Recommended width of photos and videos

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   SmartAndFunposted 7 years ago

   Apologies in advance for asking a question I should know the answer to, but I just can't keep track anymore, and the search function is not yielding any helpful results.
   
   When writing new hubs or updating old ones, is it now recommended to place photos and videos so they take up the full width of the page, rather than half the width? Or does it matter? Full width is what my mind is remembering, but I can't find any confirmation of this.
   
   Thanks in advance.

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      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      SmartAndFun,
      No apology necessary. I have begged in the past for HP to upgrade/change the photo format into MORE sizes so we will not be so confined to a single shot or whole width. I failed, needless to say.
      But with all of the HP changes of late, I would hope that they would at least consider MY requests along with another idea for providing MORE font syles for hug design.

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         SmartAndFunposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for chiming in, Kenneth. I believe there is currently a "best practice" of displaying photos and videos in our hubs, and I'm thinking it is placing them at full page width rather than half, because (if I remember correctly) it makes our articles look more professional and attractive for readers using mobile devices. However, I'm unsure if that is still the current wisdom.
         
         I hope we both find our answers. Best wishes to you!

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            kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            @ SmartAndFun,
            Thank you and the same to you and us start praying for the deceased officers' families in Dallas who were among 11 police officers hit by two snipers during a protest against the Castille shooting.

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      jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      My advice is to have a smaller image as the main one justified to to the right. This will also be the thumbnail of your hub when appearing on the main page. Within the text and body of your hub, you can do a full size (width) image if it is high quality and if sufficient details can be seen. A less prominent topic image can be reduced to the half size. This will help the formatting of the page layout and also make the hub shorter, especially when you have many images. When displayed on the mobile devices, it makes no difference.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi SAF,
      
      Your memory serves you well. We do recommend full-width photos and videos except in cases where making the image full-width would cause it to be pixellated. They will all show full-width anyway on mobile and formatting them that way from the start means your capsules will always display in the intended order.
      
      If you do need to use half-width photos to prevent pixellation, I recommend checking the mobile preview before you publish to make sure that the photos show up in the intended order when they are fitted to mobile browsers.

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         kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         @ Christy . . . hey, remember me? I was wondering IF you and the HP crew are considering adding MORE font styles to the ones we have now to choose from? Arial Narrow; Helios Light/bold; Helvetica and such would be fantastic and with my undying gratitude and admiration to you and the HP crew that you have now, well, I might build HP a Commemorative Birdhouse with how many years you have been in business and GIVE it to You for your offices and SHIP it free.
         No joke.

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            Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            People do ask for more fonts/colors occasionally, but with the current online publishing world, readers trust consistent, professional-looking designs, which is why we've intentionally limited those options. I know plenty of Hubbers would use them responsibly, but many more would misuse them to create a very bad reading experience and we just don't feel it's worth the risk.

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               kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Christy, I totally understand, but how could a person make something negative from a typestyle? And while you are talking to me, I was fixing some of my older hubs last night and found out that one (right now) of my hubs has been copied/stolen: The hub is: "Members of The Two Groups: The Elite and Average" because I called it up and I only had the headline. NO text, photos, etc. NO I did not start it and forget it. This has happened once before and I feel now like I did then--devastated.

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                  Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yikes! It sounds like it's time to file a DMCA with the site that it's been stolen on. Such a shame that people are always trying to profit about others' work.

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                     kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Christy, great, but I DO NOT know how to do that.

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                        Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        You can find our guide on doing this here: https://hubpageshelp.com/promotion/Lear … -complaint

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   EricDockettposted 7 years ago

   In almost all cases I use full-width video. Otherwise it's too small, and that has to be annoying to the reader. Full-width videos in the YouTube player just look better.
   
   Photos are a bit trickier. HP does seem to always want full-width, but I think that's an over-simplification of the issue. Tall, thin images (think of a picture of a broom or a fishing pole) look ridiculous full-width. In those cases I float them right. Otherwise, if they are square or rectangular, I do try to make them full-width. But, I'll often float the top image right and make the rest full-width. In many cases, but not always, I think a lead image floated right looks better,
   
   If I am creating an image myself, I usually go for like a 4:3 landscape ratio (like 800x600). It's hard to get a good balance between an image that looks good in the Hub, and also in the various thumbnails, sliders and on Facebook. That size seems to give me the best middle-ground. I also like the look of 2:1 images in the Hub, especially as a lead image, but they look awful in the slider and thumbs.
   
   Part of the reason HP wants full-width images is because it looks right on mobile. However, even floated images render centered on mobile devices so it really doesn't matter. The standard practice across the web does seem to be moving toward full-width, but again I think writers have to be smart and make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
   
   I get a little frustrated when editors start moving images automatically to full-width. I feel like they're following some checklist and not thinking about it, or giving the Hubber credit for having thought about.
   
   That's my 2 pennies, and how I address this issue. Hope it helps!

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      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi, EricDockett,
      It really does help me. Thanks and be safe.

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         Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I notice that on all my hubs that were moved to niche sites, they allowed ONE full width picture at the top of the hub, and that's all. And they usually chose a black and white one, so there is no visual interest. I've been changing them back after I research them.

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   SmartAndFunposted 7 years ago

   Thanks to Eric and Jack, your answers were just the sort of advice I was looking for. Thanks again!

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