” you could always:

Tweet This message using the button below.

Free Twitter Background Templates (401)

Thanks, and I hope you find these little templates useful if you’re looking to design your own unique Twitter background.  They did take me quite a bit of time to make.