Font size on slides: pixels at 1080 wide and what they are on a phone

What font size should each kind of slide text be?

The sizes below are for a slide 1080 px wide, which is the width Instagram uploads at (up to 1,080 px, per its Help Center (opens in a new tab)). The phone column is our estimate, explained in the next section. None of it is a TikTok or Instagram rule.

As of November 2026 we found no TikTok guidance on font size in the Creator Academy photo-posting article (opens in a new tab), which only advises one ratio for all photos. WCAG sets contrast ratios, not font sizes (opens in a new tab). The ranges above are our working numbers, built from the floor in the next section.

How do you convert pixels on the slide to size on the phone?

The slide is shown across the width of the screen, so every pixel is scaled by the same factor:

points on the phone = pixels on the slide x (phone width in points / 1080)

Our assumption is that an iPhone screen is roughly 390 to 430 pt wide. We did not retrieve those widths from a source, so look up your own phone's logical width and rerun the formula. For 390 pt the factor is 0.361, and for 430 pt it is 0.398. On Android the unit is dp and widths vary, but the formula is the same.

The floor comes from Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (opens in a new tab), which give iOS a default text size of 17 pt and a minimum of 11 pt. Run the formula backward and 17 pt is about 43 to 48 px on the slide, and 11 pt about 28 to 31 px. The guidelines are written for app interfaces, not for text inside images, so treat this as a yardstick. The same conversion is used on the words per slide page, where it feeds a word budget. That page quotes whole-slide text sizes; this table splits them by role.

What changes on other canvas sizes?

The table above assumes a 1080 px wide slide. If your canvas is a different width, multiply the sizes by the width divided by 1080, so a text size keeps the same share of the slide.

Height does not change the scale. A 1080 by 1350 (4:5) slide and a 1080 by 1920 (9:16) slide use the same sizes, but the shorter slide has fewer rows for text. Instagram's Help Center says photos are uploaded at up to 1,080 px wide (opens in a new tab), so we design at that width and the sizes above apply unchanged. For the shape of a carousel slide see Instagram carousel size. We found no pixel size from TikTok, as the TikTok slideshow size page explains.

How do you pair a headline size with a body size?

Pick the pair once and reuse it on every slide. The design guide asks for a headline at least 1.5 times the body size, and these three pairs meet that.

Each body size stays above the 44 px floor. When a slide needs more words than its size allows, cut the words before you shrink the type. The slide text checker shows words and reading time per slide.

How do you test the size on a real phone?

1. Export the slide and send it to your phone.
2. Open it at full screen width and hold the phone at a normal reading distance.
3. Read the smallest line you need the viewer to read. Compare it with the app's own caption text on the same screen. If your line looks smaller than that text, it is probably too small.
4. Repeat on a second, smaller phone if you have one.

The thumbnail test on the design guide shrinks a slide to about a quarter, or 270 px wide. It is a quick check on a computer screen. A real phone remains the final check because screens differ in physical size.

What goes wrong with font size?

These are general typography points, not platform findings.

• Auto-shrink. A text box that shrinks long text to fit can end up below your floor. Check the size of the exported slide, not the box.
• Different fonts, same pixels. A face with a small x-height looks smaller at the same size than one with a large x-height. Judge by the exported slide.
• Thin weights. A light weight at 44 to 52 px can look weak on a photo. Use a regular or medium weight for body text.
• All capitals. Capitals take more width, so fewer words fit per line.

For which fonts to choose, see best fonts for slideshows.

What should you check before you export?

• Cover headline 72 px or larger, body text 44 px or larger.
• No sentence the viewer must read is below 44 px, no label is below 32 px, and nothing at all is below 28 px.
• The headline is at least 1.5 times the body size.
• Sizes are the same on every content slide.
• The slide is 1080 px wide, or you scaled the sizes by width divided by 1080.
• You read the smallest required line on a phone.