Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Stories are all designed for vertical video. A landscape video uploaded there shows up small, with big black bars, and gets fewer views. Here's how to turn it into a proper vertical video.
The sizes to use
| Where | Shape | Size in pixels |
|---|---|---|
| Reels, TikTok, Shorts, Stories | 9:16 (vertical) | 1080 × 1920 |
| Instagram and Facebook feed | 4:5 (portrait) or 1:1 (square) | 1080 × 1350 or 1080 × 1080 |
| YouTube, websites, TV | 16:9 (landscape) | 1920 × 1080 |
Option 1: crop to vertical
Cropping keeps a vertical slice of your video, usually the person or subject in the middle. It fills the whole phone screen, which looks best. With the Crop Video tool, choose 9:16, drag the box onto the subject, play the video to check they stay inside it, and save.
This works well for one person talking, a product, or anything that stays in one place. It doesn't work when the action moves across the whole frame.
Option 2: fit with bars
If you need the whole frame, keep the video landscape and put it in a vertical frame with bars above and below. With Merge Videos, choose the vertical 1080 × 1920 size and “Fit”, which also lets you join several clips into one Reel. Use the empty space for a title or captions.
Keep important things in the safe zone
Apps put the username, caption, music and buttons over the bottom and right edges of vertical videos. Keep faces, text and subtitles away from roughly the bottom fifth and the right-hand edge of the frame.
Next time, film vertically
The best vertical video is filmed vertically. Hold your phone upright, keep the subject in the middle third of the screen, and leave a little space above their head. If a video comes out sideways, fix it with Rotate Video.
Finish it off
- Add captions with Add Subtitles to Video: many people watch with the sound off.
- Speed up slow parts with Change Video Speed.
- Make the file smaller for WhatsApp with Compress Video.