Delivery · 1 August 2026
Give the app a master it can transcode
TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all transcode uploads. Here is a practical 1080×1920 master that survives the second encode without wasting a 4K HDR file on a phone feed.
By the FramePad editorial desk · 12 min read · Updated 2026-08-28
You do not ship pixels to the viewer
You ship a file to an encoder you do not control. The viewer gets whatever that encoder emits, on a phone, often on cellular. A 50 Mbps 4K HDR ProRes is not generosity. It is a file the app will tone-map, scale, and crush. A 3 Mbps mobile export is the other failure: the second encode has nothing to work with, and type goes soft.
Aim at a social master: 1080×1920, SDR, rec.709 / sRGB, H.264 high profile, yuv420p, 12–20 Mbps for pieces under 60 seconds, 30 fps unless the source is 24. AAC 256–320 kbps, stereo, about −14 LUFS integrated. This is the same baseline as the export settings guide, expanded here for the people who own the encode, not the overlay.
Why 1080×1920 and not 4K vertical
4K 9:16 is 2160×3840. Some apps accept it. All of them scale it. The overlay math on this site is 1080×1920 because that is the interchange size the chrome is designed against. Type that is sharp at 2160 and then scaled with the picture can still land under a caption well. Design the safe zone at 1080. If you have 4K source, convert geometry at 1080, then optionally export a 4K master from the NLE with the same crop. Do not invent a second pan.
FramePad’s in-browser H.264 path is a convenience for short clips. For a three-minute piece, choose the crop here, then encode in the NLE. The tab is not a render farm. The privacy property still holds: this application does not receive the file.
Colour that survives a feed
HDR masters are tone-mapped by each app differently. Skin goes plastic. Reds clip. Export SDR. If the grade only works in HDR, it does not work on TikTok. Rec.709 with a little headroom is boring and correct.
Burned-in type should be checked after a compressed encode, not only on the mezzanine. Soft edges eat thin hairlines. A 2-pixel outline at 1080 can vanish. Use 3–4 pixels, or a plate.
Audio, loudness, and the next video
Feeds play the next video at a loudness the app likes. If your voiceover sits at −24 LUFS it feels quiet. If it sits at −8 it clips after their limiter. −14 integrated is a reasonable social target. Mix as if the viewer is on a phone speaker, because they are.
Music beds that fight speech will be ducked. Do not rely on a lyric as the hook unless that lyric is also burned in or captioned. Many viewers never unmute.
What FramePad writes, and what it does not
Stills: PNG from the canvas. Video: WebM from MediaRecorder, or H.264 when FFmpeg.wasm loads. Neither path uploads the source. Proof sheets burn the overlay for review. Publish the clean master.
If WASM cannot start, you still have a crop: screenshot the canvas, or take the pan numbers to an NLE. The overlay did its job. Encode is a separate craft. The privacy page lists the third-party scripts that do run when a page is viewed.
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.