Image & Media File Best Practices

  • Updated

Getting your image dimensions, file sizes, and naming conventions right makes your emails and landing pages load faster, look sharper, and avoid the spam filters that penalize bloated messages. These tips are focused on images, but they apply to other media file types too.

Why this matters: Oversized or poorly named images slow down page and email load times, hurt deliverability, and make your Image Library harder to navigate as it grows. A few minutes of prep before you upload saves rework later.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users)

  • Emails: 600px content width (New Email Composer: Design > Global styles > General options > Content area width). Keep total message size under 100KB, individual images under 20KB.
  • Landing Pages: 940–1920px wide, based on your page's width setting (Edit Page Properties).
  • Optimize for web, keep DPI under 72, avoid high-resolution images in emails/Landing Pages.
  • Use descriptive file and folder names — email providers scan image names and alt text too.

Image Dimensions

The ideal dimensions for your images depend entirely on the size of your pages and emails. Sizing the image width to the exact width of your page or message will make sure it displays at full size without increasing load times or resource use more than necessary.

Emails

In the Email Composer, go to Design tab > Global styles tab > General options, & set Content area width to 600px:

Content area width setting in the Email Composer's Design tab under Global styles General options, set to 600px.

In the Legacy Email Composer, in the email composer Design tab, in the Stationery section, check the Message Width setting:

Message Width setting in the Stationery section of the Legacy Email Composer's Design tab.
  • For an image to stretch fully across the email, your image should be 600 pixels wide
  • For an image to fit into one column of a two-column section, it should be 50% of your message width

Landing Pages

On the Design tab of the editor, click Edit Page Properties:

Edit Page Properties button on the Design tab of the Landing Page editor.

...to view the width setting:

Width setting shown in the Landing Page properties panel.

This setting should determine the maximum width of your images, and you can scale them as needed from there.

  • The recommended image width for Landing Pages is 940 (min) - 1920 (max).

Social Media

See this page.

General Notes

Follow these guidelines to make your assets load faster, reduce the frequency of image load issues, keep images from stretching/distorting to fit in a space, and help your image library itself to load faster.

  • Make sure images are 'optimized for web' – this is usually a setting/option in image editors like Photoshop.
  • Do not use High-Resolution images for emails or Landing Pages (they can cause long load times).
  • The DPI for your images should be less than 72.

Image File Size

Sizing images appropriately can make for a better user experience, but also better email deliverability for the following reasons:

  • Many corporate IT departments have strict limits on email content and total message size.
  • Email providers can mark emails as spam purely based on size.
  • Long email load times can detract from open and click rates, particularly on mobile devices.

Tips for Success

  • Use an image compression tool – many free options are available, and the loss of quality is minimal.
  • Ensure that your email message stays below 100 kilobytes in total, including images.
  • Keep individual images below 20 kilobytes.
Also see File Size Best Practice for the Act-On Image & Media Libraries.

Naming & Storage

Since email providers pay attention to image names, alt text, and other metadata when scanning emails, it's important to consider these factors while managing your files. In addition, organizing your files well can save you significant time and hassle in the long run.

Tips for Success

  • Use descriptive file names, including prefixes and suffixes.
    (eg, "Fr1-First Image: Bastille Day is Coming-SgCEOs" for your first image in a France campaign targeting a segment of company CEOs).
  • Aim to organize your files so that a new employee on your team can understand the system on their own.
  • Give your folders specific names to match their purpose.
  • Avoid duplicate names where possible. While there are some methods by which computers can compensate for identical file names, none of them are without performance trade-offs.

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