Vertical video

Share a vertical video with a client in high quality:
the frame takes the file's own shape.

In a player drawn as a 16:9 box, a vertical film arrives as a narrow strip with padding on both sides. Here the watch page sizes the player to the file itself: a 9:16 export plays upright, nothing cropped, at up to 78 percent of the window height and at the data rate you exported it at. One film per shape, reviewed as the file you made, before any social platform's encoder gets to it.

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By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026

The problem with a 16:9 box

Most of a vertical’s screen
is spent on padding.

A player built around a widescreen box has two choices with a 9:16 film: crop it, or shrink it into the middle and fill the sides. YouTube, for example, states 16:9 as its standard aspect ratio on a computer and says it may add padding around 9:16 videos in computer browsers, white by default and dark gray in Dark theme. The picture survives, but the client is judging a sliver of a frame.

78%

Of the window height

The tallest a vertical film is drawn on the watch page, never wider than the page.

Re-encodes on the way through

The 9:16 streams as the file you exported, connection permitting.

Film per shape

Its own link, its own notes, its own approval.

Here the watch page does not draw a box and then fit the film into it. The player is sized to the video: its width and height follow the file, up to 78 percent of the window height and never wider than the page. A 9:16 export is drawn as a 9:16 player. Nothing is cropped, and no bars are drawn around it on the page.

A worked example. In a browser window 900 pixels tall, 78 percent is 702 pixels, so a 9:16 film is drawn 702 pixels tall and about 395 wide. On a phone held upright the same two limits apply, and whichever is reached first sets the size.

Where the same file ends up

How a 9:16 export displays
on each surface.

What the viewer sees

What decides it

Watch page,computer

Upright at its own shape, up to78 percent of the window height,no crop, no side padding drawn

The player sizes itself tothe file

Watch page,phone upright

Upright at its own shape, within78 percent of the window heightand the page width

The same rule; whichever limitis reached first sets the size

Fullscreen,landscape screen

Whole frame visible, bars onthe left and right

Scaled to fit without cropping(object-fit: contain)

Embed onyour own site

Whole frame visible inside theiframe; bar colour can betransparent or a colour you set

The iframe shape your pagegives it

YouTube,computer browser

The player adapts to the video;9:16 may get extra padding,white or dark gray

YouTube's player, per itshelp center

Our rows were read in product code on 18 September 2026. MDN defines object-fit: contain as scaling the content to keep its aspect ratio, letterboxed or pillarboxed when the box is a different shape. The YouTube row quotes YouTube Help, fetched the same day. Platforms not listed were not checked for this page.

The workflow

Export, check the numbers, send the link,
and nothing in between.

Export at the real shape

1080 by 1920 has the same pixel count as 1920 by 1080, so use the 1080p range: 16 to 32 Mbps in HEVC at 24 or 30 fps. A 2160 by 3840 vertical is the same pixel count as UHD: 40 to 80 Mbps. If the client is on an older machine, H.264 with AAC audio plays on more devices.

Upload it as its own film

The vertical gets its own upload, its own link and its own approval, separate from the widescreen. Approving the 16:9 says nothing about what sits at the top and bottom of the 9:16.

Check the dimensions on the page

The watch page prints the file's width and height under the player. If it reads 1080 x 1920, the client is looking at the vertical you exported, not a letterboxed 16:9 render of it.

Send, then revise on the same link

A second pass goes up as a new cut of the same film, so the link, views and settings stay where they were. If the client needs the file itself, switch on the original download for that film.

Ask for two looks, not one

Ask the client to open the link once on a phone and once on a computer. The phone shows the vertical at the size most of its audience will see it. The computer shows it larger, which is where a soft focus pull, a boom at the top of frame or a line of text too close to the edge becomes obvious. Neither check needs an account.

What a review link does not do

It is not the posted version;
it is only the file you made.

The link plays your export at the data rate you rendered it at, connection permitting. Playback still depends on the viewer’s device supporting the codec, so an HEVC 10-bit file that plays on your machine may not play on an older one. That is a reason to test on the client’s own device before the deadline, not after.

The link also shows nothing of the platform the vertical is going to. Once the client posts it, that platform processes its own copy with its own encoder and may cap the resolution: YouTube states that Shorts upload at a maximum of 1080p. A review link cannot change that, and neither can any host. What it gives you is a clean reference: if the posted version looks softer than the link, the difference happened after delivery, not in your export.

For placement packages with several cuts and lengths, see delivering social cutdowns. For naming and approving five shapes at once, see delivering multiple aspect ratios.

When to use a review link

The client needs to judge the picture: grade, focus, framing at the top and bottom of the vertical, text near the edges. A link that shows the file at its own shape and data rate is the right tool, and one link per shape keeps the approvals clean.

When to skip it

One vertical, one placement, one person saying yes, and they only need to see it on a phone. Send the file. If the client needs to see the platform's own interface over the frame, a private draft on that platform is the more honest check, and no review link replaces it.

Questions

Frequently asked

Will the client see the vertical full screen on their phone?

On the watch page the film sits upright at its own shape, limited to 78 percent of the window height and to the page width. Fullscreen is available, and in fullscreen the film is scaled to fit without cropping. On a landscape monitor that means bars on both sides. Held upright on a phone, how much of the screen it fills depends on the shape of that phone's screen.

Can the 16:9 and the 9:16 share one link?

Send them as separate films. A vertical is a different edit with its own reframing, its own notes and its own approval, so each shape gets its own upload and its own link. Revisions inside one shape go up as a new cut of that film, and the link stays the same.

The client says the vertical looks worse once it is posted. Why?

The link played your export. The platform then processed its own copy with its own encoder, and may cap resolution: YouTube states that Shorts upload at a maximum of 1080p, for example. Judge the picture on the review link, then check the posted version separately on the platform itself.

Should I add black bars to make the vertical 16:9 before sending?

No. It throws away most of the frame's pixels on padding, and YouTube's own guidance asks creators not to add padding or black bars because it stops the player adapting to the video. Export the vertical at its real shape and let the player size itself.

Send the vertical as the file you exported

The watch page takes the shape of the film, and the film streams without another re-encode on the way in or out. Video views carry no additional charge; plans differ in storage, team seats and caption allowances.