CleanorTools
Mockup

Instagram Story Generator

Details

How to use Instagram Story Generator

What the tool does, how to run it, and what to expect from the result.

How to make an Instagram story mockup

A story mockup is a flat image of what a story would look like in the app, chrome included: the progress bar at the top, the avatar and handle, and your text over a background. It is what you put in a pitch deck, a case study, or a portfolio when you want to show a story without screenshotting a real one.

This generator draws all of that on a canvas in your browser at a 9:16 ratio and gives you a PNG. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is posted.

  • Type the username that should appear in the header.
  • Type the story text. Line breaks are respected and long lines wrap automatically.
  • Pick one of the five gradients, or upload a background image, which is cropped to cover the 9:16 frame.
  • Optionally upload an avatar, which is clipped to a circle. Without one, the first letter of the username is used.
  • Click download to save the PNG at 720 x 1280.
Tips

Getting a better result out of Instagram Story Generator

Specific settings and thresholds, not general advice.

  • The export is 1080 x 1920 pixels, which is exactly what Instagram serves stories at, so nothing is upscaled on the way in. The layout is drawn at 360 x 640 and rendered at 3x.
  • The mock chrome (the segmented progress bar, the avatar ring, the username, the '2h' timestamp) is baked into the PNG. It is a picture of a story, not a story. If you post this to Instagram you will get a fake UI drawn on top of the real UI.
  • Text is drawn with system-ui, so the exported PNG uses whatever the operating system's default UI font is. The same file made on a Mac (SF Pro) and on Windows (Segoe UI) will not look identical, which matters if two people on a team are making the same asset.
  • Each line of the overlay gets a semi-transparent black pill behind it at 28% opacity. That is what keeps the text legible over a busy photo, so you rarely need to darken the background image yourself.
  • Uploading a background image replaces the gradient entirely and it is cropped to cover, centred. Anything important near the edges of a landscape photo will be cut off by the 9:16 frame.
Limits

What Instagram Story Generator does not do

The honest boundary, so you do not lose time finding it yourself.

  • One text block, one avatar and one background. No stickers, polls or link layers.
  • It does not post to Instagram, and there is no Instagram account connection.
  • Fonts are the system UI font. There is no font picker, size control, or text positioning.
  • Five fixed gradients, one text block, one avatar. No stickers, polls, links, or multiple text layers.
At a glance

Who Instagram Story Generator is for

A quick way to understand who this helps, what it solves, and where it connects next.

Best fit

Marketers making Instagram story mockups.

Ideal for

Using the instagram story generator without installing anything or signing up.

FAQ

Common questions

Short answers for the questions people usually have before trying a utility like this.

Does this publish to Instagram?

No. It renders a PNG on a canvas in your browser and hands you the file. There is no Instagram login, no API connection, and no scheduling. Download the image and upload it through the Instagram app or your scheduling tool as you normally would.

What resolution does it export at?

1080 x 1920, the size Instagram actually serves stories at. The layout is composed at 360 x 640 CSS pixels and rendered at three times that, so text and edges stay crisp instead of being upscaled by the app.

Can I remove the fake progress bar and username?

No. The story chrome is part of the render, which is the point of the tool: it produces a picture of what a story looks like, useful for a portfolio shot, a slide, or a mockup in a pitch deck. It is not what you want if you are producing the actual image to post.

Why does my text look different from a teammate's export?

The canvas draws with the system-ui font, which resolves to SF Pro on macOS and iOS, Segoe UI on Windows, and Roboto on Android. Two people making the same story on different machines get different letterforms and slightly different line wraps. There is no embedded font.

Are my uploaded photo and avatar sent anywhere?

No. Both are read into an HTML canvas in your own tab, composited there, and exported as a PNG blob your browser hands straight to the download. There is no upload step and no server involved.

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