NOTE: Google+ has updated their cover photos again to be even larger. That makes my templates outdated. I haven’t put together updated templates yet. The Facebook ones are still good though.

Google+ introduced an entirely new layout yesterday. Pretty much nothing was left untouched about the design, and that includes profiles. Profiles didn’t change that much except that they got much more visual. And by that I mean that they copied Facebook’s cover photo feature. Don’t get me wrong: that’s a good thing! The cover photos are beautiful and can really help add personality to a by-the-numbers profile.

However, Facebook and Google+’s cover photos don’t work exactly the same way. The profile pictures are in totally different spots, the sizes are completely different, and most importantly, there’s two different layout options with Google+. So I’ve broken down the exact layouts of the new Google+ cover photos! I’ll go over the different layouts, and as a bonus, I’ve also included Photoshop documents with the exact layouts, so you can get things looking just the way you want them before uploading anything!

Note: To download the templates you might have to right-click on the links and choose “Save File As…”

Facebook Cover Photos

Let’s start with Facebook’s cover photos for comparison. Facebook cover photos are 850×315 pixels. The profile picture juts slightly into the lower-left corner of the image. This is a lot of screen real estate to work with! Make the most of it: pick something amazing because it dominates the view! Profile pictures on the timeline are 125×125 pixels. Around the profile picture, there is a 5 pixel border (4 solid white pixels and 1 pixel stroke on the box). Now you know what you have to work with!

Facebook Cover Photo

The Facebook cover photo is 850×315 pixels.

Facebook Cover & Profile Pic Photoshop Template (2.6MB) *

Google+ Cover Photo – Single Photo Layout

NOTE: This template is now outdated. You’ll be disappointed if you use it.

The first of the two options for Google+’s cover photos (and the one you see until you customize that section), is a single photo sized 940×180 pixels. Your profile picture is 250×250 pixels and floats on top of the right-hand side of the cover photo with a 6 pixel border all the way around (5 solid white pixels plus a 1 pixel stroke). That leaves 614 pixels to the left of your profile picture, and 64 pixels to the right of your profile picture. You should probably just let the rightmost part of your cover photo be a continuation of the background, since there isn’t any room to put anything there (except maybe subliminal messages mwahahaha!).

Google+ Single Photo Cover Photo

The Google+ single cover photo is 940×180 pixels.

Google+ Cover and Profile Pic – Single Photo Layout Photoshop Template (2.2 MB) *

Google+ Cover Photo – Multiple Photo Layout

NOTE: This template is now outdated. You’ll be disappointed if you use it.

The second of the two options for Google+’s cover photos is to use a sequence of 5 photos, 110×110 pixels each. Each photo has 11 pixels of space between each photo, except the rightmost one. The right photo is flush against the border of the profile picture. As with the single photo layout, the profile picture is 250×250 pixels with a 6 pixel border around the entire photo (5 white with 1 pixel stroke). For some examples of things you can do with this kind of layout, see Mashable’s article of creative cover photo hacks.

Google+ Multiple Photo Cover Photo

Each photo is 110×110 pixels when you use multiple photos for your Google+ photo cover.

Google+ Cover and Profile Pic – Multiple Photo Layout Photoshop Template (1.8 MB) *

Hopefully you have enough information now to play around with the cover photos on both social networks and bring your own unique style to your profile!

If something doesn’t work, or you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below! I’ll try to answer all questions to the best of my ability.

* Notes about the Photoshop templates: These templates were created with the Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta. While I tried to use only basic features of Photoshop, I can’t guarantee compatibility with previous versions of Photoshop. Try it out, and let me know if you run into any problems!