Ghost Blog Header Sizes & Styles That Convert

Ghost has the cleanest defaults of any blogging platform.

It also makes a half-baked image setup look painfully obvious. Bad header on Ghost stands out in a way it doesn't on WordPress.

Here's how to set up Ghost's image system once - and then forget about it.

Table of Contents

• What Ghost Expects
• The "No Feature Image" Trap
• Style Picks That Work on Ghost
  • 1. Editorial photoreal
  • 2. Minimal / monochrome
  • 3. Hand-drawn / sketch
  • 4. Editorial Ghibli
  • Avoid
• Newsletter + Blog: One Style, Two Surfaces
• A Concrete Setup
• OG and Twitter Card Overrides
• File Format Recommendations
• The Hidden Multiplier: Email Cards
• Common Ghost-Specific Mistakes
• Cross-Link
• Set It Up Once

What Ghost Expects

Default Casper theme + most modern Ghost themes use:

If you upload everything at 2400 x 1440, Ghost auto-generates everything down. No manual resizing.

The "No Feature Image" Trap

Ghost lets you publish without a feature image. The result:

• Your homepage looks broken
• Email previews show a blank
• Social shares pull a default OG (often the site logo)

Always set one. Even a placeholder beats nothing.

Style Picks That Work on Ghost

Ghost themes lean editorial - clean type, lots of whitespace, content-first.

Image styles that match this aesthetic:

1. Editorial photoreal

Magazine-feel, off-center subjects, natural light. Looks intentional next to Ghost's typography.

Realistic blog banners.

2. Minimal / monochrome

One subject, lots of negative space. Works especially well on Casper-style themes.

3. Hand-drawn / sketch

The 2026 favorite. Tells readers a real person publishes here.

4. Editorial Ghibli

Watch the over-saturation. Done well, looks like a New Yorker illustration.

Ghibli-style.

Avoid

• Sticker / cartoon (clashes with Ghost's serif aesthetic)
• Heavy gradients (looks dated next to Ghost's whitespace)
• Stock photo mannequins (signals "I didn't try")

Newsletter + Blog: One Style, Two Surfaces

Ghost lets you publish to web + email from one post. Your feature image shows up in both places.

That means:

• The image needs to work in inbox previews and above-the-fold web
• 1200x630 is the safe size for both
• Important elements off-center, since email clients crop differently

More on email header impact.

A Concrete Setup

Here's a working setup we've used:

1. Style locked: editorial photoreal, soft natural light, off-center subject, neutral palette
2. Size: 1200x630 (works for feature, OG, newsletter)
3. Tool: Postpix for generation
4. Cadence: One image per post, ~30 seconds to generate

Set once. Holds for ~50 posts before you'd want to refresh.

OG and Twitter Card Overrides

Ghost lets you override OG image per post (Settings panel on each post).

Two approaches:

• Lazy: skip the override. Ghost uses Feature Image by default. Fine for most.
• Diligent: generate a separate 1200x630 OG and 1200x675 Twitter card per post.

The lazy approach is fine until you start pushing share traffic. Then upgrade.

File Format Recommendations

Ghost auto-converts to WebP on serving. You can upload JPG, PNG, or WebP - the user gets WebP.

Compression target:

• Feature image: under 300 KB
• Inline: under 150 KB

If you're generating in Postpix, outputs are already optimized.

The Hidden Multiplier: Email Cards

Ghost's premium feature: a real email newsletter on the same posts.

Subscribers see your feature image in their inbox. The same image you used for the web post.

This means: a good feature image earns you both a higher web CTR and a higher email open. One image, two channels.

Common Ghost-Specific Mistakes

1. Forgetting feature image on member-only posts - emails ship without an image
2. Uploading 8MB images - Ghost handles it but slows admin
3. Different style per post - Ghost themes amplify inconsistency
4. Ignoring Twitter card override - fine until you start running ads

Cross-Link

Earlier post: Ghost Blog Visual Guide. This is the size + style cut.

Set It Up Once

Generate a feature image for your next 5 Ghost posts in one session. Lock the style. Stop thinking about it.

Pricing when you've committed.