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Cover Design Options

Options to design of your story cover

Written by Luke Beard
Updated over 3 weeks ago

Cover Design Options

Your story cover has several options so you can get the perfect look. These options change depending on what story layout you are using.

Accessing Cover Options

The Cover Design Options icon (gear icon) is located in the bottom left of your screen while in edit mode. Click it to reveal the cover options panel.

Cover Layouts

Choose from three layout styles:

  • Overlay - Full-screen cover with title overlaid on the image

  • Two Fold - Split layout with image on one side, title on the other

  • Simple - Clean, minimal layout

Cover Photo Focus Point

Instead of choosing from preset positions (top, bottom, left, right, center), you can now drag a focus point to precisely control which part of your cover photo stays visible when cropped on different screen sizes.

How to Set the Focus Point

  1. Open the Cover Options panel (gear icon)

  2. You'll see a thumbnail preview of your cover photo with a circular focus indicator

  3. Click and drag the focus point to the most important part of your image

  4. The cover photo updates in real-time as you drag

  5. Changes are saved automatically

Tips for Focus Point

  • Portraits: Drag the focus point to the subject's face

  • Landscapes: Focus on the horizon or key element

  • Edge focus: When the focus point is near edges, a subtle zoom effect is applied to help keep your subject visible

Reset to Center

If you've moved the focus point and want to start over, click the Reset button that appears next to the info icon. This returns the focus to the center of the image.

Overlay Layout Options

When using the Overlay layout:

  • Hide/show the dark overlay - Toggle the gradient overlay on your cover photo or video. Disabling this may cause contrast issues with your title text.

  • Hide/show title and subtitle - Hide the story title from the cover. Note: this only takes effect in preview mode, not while editing.

Additional Options (All Layouts)

  • Hide/show author avatar - Toggle your profile picture on the cover

  • Hide/show publish date - Toggle the story's publication date. You can also hide all publish dates site-wide.

Screen Reader Caption (Pro Plus and Business)

When your story has a looping cover video, the Cover Design Options panel includes a Screen Reader Caption field. This short description is hidden from sighted visitors but announced by screen readers, making your cover video accessible to users of assistive technology.

  • Pro Plus — Type a caption manually in the text field and click Save

  • Business with AI enabled — A caption is generated automatically by AI after you upload or replace a cover video. You'll see "Generating caption with AI…" while it's processing. Once ready, the caption appears in the text field. You can edit or replace it at any time.

The caption is cleared automatically when you replace or remove the cover video.

Tip: Keep captions concise (under 150 characters). Describe the main visual action and setting — for example, "Waves rolling onto a sandy beach at sunset."

Cover Videos

Pro Plus and Business subscribers can also upload a looping video as their cover instead of a photo. Learn more about cover videos.

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