Udemy Course Images: Strip Last Cohort’s Date at 750×422

The tile is 16:9; last intake is still on it

Udemy’s course-image quality standards set a minimum of 750×422 pixels at 16:9. Smaller files get stretched and look soft on the landing page. The same help article documents a large maximum on the long edge, so a 1920×1080 master is inside the marketplace habit even if you export a smaller JPEG for the form. Instructors still ship a flattened PNG that says “COHORT 12 — STARTS MARCH” while enrollment for cohort 14 is open. Redesigning in Figma is the clean path. Reality is that JPEG sitting in Drive while the landing page is already in review. The job this week is to clear the old letters, keep the instructor still or the product mock, and letter this intake in Canva on a clean 16:9 master — not to invent a new photograph, and not to tour every cleanup tool on the site.

Paint the date, not the face

Upload the cover to text removal. Brush the cohort label, the early-bird price, and “LIVE THIS THURSDAY” as one block. Zoom to 100% on skin, a laptop edge, or illustrated type you intend to keep. You want the original grain, not a soft rectangle where the date sat. Do not run full-image auto if the course title is part of the illustration; paint only the dated line. If auto already ate a letter of the title, you need the layered file, not a second pass. A partner logo in the corner is a mark, not a caption — route that after the letters are gone, in one sentence, then come back to type. Mixing logo and date in the same stroke is why a cheek still shows a yellow smear.

Before

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After

Size math versus the 10MB cap

Work on a 1920×1080 master, then export 16:9 JPEG for Udemy. Uploads here accept JPG, PNG, WebP, or AVIF up to 10MB and 6000×6000 px. A 1920 px PNG under 4MB typically returns in under 60 seconds. Teachable and Kajabi cards are often square or a different 16:9 crop — export those from the same untitled base rather than stretching the Udemy file. Do not upload a 400 px WhatsApp screenshot and hope 750×422 will save it. Zoom webinar lobbies are a third crop; letter “TONIGHT” in the lobby tool, not in the pixels, so a rain delay does not force another reconstruction. Name files `course-slug-base.png` versus `course-slug-c14.jpg` so next quarter you are not hunting Drive for the untitled still.

LMS, ads, and when reconstruction fails

One untitled base should feed the LMS tile, a Meta ad, and the sales-page hero. Letter each surface separately so a price change does not force another reconstruction. Skip the tool when the date covers most of a face, when the file is a screenshot of a screenshot, or when you do not own the art. Clearing your own expired intake is production. Lifting another instructor’s cover is not — and Udemy’s landing-page guidance already warns that third-party logos without permission are your problem. If the only file is a compressed marketplace download of your own course, go back to the design export. Reconstruction will not restore a title that was never in a layer.

Launch-week habit

Keep a folder named by course slug, not by date. Each launch, add type in the layout tool and export. If review is waiting and the best still says last March, clear the type, export at least 750×422 at 16:9, and letter this cohort on a tile that already earns the click. Do not bake “BESTSELLER” or a star rating into the JPEG; those claims belong in marketplace fields, not in reconstructed enamel on a laptop lid. A second auto pass will not invent pores the first pass flattened. Relink the layered file when the date sat on a cheek.

Marketplace fields versus pixels

Udemy already has places for the course title, instructor name, and ratings. Those do not need to be reconstructed into the JPEG. Instructors bake them in because a Canva template looked complete. That is why last cohort’s month is still in the pixels after the curriculum changed. If review flags a logo you do not have rights to, clearing type will not fix the logo. Pull the layered file. Organic landing pages on your own domain can use a taller crop; do not stretch the 16:9 Udemy export into a 9:16 Story and call it a new shoot. Do not reconstruct a QR code that pointed at last year’s Zoom room. Put the new URL in the lecture description. The 750×422 minimum is a floor, not a look. On a 390 px-wide phone the tile is small; a date in 14 px type on a 1920 master becomes a smear. Paint the date at 100% zoom on the master, then letter this cohort in a layout tool at a size that still reads after downsample.

What belongs in the syllabus, not the art

Learning objectives, a start date, and a refund window belong in the marketplace copy. Baking them into the hero is why you are here again next quarter. Keep the untitled 16:9 base in a slug-named folder. If a TA forwards a Slack screenshot of the old tile, do not process that screenshot. Ask for the Drive original. Reconstruction on a twice-compressed JPEG will not restore a laptop edge. When enrollment is already open, clear the overlay once, export at least 750×422 at 16:9, and stop. A second pass will not invent pores the first pass flattened.

When enrollment is open and the marketplace tile still names last year’s month, clear the overlay, keep the face, and ship a 16:9 image that matches the syllabus you actually recorded.