Making a carousel, start to post.
To make an Instagram carousel, design every slide at the same size (1080x1350 is the safe default), export them as separate image files numbered in order, then in the Instagram app tap the plus button, choose Post, tap the layered-squares icon, and select your slides in sequence. One caption covers the whole set.
The steps are short. Most of what goes wrong happens before the upload, in how the slides were prepared, so this covers both halves.
By PurpeuPublished Updated
The short version
- Decide one size before designing anything, and use it for every slide.
- Number your exported files, because the picker uses the order you tap, not the file order.
- You can post from a desktop browser as well as the app.
- Check the set together before uploading, not slide by slide.
Step 1: settle the size before you design
Pick one size and build every slide at it. 1080x1350 is the default worth using unless you have a reason not to. Changing size later means redoing layouts, because text that fitted in a square frame rarely fits a portrait one.
This matters more for carousels than for single posts, because Instagram crops every slide to the ratio of the first one. A mixed set gets trimmed with no warning.
Step 2: build the slides
Open with a slide that makes a specific promise. Not "social media tips" but the actual claim, the number, the mistake being corrected. If slide one does not earn the swipe, nothing after it is seen.
Then give each middle slide one point, and close by asking for something concrete. Keep text well clear of the edges: at least 60 pixels of margin, and nothing important in the bottom right of slide one where the carousel dots sit.
- One idea per slide. Two ideas on a slide means neither is read.
- Set type large. Most people read this at phone size, one-handed.
- Keep colours and type consistent across the set so it reads as one post.
- Export as PNG for slides that are mostly text and flat colour.
Step 3: export and number the files
Export each slide as its own file and name them in order: 01, 02, 03 and so on. Instagram builds the carousel from the order you tap the images, not from their filenames, and unnumbered files in a camera roll are easy to select out of sequence.
Export in RGB rather than CMYK. CMYK is a print colour mode, and uploading it produces dull, shifted colour that looks nothing like your design.
How to post a carousel on Instagram
On a phone: tap the plus button, choose Post, then tap the layered-squares icon above your camera roll to switch to multi-select. Tap the slides in order, adjust the crop if prompted, then add your caption and share.
On a desktop browser: click Create in the left sidebar, drag your files in or select them, and reorder by dragging the thumbnails. The desktop uploader shows the order more clearly than the phone picker does, which makes it the safer choice for a long carousel.
What usually goes wrong
Almost every carousel problem is one of four things, and all four are avoidable before you upload.
- Mixed aspect ratios, so slides two onward get cropped to slide one.
- Slides tapped out of order, which reads as a jumbled sequence.
- Text too close to the edge, clipped by the crop.
- CMYK export, which makes the colours look washed out.