Split a panorama for Instagram

To split a panorama for Instagram, you spread it across several images of the same size and post them as a carousel: as people swipe, they travel across the photo from one edge to the other. SwipeAtelier works as a panorama splitter in your browser: you place the photo on a canvas that spans the whole carousel, and export cuts it into images 1080 pixels wide whose edges line up exactly.

Why cut one photo into several images

The widest format in the Instagram feed is landscape 1.91:1, or 1080 × 566 pixels. A longer panorama would be cropped at the sides there, and would fill only a thin strip of the screen.

Spread across a portrait carousel, the same panorama is displayed at the full height of a 4:5 post, and horizontal swiping reveals it little by little.

Choose the number of slides from the panorama's aspect ratio

The math fits on one line. In 4:5, each image measures 1080 × 1350 pixels, so:

• total canvas width = number of slides × 1080;
• canvas height = 1350.

Divide your photo's width by its height, then pick the row whose ratio comes closest. A 6000 × 2000 pixel panorama (ratio 3) fits on 3 slides if you lose a little at the sides, or on 4 if you lose a little at the top and bottom.

Two rules of thumb to help you decide:

• A canvas longer than the photo crops the top and bottom; a canvas shorter than the photo crops the left and right. Choose according to what the photo can afford to lose.
• For a sharp result, the original photo should be at least as wide as the canvas. Below that, it is enlarged and loses detail.

Dimensions for the other formats (3:4, square, story) are in the Instagram sizes and formats guide. If you would rather post the panorama as a single image, you can resize the photo for Instagram in 1.91:1 landscape or fit it whole on a blurred background.

How to split the panorama, step by step

1. Open the panorama splitter and choose the 4:5 format, or 3:4 for slightly taller images.
2. Set the number of slides using the table above.
3. In the templates, under the Panorama family, select "Edge-to-edge panorama": a single frame covers the whole canvas.
4. Import the photo with the button, by drag and drop or by copy and paste.
5. Crop it inside the frame: move and enlarge the image until you get the framing you want.
6. Open the preview to swipe through the carousel as in Instagram, and check that no face lands on a cut.
7. Export as JPEG (lightweight, recommended) or PNG (lossless). On a computer, you get a ZIP of images numbered in order; on mobile, the share sheet saves them to Photos.

In Instagram, then select the images in order, from the left of the panorama to the right. Before posting, the Instagram grid planner shows how the post will sit on your profile next to your other posts.

The other panorama templates

The same family offers three variants: with margin (the photo surrounded by a solid or gradient background), center band (a horizontal band that leaves room for a headline, useful when the photo is very long) and panorama + thumbnails (the wide view paired with detail shots).

Switching templates keeps the photo you have already placed. You can then add text or shapes as in any seamless panoramic carousel, or browse the other carousel templates.

Your photo never leaves your device

The split is done by your browser, not by a server. The photo is not sent anywhere, there is no account to create, and there is no watermark on the exported images. The details are on the privacy page.