Workflow · 22 August 2026
A pre-publish checklist for 9:16 video
A practical, ordered checklist to run on every 1080×1920 cut before it hits TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Stories, or a paid placement — geometry first, chrome second, device last.
By the FramePad editorial desk · 14 min read · Updated 2026-08-28
Do not start with the overlay
Most collisions are geometry mistakes that the overlay only makes obvious. If the source is 16:9, decide crop versus pad before you look at a like button. A face that has already been bisected by a centre crop cannot be saved by toggling chrome. Open the 16:9 to 9:16 cropper or the padding tool first. Lock a picture that still contains the subject. Then bring the overlay on.
If the source is already 9:16, skip the convert and go straight to the destination checker. Do not “fix it in the caption.” Native captions cannot rescue a forehead that sits under For You tabs, and they will cover a lower-third that you left in from the landscape edit.
The ten things that actually fail review
Run these in order, on a 1080×1920 canvas, with the destination overlay at full opacity. (1) Face or product in the centre 72% of width and 64% of height. (2) No burned-in type in the top 12% — tabs, progress bars, Dynamic Island. (3) No burned-in type in the bottom 20% — tab bar, reply field, CTA, home indicator. (4) Nothing important in the right 14% — like, comment, share, dislike, remix. (5) Hook readable in the first 1.5 seconds without sound. (6) First frame usable as a 9:16 thumbnail. (7) Native caption field is a transcript, not the hook. (8) End card held at least 1.8 seconds, inside the safe rectangle. (9) Legal or price copy not in a Meta hold-out. (10) Export is SDR, rec.709, 1080×1920, not HDR.
If any item fails, stop. Moving type twenty pixels is cheaper than a rejected ad set or a comment thread that says the text is unreadable. The TikTok checker, Reels tool, Stories checker, and Shorts previewer are the same studio with different chrome. Flip them without re-importing.
Paid placements are a different checklist
Organic chrome and paid chrome are not cousins. Meta Stories and Reels ads use a 14% top and 20% bottom hold-out that Meta is allowed to draw on. Organic Stories use a reply field, not a CTA pill. Snap Ads use a 34-character headline and a shutter cluster. If the buy includes Advantage+ or a Snap Ad, run the Meta ad previewer and the Snapchat checker as extra steps, not as substitutes for the organic overlay.
A file that is clean as an organic Reel can still fail Meta’s text-overlap review because a price sat in the CTA band. Do not argue with the review screenshot. Move the price. Rebuild the legal as a centre-frame card held for the required duration. Then export a proof sheet with the hold-outs burned in so the person who signs the insertion order can see the same map.
One master versus three
A conservative master that survives TikTok, Reels, and Shorts is cheaper than three versions that drift. Keep essential type inside the intersection of the three overlays: below y = 12%, above y = 71%, inside x = 4% to x = 86%. That intersection is ugly on a desktop timeline and correct on a phone. Version a master only when a platform-specific control is the point of the cut — a Remix invitation, a Shorts subscribe ask, a Stories poll.
When you do version, change the type, not the picture. Pan and crop should stay locked so the face does not jump if someone watches the same piece on two apps. The overlay is a lighting gel. The negative is the picture.
Device confirmation is not optional
FramePad is a preflight. Home indicators, font scaling, and “larger text” can push a caption well up by 40–80 pixels. Export the 1080×1920 file, put it on an iPhone and an Android if you have both, and open it as a draft in the destination app. Photos.app does not draw the chrome. The draft does.
If chrome has moved since our last shoot, send the phone, OS, and app version to hello@framepad.app. We re-shoot. We do not need your media. The methodology page lists the devices and the eight-pixel collision rule we use when we update an overlay.
What “done” looks like
Done is a clean master with no overlay, a proof PNG with the overlay on, and a caption field that carries the words you did not burn in. Done is not a 4K HDR file, a fake button, or a lower-third that looked fine in Premiere’s program monitor. If you cannot read the hook with your thumb covering the bottom fifth of the phone, it is not done.
Print this checklist next to the export queue if you ship volume. The studio will still be faster than a spreadsheet. The checklist is what stops a tired operator from skipping the overlay because the last ten files were fine.
Open the matching tool
Keep reading
TikTok vs Reels vs Shorts: where the overlays actually differ
A measured comparison of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts UI overlays on a 1080×1920 canvas — caption wells, action rails, and where on-screen type survives.
How to crop 16:9 to 9:16 without cutting faces
A practical method for converting landscape video to 9:16 vertical: pan per shot, avoid centre-crop accidents, and know when blur padding is the better master.
Instagram Story vs Reel safe zones
Stories and Reels are both 1080×1920, but the progress bars, reply field, caption well, and tab bar do not match. Here is what to keep clear on each.
Meta ad placements and the 9:16 safe zone
Where Meta draws sponsored labels, profile rows, and CTA buttons on 9:16 placements — and how to proof a creative before you spend.