Most video is shot wide, for YouTube or a camera roll, and Pinterest is a tall feed. A 16:9 clip uploaded as it is shows up as a thin strip with a lot of empty space around it. Reshaping it to a tall frame gives the same clip several times more room on a phone screen.
This resizer plays your clip in the browser and records it again in the shape you pick: 9:16 for full screen, 2:3 to match a standard pin, 4:5 or square. You can keep the whole picture over a blurred copy of itself, keep it over a plain color, or fill the frame and choose which part is cropped. You can also trim the start and end. The file never leaves your device.
Which Pinterest video size to choose
Pinterest recommends 9:16, or 1080 x 1920 pixels, for video that fills the phone screen. It also lists 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5 and 1:1 as shapes that work. Choose 9:16 when the clip is the whole point of the pin, and 2:3 when you want the video to sit in the feed at the same size as your image pins.
Video pins must be at least 4 seconds and at most 5 minutes long, and Pinterest takes MP4 and M4V files on the web (MOV as well in the apps). The tool tells you when your trimmed clip is too short or too long.
Blurred background, plain color or crop
The blurred background keeps every part of the picture, so it is the safe choice for clips where the edges matter: a recipe shot from above, a screen recording, a product with text on it. A plain color does the same with a calmer look, and a dark color makes the video stand out.
A crop looks the most natural, because the video fills the frame like one shot for Pinterest. It works when the subject sits in the middle. Use the crop position slider to move the frame left or right (or up and down for a tall clip going square) until the subject is inside it.
Safe zones on a 9:16 video pin
Pinterest draws its own buttons and text over a full screen video. Its spec page gives these safe zones for a 1080 x 1920 video: 270 pixels at the top, 790 at the bottom, 65 on the left and 195 on the right. Anything important in those areas can be covered.
Tick the safe zones box to see the areas shaded on the preview. The shading is only a guide and is never part of the downloaded video. To put a title inside the safe area, use the add text to video tool, and for the still image people see first, the video pin cover maker.
