9:16 video

9:16 is the dominant aspect ratio for short-form video. Practical resolution: 1080×1920 (full HD vertical). It matches a phone screen held in portrait orientation, which is the default state for ~95% of social-video consumption.

Layout discipline matters. Reels/TikTok UI elements (caption, like/share buttons, user info) eat the bottom 25% and parts of the top 15% of the frame. Critical visual content — face, on-screen captions, key text — should sit in the middle 60% (vertical pixels 288–1632 on a 1080×1920 canvas).

Kompozy's HyperFrames templates and Persona Shorts both default to 1080×1920 with a safe-zone-aware layout. Captions burn in via libass at the middle-third position by default; templates that need custom positioning (e.g. quote-callout templates) expose per-template overrides.

Related terms

• Vertical video — Video shot or cropped at 9:16 aspect ratio, optimized for phone-held viewing on Reels, Shorts, TikTok, and Stories.
• Aspect ratio — The proportional relationship of a video or image’s width to its height, expressed as W:H (e.g. 9:16, 1:1, 16:9).
• Short-form video — Vertical or square video typically under 60–90 seconds, optimized for feed scrolling and algorithmic discovery on Reels, Shorts, and TikTok.

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