What is the Best LearnDash Course Grid Image Size?

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I have answered this question so many times in the LearnDash Facebook group, and now it’s time to answer it here one final time.

What is the best image size to use for the LearnDash course grid images?

It depends. There isn’t one universal answer.

The best image size for LearnDash course grid images will be different for different sites. Let’s explore the things you need to consider to figure out the best course grid image size for your particular situation.

Images on Course Page?

Are you also using the course grid images on your LearnDash course page?

Both the LearnDash course grid and the course page both use the same Featured Image. Now, not all themes will display the featured image on the LearnDash course page. And in case you didn’t know, LearnDash actually has nothing to do with your course page layout. That is determined by your theme.

Some themes, like Kadence, Astra, and GeneratePress, allow you as an admin to show or hide the featured image on a course-by-course basis.

SIDENOTE
I recommend using one of those 3 themes for almost all LearnDash sites. I wrote a full review of LearnDash themes, if you’re interested.

If you are showing the featured image on your course page…

How wide is your course page on desktop?
How much vertical space do you want your course page image to take up?

You’ll want to make sure your course featured image is wide enough to fill the space allotted to the container of your course page. If it’s not, you’ll have some extra space to the left/right of the image, and it won’t appear centered.

You’ll also likely want something around a 16:9 ratio, as not to take up too much vertical space on the course page. If you used a 1:1 ratio (aka: a square image), it would look funny on your course page, and probably take up more vertical space than you want. This bumps down your course contents listing, and any custom content you have added to your course page.

How Many Columns in Your Course Grid?

How many columns are you displaying your courses in on larger screens?

The more columns, the smaller the image should be. This is because it will be taking up less horizontal space on the page, and thus doesn’t need to be as large, and more specifically, as wide.

Making images larger/wider than they need to be creates larger image sizes, requires the user to download larger files, and thus, negatively impacts your sites performance.

If you’re using portrait orientation images, also consider how much vertical space you want each image to take up.

Image Quality

Another thing to consider is just how crisp you want your images to appear across the myriad of screen sizes & resolutions that exist.

Users have all kinds of different sized monitors, pixel density, etc. If you want the absolute best, most crisp image for every single monitor, your image will need to be larger. If you are ok with images that look good to the naked eye, but aren’t perfectly 100% high quality for the best monitors, you can go a little smaller with your images.