Image Guidelines

Everything you need to know to make your events, logos and ads look sharp on the website and in the Roam Local Events mobile apps.

Last updated November 2026

The short version

If you only remember one thing: upload a horizontal (landscape) photo at 1200 × 800 pixels, saved as a JPG under 5 MB, with the important part of the picture near the centre. That works everywhere we show an event.

  • Bigger is not better — we resize everything down, so an 8 MB photo is rejected, not improved.
  • Smaller is worse — we never enlarge an image, so a 400 px photo will look soft and blurry on a phone.
  • Photos belong in JPG. Logos and anything with a transparent background belong in PNG.

Specifications at a glance

These are the limits the system actually enforces. Anything larger than the maximum file size is rejected with an error; anything larger than the maximum dimensions is scaled down automatically.

Image Upload this size Shape Max file size Best format
Event photo 1200 × 800 px Landscape, 3:2 5 MB JPG
Organization logo 800 × 600 px Square or landscape 2 MB PNG (transparent)
Banner ad 1200 × 300 px Wide banner, 4:1 2 MB JPG or PNG
Promotional / in-feed ad 800 × 800 px Square, 1:1 2 MB JPG or PNG
Venue, performer or vendor booth photo 1200 × 800 px Landscape, 3:2 5 MB JPG
Badge or status icon 256 × 256 px Square, 1:1 5 MB PNG (transparent)

Accepted file formats

We accept .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif and .webp. Any other file type is rejected.

  • JPG — use this for photographs. Smallest files, fastest loading, best choice for event photos.
  • PNG — use this for logos, badges and graphics with text. It is the only format that keeps a transparent background, which is what makes a logo sit cleanly on both light and dark screens.
  • WebP — fine to use. Treated the same as JPG or PNG.
  • GIF — accepted, but converted. A GIF upload is stored as a PNG, so transparency is kept but animation is not — only the first frame is used. If your image is animated, send a JPG or PNG of the frame you want shown.

PDF, TIFF, BMP, SVG, HEIC and camera RAW files are not accepted. If your photo came off an iPhone as a .heic file, export it as JPG first.

What happens after you upload

Every image is processed automatically. Understanding this saves you a lot of guesswork:

  1. It is checked. Wrong file type or over the size limit, and you get an error straight away.
  2. It is scaled down to fit the maximum dimensions in the table above, keeping its proportions. Nothing is stretched or squashed.
  3. It is never scaled up. A small image stays small, which is why low-resolution uploads look soft.
  4. It is re-saved at high quality to keep page loads fast. There is no benefit to uploading a 20 MB print-quality file.
  5. A 300 × 200 thumbnail is generated for event, venue, performer and vendor photos by cropping from the centre.

The practical takeaway: hit the recommended pixel dimensions, keep the file a reasonable size, and let the system do the rest.

How event photos get cropped

Your event photo appears in several places, and each one has a different shape. The image is cropped to fill the space rather than being letterboxed, so parts of the edges will be trimmed depending on where it is shown:

Where it appears Shape shown What gets trimmed
Event card in the feed and listings Wide, short strip (roughly 150 px tall, full width) A lot of the top and bottom
Event detail page header Large banner (roughly 350 px tall, full width) Some of the top and bottom
Small thumbnails and lists 300 × 200, cropped from the centre The left and right edges of a wide photo
Keep it in the safe area

Because the feed crop is short and wide, put the subject — the band, the food, the faces, the headline — in the middle horizontal band of the photo. Leave the top and bottom edges as background.

Avoid text baked into the image

Posters and flyers rarely survive cropping: the title at the top and the date at the bottom are usually the first things cut off, and small text becomes unreadable once the image is scaled down to a phone-sized card. Use a photograph for the image, and put the details in the event's title, description and date fields, where they are searchable and always legible. If a flyer is all you have, centre the key information and expect the edges to be trimmed.

A note on logos

Logos are treated differently from photos. A logo is fitted inside its space rather than cropped to fill it, so the whole mark is always visible — nothing is trimmed.

  • Use a PNG with a transparent background. A logo on a solid white square will show as a white box on dark screens and in dark mode.
  • Crop the empty space out before uploading. Built-in padding around your mark makes it render smaller than everyone else's.
  • Square or near-square works best. Very wide horizontal logos end up small on an event card; if you have a stacked or badge version of your logo, use that one.
  • 800 × 600 px is plenty. A 150 × 150 thumbnail is also generated, so avoid fine detail and thin lettering that disappears at small sizes.
  • If an event has no photo of its own, your organization logo is shown in its place — another reason to get the logo right.

Do this

  • Shoot and upload landscape, not portrait
  • Aim for 1200 × 800 px on event photos
  • Keep the subject centred
  • Use JPG for photos, PNG for logos
  • Use a real photo of the event, venue or performer
  • Check the preview after uploading, and set the focal point if the crop misses the subject
  • Use an image you own or are licensed to use

Not this

  • Tall portrait photos or phone screenshots
  • Full-page flyers with the title at the very top
  • Images under 600 px wide — they will look blurry
  • Files over the size limit — the upload fails
  • HEIC, PDF or RAW files straight off a camera or phone
  • Animated GIFs — only the first frame is kept
  • Logos saved on a solid white background

If something goes wrong

"File size exceeds maximum allowed size"
The file is over the limit for that image type. Resize it to the recommended pixel dimensions and save it as a JPG — that almost always brings it well under.
"File type is not allowed"
Save or export the image as .jpg or .png and try again. This is the usual outcome of uploading a .heic from an iPhone or a .pdf flyer.
"Invalid or unsupported image format"
The file has an image extension but is not a readable image — often a renamed or partly downloaded file. Re-export it from the original source.
My image looks blurry
It was uploaded below the recommended dimensions. We do not enlarge images, so replace it with a higher-resolution original.
My image is cropped badly
Re-crop it so the subject sits in the middle, or adjust the focal point on the event so the crop follows the right part of the picture.

Need a hand?

If you are not sure whether an image will work, send it over before you publish and we will take a look.

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All uploaded images are subject to our Terms of Service. Only upload images you own or have permission to use.