Beginner guide
You will turn an ordinary photo into a correctly sized Instagram post, make a smaller copy of it, and find both files. Your original photo is not changed.
What you need
- Creator Toolkit installed. See Install.
- A photo in JPG or PNG format.
Look around the dashboard
When the app opens you see the line Optimize and convert media before you share it online. and five cards: Image Tools, Video Tools, Audio Tools, PDF Tools and Social Media Presets.
On Linux and Windows, Open output folder at the bottom opens the folder where all results are saved. The button at the top right switches between the system, light and dark theme.
Export a photo for Instagram
Select Social Media Presets.
Under Platform, select Instagram.
Under Preset, select Square Post · 1080 × 1080.
The line below describes the result: a 1080 × 1080 JPG, cropped from the centre, at quality 85.
Drop your photo on the box that says Drop files here or tap to browse, or click the box and choose it.
The photo appears in the selected files list. Its cross removes it again.
Select Export for Instagram.
The Results list shows a row for the job. When it finishes, the row shows the size and quality, for example 1080 × 1080, quality 85 • 312.4 KB.
The photo was scaled to fill the square and the edges that did not fit were cut off evenly from both sides. Nothing is stretched.
Make a smaller copy
Go back to the dashboard and select Image Tools. The Compress tab is open.
Add the same photo.
Leave Quality at 80 and Longest side at Original.
Select Compress image.
The row in Results shows the size before and after, such as 4.1 MB → 1.2 MB.
Find your files
Everything is saved in CreatorToolkit in your home folder. Each result is named after the original with a short addition, so beach.jpg gives beach_instagram-square-post.jpg and beach_compressed.jpg. Existing files are never overwritten; a number is added instead.
On Linux and Windows, select Show in folder (the folder icon on a finished row) to open the folder with the file in it. On Android, the folder is Android/data/com.dhivalabs.creator_toolkit/files/CreatorToolkit; open it with a file manager.
What you learned
- Each tool takes files from a drop box and runs when you select its button.
- Social media presets crop and resize to the exact size a platform expects.
- Results land in one folder, with the tool's name added to the file name.