How to Create Instagram Highlight Covers

Your Instagram bio gets all the attention, but the small circles underneath it are your profile’s secret weapon for making a killer first impression. These are your Instagram Highlight covers, and creating custom ones is one of the fastest ways to elevate your brand’s look from amateur to professional. In this guide, we’ll walk through exactly how to plan, design, and upload beautiful, on-brand Highlight covers that turn your profile into an organized and engaging resource for your followers.

What Are Instagram Highlight Covers and Why Do They Matter?

Instagram Highlights are collections of your past Instagram Stories that you can save permanently to your profile. They live right below your bio and act like a menu for visitors, giving them a glimpse into what your brand is all about. Instagram Highlight covers are the custom thumbnail images you use for these collections.

Without custom covers, Instagram just pulls a crop from one of the Stories inside the Highlight, which often looks messy, inconsistent, and off-brand. On the other hand, a set of cohesive, well-designed covers works wonders:

• They establish brand identity. Using your brand colors, fonts, or icon style immediately tells visitors what your brand’s aesthetic is. It creates a polished and memorable look.
• They improve navigation. Clear and simple icons direct users to the information they need most, like “Reviews,” “Shop,” “FAQs,” or “About Us.”
• They boost professionalism. A well-organized and branded profile signals that you take your business seriously. This builds trust and encourages people to stick around and follow you.

Ultimately, Highlight covers are a small detail with a big impact. They turn a passive profile browse into an active user experience, guiding new fans through your best content long after your Stories have disappeared.

First, Plan Your Highlight Strategy

Hold off on jumping into a design tool just yet. A great-looking set of covers isn’t very useful if the Highlights themselves aren’t strategic. The categories you choose should serve your audience and support your business goals. Think about the most common questions you receive or the key brand story you want to tell.

Start by brainstorming a list of essential categories. Here are some ideas for different types of accounts:

For E-commerce Brands &, Product-Based Businesses:

• New In: Showcase your latest arrivals.
• Shop: Link directly to specific products or collections.
• Reviews: Share glowing testimonials and user-generated content (UGC).
• How-To: Demonstrate how to use your products.
• FAQs: Answer common questions about shipping, returns, and sizing.
• Behind-the-Scenes (BTS): Show your production process or team.

For Service Providers, Coaches, &, Freelancers:

• Services: Detail what you offer and for whom.
• About Me: Introduce yourself and your story.
• Clients: Feature testimonials, case studies, and positive results.
• Portfolio: Show off your best work.
• Book Now: A direct call-to-action to book a call or session.
• Tips: Share valuable free advice related to your niche.

For Creators, Bloggers, &, Influencers:

• About: Share your mission and what your content is about.
• Blog: Promote your latest blog posts.
• Collabs: Showcase brands you’ve partnered with.
• Q&,A: A place for Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions.
• Links: A quick reference for affiliate links or favorite products.
• Travel: Group content by destination or theme.

Aim for around 4 to 6 core Highlights. Too few can feel sparse, while too many can overwhelm a new visitor. Prioritize the information that provides the most value to someone trying to understand what you do and why they should follow you.

3 Easy Ways to Design Your Instagram Highlight Covers

Once you have your categories planned, it’s time to get creative. You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to make beautiful covers. Here are three popular methods, from dead simple to fully custom.

Method 1: Using Canva (The Go-To for Most People)

Canva is a free, user-friendly design tool that’s perfect for this task. It’s packed with templates, icons, and fonts that make the process a breeze.

1. Create a New Design: Log in to Canva and create a new project. Search for and select the “Instagram Story” template. Its dimensions (1080 x 1920 pixels) are exactly what you need.
2. Set Your Background: Choose a background color. To stay on-brand, use the hex code for your brand’s primary or secondary color.
3. Find Your Icons: Go to the “Elements” tab on the left-hand menu. Search for icons that represent your Highlight categories (e.g., “shopping cart” for Shop, “star” for Reviews, “question mark” for FAQs). Look for a consistent style - either all line art or all solid shapes. To find ones that match, try a search like "simple minimalist icons".
4. Center Your Icon: Place your chosen icon in the center of the canvas. Canva’s Smart Guides (pink lines) will appear to help you find the exact middle. Getting it centered is important, as Instagram will crop your cover into a circle.
5. Duplicate and Repeat: Once you’re happy with your first cover, duplicate the page for each category. Just change the icon on each new page, keeping the background color the same. This method ensures all your covers are perfectly consistent in size and style.
6. Download as PNG: When you're finished, click "Share" then "Download." Select "PNG" for the best quality and download all the pages. Send the image files to your phone.

