LinkedIn HDR glow: how it worked, and why it stopped in September 2026
Drop your logo or post image in, pick the glow strength, export a JPEG and upload it straight to LinkedIn. This is the tool behind the glowing Wiz, Taboola, Port and Lusha logos in the feed.
Make my LinkedIn image glow Runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded. Simple is €3 one time for unlimited exports at 400px. Creator €5 one time to 1400px. Pro €9 a month to 3840px.What LinkedIn HDR glow actually is
Some logos and post images on LinkedIn render brighter than the white of the page around them. That is not a CSS effect and it is not an animation. The image is a normal JPEG whose pixels have been encoded with the PQ transfer function and tagged with a Rec.2100 PQ ICC profile, the same signalling HDR video uses. On a screen with HDR headroom, a recent iPhone, iPad, MacBook or Android OLED, the browser or app hands the bright pixels to the display's extra brightness and they glow. On an SDR screen the same file just looks like your normal image.
Superwhite does the encoding for you in one step and, more importantly, does the pixel work that decides whether the result looks lit or looks dirty.
How to make a LinkedIn image glow
- Prepare the source. A flat PNG or JPEG with the parts you want to glow at or near pure white. High-contrast marks work best: a white wordmark on a colour or dark field.
- Drop it into Superwhite. The preview shows the original and the HDR version side by side, and on an HDR screen the right hand one is already glowing above the page.
- Set the glow threshold and strength. The threshold decides which pixels count as "white" so your background and midtones stay untouched. Around 1,000 to 1,600 nits reads as clearly lit without looking blown out in a feed.
- Export. You get a JPEG with the Rec.2100 PQ profile embedded, 4:4:4 chroma at quality 97, dithered in PQ code space so edges stay clean.
- Upload that exact file to LinkedIn as an image post or as the company logo. Do not crop, filter or edit it in LinkedIn's composer, and do not re-save it in another editor first.
What survived LinkedIn until September 2026, and what changed
Until September 2026 the ICC profile route was the one HDR format that came through LinkedIn's re-encode. That is no longer the case: the pipeline now strips the profile, on organic posts, company logos and Sponsored Content alike, and assets uploaded before the change were flattened too. The lists below are kept as a record of what was verified. Full write-up: what changed and what still works.
Survived until September 2026
- JPEG with a Rec.2100 PQ ICC profile, uploaded directly as an image post
- Company page logos
- Sponsored Content and paid image ads. Superwhite had verified the profile was retained on the paid path as well as organic
Never survived
- Gain map (Ultra HDR) JPEGs. LinkedIn strips the MPF and XMP payload on re-encode
- PNG with a cICP chunk. LinkedIn re-encodes to JPEG and the chunk is gone
- HDR video. LinkedIn's transcoder rewrites the colour metadata to SDR regardless of input, even though the upload preview plays the HDR original
- Screenshots, copy and paste, WhatsApp and iMessage forwards
The video point catches people out. The composer preview plays your pre-transcode file, so an HDR MP4 looks like it worked right up until it hits the feed. Read the full breakdown in HDR video on LinkedIn.
Which size to export
LinkedIn serves company logos at 400 × 400 and post or ad creative at 1200 × 627. A file LinkedIn has no reason to resize comes through its quality 90 re-encode almost untouched, which is why Superwhite's tiers are cut where they are: Simple covers 400px logos and avatars, Creator covers 1400px for full-width posts and ads, Pro goes to 3840px for anything larger and adds batch export and saved brand presets.
Why the pixel handling matters
Tagging an image as PQ without touching the pixels boosts the whole frame, including compression noise you could not see before. A near-white JPEG artefact at 254 becomes visible grain once it is sitting at 1,600 nits. Superwhite runs a flattening ramp that blends near-white pixels toward pure white before encoding, applies Floyd-Steinberg dithering in PQ code space to prevent banding, and writes true 4:4:4 chroma so coloured edges do not smear. This is the difference between a logo that reads as lit and one that reads as a glitch, and it is what the paid tiers fund.
The full technical mechanism, with the ICC byte splice and the display headroom explained, is in How Superwhite works.
Frequently asked questions
Does LinkedIn HDR glow work on profile pictures?
Not any more, on any LinkedIn surface. Company page logos and feed image posts were the reliable surfaces until September 2026; personal profile photos were unreliable even before. Since the change, the profile is stripped everywhere on LinkedIn.
Does the glow survive in LinkedIn ads?
Not since September 2026. Superwhite had verified that Sponsored Content and paid image ads kept the ICC profile through LinkedIn's ad pipeline, but the paid path now strips it along with the organic one.
Why does my colleague see a normal image?
Their display has no HDR headroom or HDR is switched off, or their phone is in battery saver. The file is unchanged. Roughly half of a typical LinkedIn audience is on an HDR-capable screen, so design the image to work without the glow too.
Can I make a LinkedIn video glow?
No. LinkedIn's transcoder rewrites video colour metadata to SDR on every upload, even though the composer preview plays the original HDR file. Since September 2026 images are stripped too, so nothing glows on LinkedIn today.
How much does Superwhite cost?
Simple is 3 euro one time for unlimited exports up to 400px, which covers logos and avatars. Creator is 5 euro one time up to 1400px for web hero images and email headers. Pro is 9 euro a month up to 3840px with batch export and saved presets; new Pro subscriptions are paused since 21 September 2026.
Does the same file glow on Instagram or Facebook?
No. Meta platforms need a gain map JPEG under ISO 21496-1 rather than an ICC-profile JPEG, and they re-encode differently. Superwhite's LinkedIn export is built for LinkedIn's pipeline specifically.