Blackboard Ultra Banner - Satisfactory Sizing

 This is another one of those posts I make because I couldn't find some quick satisfactory answers on my own. So, it's short and sweet. 

In the original Blackboard, I used to customize the course banners. Usuaully they had quotes or information that would set a tone for the semester and that we could talk about the first week of class. That became really difficult with the new Blackboard Ultra banners. They're 240 x 1200 pixels, as the minimum, but what they don't tell you explicitly, is that the image, and how much you can see of it, changes based on the size of the browser window, and that, it is only very rare cases that you'll see the entire image at all. 

They do recommend making the image "larger" so that it stays crisp, but no other guidelines are given. If you do stick to just the 240x1200 recommendation, the image will often be pixelated or really chopped off. 

So far, I've found that doubling the recommendation exactly works the best. The full design gets displayed (at least as much as possible) and it's easier to predict what parts of the image will be cut off (far left, right, and about 1/4 the distance from the top and bottom). 

Whatever the heart of your banner is, you'll want it basically dead center, and you'll want to leave yourself a healthy margin or border. 

Take for instance this template from Canva:

At 580 x 2400 pixels, Blackboard Ultra had no cropping suggestionings during the upload process. 

The image also stays crisp as Blackboard Ultra moves and resizes it to fit different window sizes. 

However, at a full screen window setting, the banner will still be reduced down to the center only.

Here's the different visible areas of the banner at different window settings. 

Only the area within the yellow box is visible at the top of the course:

FULL SCREEN, LONGER THAN TALL: - Visible Area in Yellow

SMALL WINDOW, TALLER THAN LONG: - Visible Area in Red Box

While the full banner never really seems to be displayed, putting content withing the yllow and read box, as a combination, is the safest spot to ensure content will be seen by students. 

That said, you still need to size the image the full amount to get that effect, as the full image will never fully show. 

So, if you want, you can download a copy of the sample banner above, open it up in Canva or another program. Confirm the size is still set to 580 x 2400 pixels. Then, use the horizontal yellow lines and the vertical red lines to set yourself a rectangle guide for a safe space to design in for main content. 

Then delete everything else and design as you like. Or copy the shape you made onto another photo to see what parts of the photo will actually be visible in your Blackboard course. With an advanced program, you can probably get the exact pixel measurement of visible space based on the size of the rectangle. 

Hope this helps!