Notion covers are an easy way to set the visual tone for your pages, a chance to personalise your pages to your own taste. This article outlines the four methods to add a cover to a Notion page and where you can find Notion covers:
- The default, free cover image Notion gallery
- Uploading an image
- Linking to an image on the web via its URL address
- Selecting an image from the Unsplash free image library
Before we outline each method, let’s talk about image sizes recommended for Notion Cover images.
Notion Recommended Cover Image Sizes
Notion makes the following recommendations when you’re adding a cover Image to your page:
- Using images wider than 1500 pixels work best
- The file size of the image you chose should be a maximum of 5MB.
OK, let’s get on with the different methods to add Notion covers.
Method 1: Use free Notion covers from Notion’s own cover library
Notion already has a library of pre-loaded images that can you can use to add images to your pages as a cover. Notion’s library include selected images from the NASA Archive, The Risk Museum and The Met Museum.
Steps to set a Cover Image from the Notion library
- In Notion, display the page that you want to add a cover image to
- Hover the cursor on or just above the title text field of your page. Select Add Cover option. This will randomly select and place a cover image at the top of your page (This step is necessary if you don’t already have a cover image on the page, otherwise if you are changing a cover image already on your page, just start from step 3, below.)
- Hover the cursor over any part of the cover image and select Change Cover option. The image window should appear, defaulting to Gallery tab.
- Scroll through the image categories in the Gallery tab and select an image. The selected image should appear on the top of the page, above the page title. While the gallery window is open, you can keep selecting different images to try as your cover image.
- If you don’t want a cover image on your page, select Remove.
- To reposition your selected cover image, on the page, hover over the cover image, select Reposition, and drag the image up or down to your preferred framing.
Method 2: Upload an image to be your Notion cover
Notion gives you the option to upload an image to be your Notion cover image. This really opens up the options to any image you can source, or naturally, any image of your own.
Steps to upload an image to be a Notion page cover:
- In Notion, display the page that you want to add a cover image to
- Hover the cursor just above the title text field of your page. Select Add Cover option. This will randomly select and place a cover image at the top of your page (This step is necessary if you don’t already have a cover image on the page, otherwise if you are changing a cover image already on your page, just start from step 3, below).
- Hover the cursor over any part of the cover image and select Change Cover option. The image window should appear, defaulting to Gallery tab. Select the Upload option.
- Select the Upload file option. Your system’s File Manager window should appear
- Navigate to the image you want to use the page’s cover image, and then select it. Notion should upload the image to the top of the page.
- To reposition your selected cover image, on the page, hover over the cover image, select Reposition, and drag the image up or down to your preferred framing.
Sources of Images
If you’re thinking of downloading an image from an image library as a Notion Cover image, the Web offers a huge number of image sources to choose from. For your convenience, the following section contains the following lists that you could source an image from:
- Stock image libraries
- Illustration stock libraries
- Creative market places that have an illustration market,
- AI image generators
Images from stock image libraries
You can go to stock image libraries such as Pexels, Getty Images and find images to suit your Notion pages. You can search for free or paid images for your image topic.
Images from stock Illustration libraries
If you want to try images other than photography stock images, illustration stock images might make an interesting alternative. The following is a list of stock image library sites that have an illustration category (like Vecteezy or Adobe Stock), or are a dedicated stock illustration library (like Storyset or Reshot):
Images from creative marketplaces
If you’d like to support the work of graphic designers and illustrators, you can also find cool and interesting images on creative market platforms:
Check the terms for using a stock image or illustration
If you’re using an image from one of the stock image sites above, just be sure to review and adhere to its usage rights. In many cases the image may be free for use and only needs a simple attribution on the page you’re using it on. In other cases, you might pay a one-time fee for the rights to use the image, and no ongoing royalty fee to the owner for any ongoing usage.
Creating an image from an AI image generator
Optimising the image you’ve chosen as your Notion Cover image
Once you’ve found and downloaded the image you want, you can use a basic image cropping tool like Canva, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or any personal favourite image editing app of yours to crop the image to Notion’s preferred cover image dimensions(1500 pixels x 600 pixels) and optimise it to reduce its file size. Once you have finished optimising it, save your downloaded image as a jpg, gif or png format, ready for upload to Notion as a cover image.
Method 3: Using an Image Link To Set a Notion Cover
Notion provides an option for you to link with any image from the web. Notion will use the image link you provide to display the image on the page.
Steps to link an image as a cover for your Notion page:
- Display the Notion page that you want to link a web image to.
- Hover the cursor just above the title text field of your page. Select Add Cover option. This will randomly select and place a cover image at the top of your page (This step is necessary if you don’t already have a cover image on the page, otherwise if you are changing a cover image already on your page, just start from step 3, below).
- Hover the cursor over any part of the cover image and select Change Cover option. The image window should appear, defaulting to Gallery tab. Select the Link option.
- Select Link tab. A field should appear for you to enter an image link address to.
- Once you have added the image link address, select Submit
- To reposition an image, hover over the cover image, select Reposition, and drag the image up or down to your preferred framing.
Method 4: Choose an Unsplash image to be your Notion Cover
Notion also offers the option to select images directly from the Unsplash stock image library.
- In Notion, display the page that you want to add a cover image to
- Hover the cursor just above the title text field of your page. Select Add Cover option. This will randomly select and place a cover image
- (If you are changing an existing cover image, you would hover over the existing image and select Change Cover)
- Hover the cursor over any part of the cover image and select Change Cover option. The image window should appear, defaulting to Gallery tab.
- Select Unsplash tab. A field should appear for you to enter a keyword to search for an image or scroll through the image categories in the tab and select an image. Once you have selected the image, it automatically appears on the page.
Conclusion
So there you have it, our guide to adding an image cover to a Notion page. You are now fully equipped to add cover images to your Notion pages. With a variety of sources such as AI image generators, stock photo sites, and more, you have plenty of options for sprucing up your pages. So what are you waiting for? Get creative and start adding cover images to your Notion pages today! You’ll be amazed at how much impact a single image can have on your page. Happy creating!
Featured Image Credit: Online illustrations by Storyset.com
