How to make a cover that survives the profile grid crop
Tell Vizard Agent the cover has to work in the profile grid as well as in the player. The grid shows a tighter rectangle out of the middle of your tall frame, so anything near the top or bottom is simply not there, and that is usually where the title ended up. Vizard Agent composes for the smaller rectangle first.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Say both contexts explicitly, in the same sentence. "Make a cover" produces a cover for the player, because that is the frame everyone works in, and the grid stays an afterthought until the post is already up. Name the platform too. The crops differ, and naming it lets Vizard Agent check against the correct rectangle rather than a generic safe area.
Make the Reel cover. It has to still read when the profile grid crops it, so keep the title and the product inside that area.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It composes to the tighter frame and lets the taller one have the breathing room. That is the opposite of the natural order, where you build the pretty full-frame version and then discover what survives, and it is why covers usually fail in the grid rather than in the player. In the session behind this article it:
- Placed the original artwork and set the exact on-screen wording inside the platform's safe area.
- Composed the cover with typography sized to be read on a phone rather than on a desktop preview.
- Reviewed the opening frame as an actual thumbnail, confirming the product was fully visible.
- Checked the cover at full size and again inside the tighter grid crops, as two separate reviews.
- Delivered the finished cover as its own file to upload, rather than relying on a frame of the video.
When does this not work well?
When the design genuinely needs the full height. A tall stack of text, a before-and-after arranged vertically or a figure standing full-length are player compositions, and forcing them into the grid rectangle makes them worse in both places, so two images is the better answer. Vizard Agent checks against the crop as it is now, and an app update can move it. A busy photograph may have no framing that keeps everything important inside.
Common questions
Which crop does the grid use? It varies by platform. Name yours and Vizard Agent checks against it.
Can I upload the cover separately? On most platforms, yes, and it's better. Vizard Agent delivers it as its own file.
Can I have both versions? Yes. Ask Vizard Agent for a player cover and a grid-safe variant.