By Andrew Dennis
28 Apr 2015

Using Pablo for Social Media Images – Tutorial Tuesday

SEO Strategy

Hi y’all, and welcome to another installment of your favorite digital marketing tutorial-style content series that only appears on Tuesdays!

This week I want to dive into the wonderful new image design tool Pablo, developed by Buffer. Pablo is great for creating quick images perfect for social sharing.

In this tutorial, we will learn to:

  1. Select a background image for Pablo
  2. Add text to a Pablo image
  3. Download or share your Pablo design

Let’s get started!

Tutorial Tuesday Banner

Step One: Select a Background Image for Pablo

To get started, simply navigate to https://buffer.com/pablo. (Note: You don’t have to create a Buffer account to use Pablo, but if you already have one you can sign in to make sharing your designs easier).

Here is what the Pablo dashboard looks like:

Pablo Homepage

Pablo comes pre-loaded with a default background image:

Pablo Default Image

However, you can change the background image within the “Background Options” provided:

Pablo Background Options

Pablo gives you two choices for background images. You can either upload your own photo from your computer:

Pablo Background Image Upload

Or you can choose from the pre-loaded options provided:

Pablo Background Image Provided

For this example (and because it’s a Tuesday!), I will use the coffee example provided by Pablo:

Pablo Coffee Selected

After selecting your background image, you then have a few different options to alter it further:

Pablo Different Background Options

These options include “Normal”, which is selected by default.

Or “Blurred”:

Pablo Blurred

Or “Black & White”:

Pablo Black and White

Let’s stick with “Normal” for this tutorial.

In addition to these three image options, you can also change the contrast of the picture:

Pablo Contrast Box

This option is selected by default, but here is what the image would look like without the increased contrast:

Pablo Without Contrast

I’m going to leave the increased contrast option selected and move on to the text portion of my design.

Step Two: Add Text to a Pablo Image

The next step we will take in creating our image is to add our desired text. As you can see, Pablo comes pre-loaded with a default quote:

Pablo Default Quote

However, we can change this text within the provided text box:

Pablo Text Box

As we type in this box, the text will change on our sample image to the right. Once you have the appropriate text in the box, you can see a preview of what it looks like:

Pablo Text Final with Arrows

Along with the main text box, Pablo also gives you the option to add “Secondary text”:

Pablo Secondary Text Box

Clicking on the “Add secondary text” button will allow you to add a smaller headline to your image. For example:

Pablo Secondary Text Added with Arrows

You can also add a logo to your design, by clicking on the “Add a logo” button:

Pablo Add a Logo Button

Clicking on the button will allow you to upload a logo/image from your computer. For example, I can upload the Linkarati logo:

Pablo With Logo Added Central

After you’ve added your logo, you can then adjust its size:

Pablo Logo Size

Once you have the desired size set for your logo, you can move it around on your design by simply clicking and dragging it with your mouse. You can also grab and drag the text boxes you have created.

Here is what my image looks like after shifting things around a bit:

Pablo with Logo Bottom Right

Now that you have your text in the appropriate spot, you can then change the font:

Pablo Font Change

Size:

Pablo Font Size

And color:

Pablo Font Color

You can also click the “Advanced” button to select italics or bolding for your text:

Pablo Advanced Button

After sorting out your text, you are ready to download or share your design!

Step Three: Download or Share Your Pablo Design

Now that you’ve created a design you’re happy with, you need to decide what to do with it.

With Pablo you have two options – download to your computer or share via social media (specifically, Twitter or Facebook).

You can find both of these options beneath the preview of your image:

Pablo Download Or Share

If you want to download the link to share later simply click the download link and save to your computer.

However, if you would like to share your post straight from the Pablo dashboard, you will need to first sign in to your corresponding social account. You can also use Buffer to schedule your social post for a later time (Note: You will need a Buffer account for this):

Pablo Buffer button

And now we have a simple, high-quality image perfect for social sharing!

To learn about some creative ways to use the designs you make with Pablo, check out this great post from Buffer.

Andrew Dennis

Andrew Dennis is a Content Marketing Manager at Shopify. Andrew is an alumnus of the University of Idaho and consequently a lifelong Vandals fan. You can connect with Andrew on Twitter or LinkedIn.