Why Stories crop your image

Story link stickers display og:image in a square crop, center-aligned. A standard 1200x630 landscape image loses about 285 pixels on each side. Text, logos, or visuals near the edges get clipped.

The core problem

Most OG images are designed for Facebook’s 1.91:1 landscape format. That works for Instagram DMs, but Stories crop differently:

• DM previews – landscape, 1200x630 works well
• Story link stickers – square, cropping the sides

There’s no way to provide separate images for each context.

Diagnosis

1. Check the Sharing Debugger

Open the Facebook Sharing Debugger, enter your URL, and mentally crop the preview image to a center square. Content outside that square is lost in Stories.

2. Test in an actual Story

Create a Story with a link sticker pointing to your URL. See exactly how it crops.

The fix

Design for the center safe zone

Use a 1200 x 630px image but keep critical content within the center 630 x 630px area. Stories show that square; DMs show the full landscape.

• Center your text – no headlines near the edges
• Center your logo
• Use edges for decoration only – gradients, patterns, non-essential imagery
• Leave breathing room for the sticker’s rounded corners

Consider a square image

If Stories are your primary sharing context, a 1080 x 1080px square og:image looks perfect there but may letterbox in DMs and on Facebook. Trade-off based on where your links are shared most.

Test both contexts

After updating, test in both a DM and a Story link sticker. Clear the cache via the Sharing Debugger first if you’re updating an existing image.