Steam capsule sizes, and the only one that really matters

Updated September 2026 · ShipYourGame

Steam asks for the same artwork at six or seven different shapes, and the reason is not decoration. Each one appears somewhere different, at a different physical size, next to different competition. A capsule that reads beautifully on your monitor can be a grey smear in a search row.

The sizes

Screenshots are a separate requirement: at least five, at 1920 x 1080 or larger, gameplay only.

The one that decides everything

The small capsule is 462 x 174, but Steam scales it down in most list views. On a normal desktop search result it lands around 231 px wide. That is the size at which a shopper decides whether you exist.

Open your capsule, scale it to 231 px wide, and look at it from a normal sitting distance. If you cannot read the title, neither can they. This single test kills more capsules than any style argument. Our capsule size preview does it for every size at once.

What changes between sizes

The mistake is exporting one image at eight resolutions. The aspect ratios run from very wide (920 x 430) to tall (600 x 900) to extremely wide (3840 x 1240). A centre crop that works at one shape loses the title or the character at another.

What to do instead:

• Compose each shape separately from the same elements. One character, one logo, one background, re-laid out.
• Keep the logo large in the small capsule and header. In the vertical and library capsule you have room for the character; in the small capsule you usually do not.
• The library hero is nearly a letterbox. Put nothing important in the outer thirds; Steam overlays the logo on top and crops it on narrow windows.
• The library logo is transparent PNG, so it needs its own treatment. It sits over artwork you do not control the brightness of.

Safe areas

Steam does not publish a formal safe-area spec for every asset, but interfaces crop, round corners and overlay badges. Treat roughly 5% of the shortest side as a margin where nothing important lives: no title, no face, no logo edge. Discount badges appear over the top-left of capsules during sales, and the "wishlist" and price chips sit along the bottom edge in several views.

Text rules that survive the shrink

• Fewer words. The subtitle you love is invisible at 231 px.
• High contrast between the title and whatever sits behind it. A drop shadow is not a substitute for contrast.
• Avoid thin or highly stylised typefaces for the title at small sizes. Keep the stylised logo for the large capsules and use a heavier weight where it gets small.
• Do not put review quotes, awards or "Wishlist now" in the capsule art. Valve's rules prohibit marketing copy and badges in capsules, and they are enforced.

A quick process that works

1. Design the small capsule first, at final size, and judge it at 231 px.
2. Re-lay it out for the header and main capsule, where you gain width.
3. Re-lay it out for vertical and library, where you gain height.
4. Export, then look at all of them side by side in one place before uploading.

If they look like the same game at every size and the title reads at thumbnail width, you are done.