Mosaic specs and best practices

Design sizes, file specs, and artwork guidance for the source image a Live Mosaic builds toward.

Design and Customization
Written forMarketing and design teams

Use this before designing the source image a Live Mosaic rebuilds out of guest photo tiles. It starts with the design size for each mosaic format, then file specs, what artwork works best, and how many photos the mosaic needs. Share it with whoever designs the artwork.

Artwork specs

Size and shape

Start here. Pick the mosaic format that matches the physical screen, then design at that size. Portrait formats are fully supported, so match the real screen instead of forcing 16:9. The source is cropped to the format set in the display settings with a center-weighted fill, so anything outside that ratio is cut off.

  • 16:9: design at 3840x2160. TVs, projectors, and most LED walls.
  • 3:2: design at 3840x2560. Wider-than-square LED panels.
  • 1:1: design at 3840x3840. Square LED tiles and social recaps.
  • 4:5: design at 3072x3840. Portrait screens and vertical totems.
  • 9:16: design at 2160x3840. Vertical banners and phone-shaped panels.

File specs

These apply to the source image, the logo or key art that guest photo tiles rebuild on screen.

  • File type: JPG, PNG, or WebP. GIF is not accepted for this field even though other dashboard uploads take it.
  • Maximum file size: 10MB.
  • Minimum width: 1080px. The dashboard warns below this.
  • Recommended long edge: 3840px, which matches the 4K export exactly and gives the HD export room to downscale cleanly.
  • Maximum useful long edge: about 8192px, what the largest print export renders at. The 10MB cap usually binds first.
  • Transparency: not useful here. The source is composited as a wash over the photo tiles, so build on a solid background.

What artwork works best

The mosaic rebuilds your artwork out of a grid of photo tiles, so the tile count is the effective resolution of the artwork. Grid density is roughly 500, 1,000, or 2,300 tiles, capped at 2,500.

  • Use: large, recognizable shapes with strong silhouettes.
  • Use: bold logos, icons, and simple key art.
  • Use: high contrast between the subject and its background. That is what makes the artwork readable once it is made of photos.
  • Use: a light background with a dark mark, the most reliable combination.
  • Avoid: thin text and taglines. At 1,000 tiles a line of body copy is a few tiles tall and will not resolve.
  • Avoid: fine details, thin outlines, and gradients that shift slowly.
  • Avoid: busy photography, detailed product shots, and complex compositions.
  • Avoid: very dark artwork overall, which makes the guest photos underneath hard to see.

The optional corner logo sits in the lower-left of the viewer and is separate from the source image.

  • File type: transparent PNG or WebP.
  • Maximum file size: 10MB.
  • Minimum width: 400px. It renders up to about 64px tall.
  • Contrast: use a white or high-contrast version so it stays legible over guest photos.

How many photos the mosaic needs

  • Repeats: photos repeat whenever there are fewer photos than tiles. The Photo Repeats setting controls how.
  • No repeats: aim for a photo pool at least as large as the tile count of the density you chose.
  • Low volume: Low density, about 500 tiles, is the safest choice. The mosaic fills every tile from the first photo onward, so a high-density mosaic over a small photo pool repeats each photo many times rather than looking sparse.
  • Unsure: leave Auto-grow with attendance on. The mosaic starts at your density and rebuilds with more, smaller tiles once the photo pool reaches about one and a half times the tile count.
  • Pre-loading: the Pre-load Photos card accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF, up to 500 files per drop.

Exports

Request a flat export after the mosaic has enough real content. Exports are delivered as JPG.

  • HD: 1920px on the long edge.
  • 4K: 3840px on the long edge.
  • Print: 8192px on the long edge.

What to know

  • Lighter artwork still reads better, but you no longer have to re-export a file to get there. The Source Image card has a Fine-tune section with brightness, saturation, and contrast sliders, plus a Black and White Source switch. Hand off the artwork you want and adjust in the dashboard against the live preview.
  • The Mosaic Look control sets how strongly the artwork sits over the photos.
    • Photo-forward uses the lightest wash, so guest photos stay vivid.
    • Balanced (Recommended) is the default and the right starting point for most mosaics.
    • Graphic-forward uses the heaviest wash, so logos and key art read most clearly.
  • Fine-tune only if the preview needs it. The dashboard warns when the combined settings would wash the photos out.
  • This guidance replaces the older Mosaic Best Practices article written for our previous third-party mosaic. If your event still runs on that legacy integration, ask Snapbar which set applies.

Tips

  • Hand off one approved source file and avoid swapping it after the grid has been built, because applying a new grid rebuilds the mosaic and clears the placed photos.
  • Judge the artwork at the tile count you will actually run, not at full resolution in a design tool.
  • Check the mosaic on the real venue screen. A mosaic that reads on a laptop can lose its thin shapes on a projector.
  • If a dashboard upload field states a stricter file type or size than this article, follow the field.

Related articles

Still need help?

Tell us the experience name and what you were trying to do, and our team will pick it up from there.

Email ops@thesnapbar.com