How To Make a Cool LinkedIn Cover in Minutes!

A great LinkedIn cover image is the difference between a profile that gets scrolled past and one that gets remembered — and you can build one in Canva in under ten minutes using a single product photo of yourself. I am going to walk you through the exact steps I use to design a LinkedIn cover image that looks polished, on-brand, and uses the correct LinkedIn banner dimensions on the first export.

Direct Answer: How To Make a LinkedIn Cover Image in Canva

To make a LinkedIn cover image, open Canva, choose the LinkedIn cover image template (it loads with the correct LinkedIn banner dimensions automatically), upload a photo of yourself, use Background Remover to isolate yourself, then apply the Shadow Glow effect with transparency set to 100, blur set to 0, and a custom color to make yourself pop against the background. You can either publish directly to LinkedIn from Canva or download the image and upload it manually if your account is not connected.

Why The LinkedIn Cover Image Matters More Than People Think

Your LinkedIn cover image is prime real estate. It sits at the top of your profile, takes up more visual space than your headshot, and yet most people leave it as the default blue gradient. After training over 79,000 students across 74+ courses on AI, Canva, and personal branding, I can tell you this: the cover image is the single fastest visual upgrade you can make to your profile. It signals taste, intentionality, and brand discipline before anyone reads a single word of your bio.

The good news — you do not need a designer. Canva already has a preset for LinkedIn covers, with the LinkedIn dimensions baked in, so you never have to guess pixel sizes.

Step 1: Pick The LinkedIn Cover Image Template In Canva

Open Canva and search for "LinkedIn cover." Canva will surface the LinkedIn cover image options pre-sized to LinkedIn's required dimensions, which is 1584 x 396 pixels. This step matters because if you upload a wrongly-sized image, LinkedIn crops it badly on desktop and mobile — usually slicing off your face or your tagline. Picking the LinkedIn-specific template eliminates that problem on the first try.

Step 2: Upload Your Photo And Remove The Background

Now upload a clean photo of yourself — ideally one where you are looking at the camera, well-lit, and wearing something that contrasts the background you are about to design behind you. In my case, I had already uploaded a photo earlier (yes, I had to dig through Uploads to find it again — happens to all of us).

Once your photo is on the canvas, click the image, then click Edit photo, then Background Remover. This is a Canva Pro feature, so if you are on the free plan you will not see this option. Background Remover isolates you from whatever was behind you in the original photo, leaving a clean cut-out you can place onto any background.

Step 3: Add A Shadow Glow To Make Yourself Pop

This is the step most people skip — and it is what separates an amateur LinkedIn cover image from a professional one. With your background-removed photo selected, go to Edit photo and look for the Shadow effects. Choose Glow.

Now customize the glow with these exact settings:

• Transparency: 100
• Blur: 0
• Size: increase until the glow visibly outlines your figure
• Color: pick something that contrasts both your clothes and the background

I tested a few colors live. Red worked, but felt too aggressive. White did not work because I was wearing a white shirt — the glow disappeared into my outfit. Yellow ended up being the winner because it created visible separation against both my shirt and the cover background. The lesson here: pick a glow color that contrasts what you are wearing in the photo, not just the background.

Step 4: Customise The Background And Composition

Once your figure has a clean glow outlining you, the background is yours to design. Add your name, a one-line value proposition, a website URL, and any social proof — number of clients, years of experience, a notable credential. Keep it minimal. The cover image is supporting your headline, not competing with it.

One layout tip from years of designing these for clients: put your text on the left side of the cover, with your figure on the right. LinkedIn places your circular profile photo over the bottom-left of the cover image, so anything you put in that zone gets covered up. Plan around it.

Step 5: Publish To LinkedIn Or Download And Upload

Canva has a direct integration with LinkedIn. If your account is connected, click Share and publish straight from Canva. If your account is not connected (or if you are managing a client's LinkedIn), click Download, choose PNG for the highest quality, and then upload the file manually to LinkedIn under Edit Profile → Background Photo.

One thing I recommend: keep your final Canva file. You will want to update the cover every few months as your positioning evolves, your client count grows, or you launch a new offer. Having the editable file means a 60-second tweak instead of a full redesign.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Using a low-resolution photo — it will pixelate at LinkedIn's display size.
• Cluttering the cover with five different fonts and three logos.
• Putting key text in the bottom-left where your profile photo covers it.
• Skipping Background Remover — a raw photo with its original background looks unprofessional.
• Picking a glow color that matches your clothing, like white-on-white, which makes the effect invisible.

Your LinkedIn cover image is a 60-second design decision that pays off every time someone visits your profile — recruiters, clients, partners, and prospects. Open Canva right now, pick the LinkedIn cover template, run your photo through Background Remover, add a glow, and publish. That is the entire workflow.

Keep Learning

If this was useful, these are worth reading next:

• How to be a RECRUITER with no EXPERIENCE?! Explained by Recruiter
• Are you loosing to AI?
• Or go further with the AI Mastery Course — used by 79,000+ students across 150+ countries.

Source: Pricing verified May 2026 from Canva.com, Adobe Express, and G2 Graphic Design category.