Home > Lensmaking Tips > Add great images to your intro module

Have you seen the new home page? What do you think? Does it need more cowbell?

I’m sure you noticed the Popular Pages list and its extra large image containers. Some of you might think they’re too big. Even Corey’s first reaction was, “Dig it!! Do we have the images to support this?”

There is a method to my madness. I designed those containers with the hope that they’ll eventually be filled with great imagery. I could have gone a lot smaller, but I didn’t want lens titles to wrap five times. And I didn’t want to show 60 undistinguishable thumbnails that might overwhelm visitors with their collective clutter.

But my design needs your help, so I’d like to share a few simple ideas that will make your lenses – and the home page – pop. This discussion won’t focus on the subject matter of your images, just the layout, size, file types, etc.

Go bigger!

Don’t go crazy (we resize larger images to 250 pixels wide anyway), but we definitely want to see something larger than an icon. The home page images have a maximum height and width of 200 pixels. If you do go bigger, don’t worry, we’ll resize and make them look great at 200.

Avoid adding margins

Adding extra space to your images might make them look decent on your lens, but it won’t look so great on the home page. Let the color run to the edge! And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of rounded corners, foggy edges, frilly borders, etc. We can all get a little carried away in Photoshop, but a great image doesn’t need any help.

Square images work best

We display your images throughout Squidoo on topics pages, your bio page, “related lenses” in the sidebar, top 100 lists, and now on the home page. And we always show them in square containers. That being said, don’t worry if you have a great image that’s a rectangle. We can accommodate you. But if you have a better square image, use it!

Choose the right file type

Finally, when saving your images for the web (in Photoshop, for example), be sure to choose the right file type. If your image is a photograph, always save it as a JPG. JPGs compress photos far better than GIFs or PNGs. But they generally do a poor job when compressing graphics, so use GIFs or PNGs (8-bit) for them.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!