Life

My #poetsofinstagram Toolkit

So another FAQs (frequently asked questions) I always receive is: How do you make your poem images on Instagram?

By that, they mean this.

Today I will share the tools I use to make a simple image for my poem. Read till the end of this post for some bonus tips related to #poetsofinstagram.

If you’re not into poetry, you can also benefit from what I share to make quote images, posters for your business or just to label your personal pictures beautifully from your phone.

Let’s get started.

Apps

I use Phonto – It is available for Android and iPhone, no discrimination. It’s very simple and user-friendly.

Background

I always use a white plain background. But you can upload any images that you like. If you don’t really have beautiful picture of your own, you can browse through Free Stock Photo sites for amazing free photos. My favourite would be Unsplash.

If you don’t find anything that you like over there, there’s 20 other free stock photo sites here.

Another good idea for background is to use vintage paper image, this can easily be searched and downloaded from Google. Here’s an example from my poet friend’s Instagram account:-

by @lyanne.poetry

Font

Many people get frustrated with the choices of font on Phonto. But do you know that you can actually download ANNNYYY font that you like and install it on the apps. Just go to dafont.com and look for free fonts and you will be spoilt by the choices.

The one that I always use is,

Kingsthing Typewriter 2 – a (clearly) typewriter font.

Sometimes, I also use Libre Baskerville for ‘book pages’ feel.

I stick to a simple style (no heading, bold, italic, or shadow and just use default spacing) – to be specific, my favourable font size is 22 and I always align my text to the center.

There are many other tools and ways to showcase your poetry on Instagram but these are the things I basically use to make mine. Easy, right?

Bonus tips

1. The online world is very noisy. This is a very cliche advice, but the most important thing before you put yourself out there is to be yourself, always write your own voice.

2. Use hashtags so that it’s easy for readers to find your poems. Do you know that you can use up to 30 hashtags per post? Here are some famous hashtags suggestion for #poetry

#poem #love #poet #writer #poetsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writing #art #words #poems #quotes #poetrycommunity #wordporn #quote #poetsofig #life #music #writersofig #spilledink #poetryisnotdead #spokenword #prose #instapoet #inspiration #artist #writerscommunity #instagood #creativewriting #poets #writers

3. You can also tag accounts that feature poets and artists to be found. There’s a very long list of Feature Directory written by Her Heart Poetry for your reference.

That’s all from me today. Talk to you later!

Oh, if you haven’t followed my Instagram account yet, please do so. At my current pace, I’ll try to write one poem per week and I’m looking forward for your feedback on them. Bye bye, thanks for reading.