Method 2: Using Adobe Express (A Powerful Free Alternative)

Adobe Express is another fantastic free tool that is very similar to Canva and offers a huge library of design assets, including icons and photos.

1. Start an Instagram Story Project: On the Adobe Express home screen, search for "Instagram Story" and start with a blank canvas.
2. Pick a Background Color: Select the background and choose a color that matches your brand’s color palette.
3. Add an Icon: On the left menu, select the "Icons" tab. Search for icons for your categories, like "email," "user," or "location." Adobe has a massive selection, so you'll find simple, modern options easily.
4. Center and Resize: Drag the icon to the center of the design, using the purple alignment guides. Resize it so it’s not too big or too close to the edges.
5. Duplicate and Complete the Set: Like with Canva, create your first cover as a template, then duplicate it for the rest of your categories. This makes it super fast to create a cohesive set.
6. Download Your Files: Click the "Download" button at the top right and save the images as solid-color PNG files. Get them over to your phone's photo library.

Method 3: Creating with Photoshop or Procreate (For a Custom Look)

If you have design software and skills, creating your covers from scratch gives you ultimate control over the look and feel. The principles are the same, just with different tools.

1. Set Up Your Canvas: Create a new file that is 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels high.
2. Create a Safe-Zone Guide: Instagram will crop your design into a circle. To see what will be visible, create a circle guide in the middle of your canvas. An easy way to do this is to create a circle shape that's about 1000 x 1000 pixels and center it. Design your icon within this circle, then delete or hide the guide layer before you export.
3. Design Your Covers: Use your brand’s iconography, typefaces, or custom illustrations. Keep the design simple and bold so it’s easy to understand at a small size. Use a consistent background and export each cover as a separate file.
4. Export for Web: Save your files as a PNG or high-quality JPG and transfer them to your phone.

How to Upload Your Highlight Covers on Instagram

You’ve designed your beautiful covers and have them saved on your phone. Now for the easy part: adding them to your profile. The process is slightly different for new vs. existing highlights.

To Add a Cover to an Existing Highlight:

1. Go to your Instagram profile.
2. Press and hold the Highlight you want to update.
3. From the pop-up menu, select "Edit Highlight."
4. At the top of the screen, tap "Edit Cover."
5. At the bottom, tap the image gallery icon to open your phone’s camera roll. (Do not choose one of the Stories from within the Highlight).
6. Select your custom cover image from your camera roll.
7. Pinch to zoom and adjust the circular crop until the icon is perfectly centered.
8. Tap "Done" in the top right, then "Done" again.

That’s it! Your old cover will now be replaced with your new, branded version. Repeat for all your existing Highlights.

To Create a New Highlight With a Custom Cover:

1. Tap the "+" (New) circle under your bio.
2. Select the archived Stories you want to include in this Highlight. Tap "Next."
3. Tap "Edit Cover" and follow the same steps as above to select your custom image from your camera roll.
4. Give your Highlight a title. Keep it short and clear (around 10-12 characters is ideal).
5. Tap "Add."

A Quick Tip: Years ago, you had to upload your cover image to your active Story for a few seconds to use it. Thankfully, that's no longer the case. You can upload any cover directly from your phone's camera roll by using the "Edit Cover" steps above without ever posting it publicly.

Final Thoughts

Creating custom Instagram Highlight covers is a simple, high-impact change that makes your profile look more polished, professional, and on-brand. By planning your categories thoughtfully and designing clean, simple visuals, you create a better user experience that guides your audience to the content that matters most.

Keeping a consistent and visually appealing feed is crucial, but so is maintaining a steady stream of content without burning out. At Postbase, our goal is to streamline the backend of your social media workflow so you can focus more on creation. We built a visual calendar and a reliable scheduler specifically designed for modern content like Reels, Stories, and videos, allowing you to plan your posts ahead of time and trust that they'll go live exactly when they should. If you're looking for an easier way to manage your social media, consider how a tool like Postbase can help you stay organized and consistent.