Pinterest launched Idea Pins as a multi-page, full-screen creator format. Creation later collapsed into a unified Pin builder: image, video, product, rich. Help Centre copy now lists those types and not 'Idea Pin.' The brief has not caught up. When a client says Idea Pin they mean the 9:16 full-bleed watch — 1080×1920 — not a 2:3 standard Pin in the search grid. 9:16 vs 4:5 vs 1:1 is the short-form choice elsewhere; on Pinterest the competing rectangle is 2:3. They are not crops of each other.
The file still plays with platform chrome on it. Safe area is the region you own. Burned-in captions carry the claim because a lot of Pinterest video is watched muted in a home feed. Overlay type that sits in the bottom fifth or under a product tag is a line the viewer never reads. A standard Pin can take an outbound link more cleanly than the old Idea Pin could; if the job is traffic, confirm the current Pin type rather than assuming the 2021 rule still holds.
Do not upload a 9:16 Reel and call the letterboxing a Pinterest crop, and do not upload a 2:3 product still into a full-screen slot and call the empty sides a style. Generate at the ratio of the slot. Re-check captions after the reframe.
In practice
- Ask whether the slot is 9:16 full-screen or 2:3 grid before you generate.
- Burn the claim into the frame. Pinterest video is often watched with sound off.
- Keep essential type out of the bottom chrome and any product-tag strip.
The mistake to avoid
Treating 'Idea Pin' as a retired curiosity and shipping a 2:3 still into a full-screen watch. The name moved; the 9:16 surface did not disappear.
Where you will run into it
- Change a Video's Aspect Ratio — One clip. Any frame.
- Make a Video Vertical — Landscape in. Full-screen mobile out.
- Add Captions to a Video — Speech in, styled subtitles out — no manual timing.
- AI Reel Maker — Hook, beats, captions, posted.
Related terms
Safe area
A safe area is the part of a vertical frame a platform's own interface will not cover — profile name, caption line, like and share buttons all sit outside it — and text or a face placed inside it is routinely hidden from the viewer entirely.
9:16 vs 4:5 vs 1:1
9:16 vs 4:5 vs 1:1 is the short-form frame choice: full-screen Stories and Reels, tall feed posts, or square tiles — three compositions, not three crops.
Burned-in captions
Burned-in captions meaning: subtitles rendered into pixels, so viewers cannot turn them off or lose them on re-upload. Closed captions are a separate track.
Hook rate
Hook rate meaning: the share of people shown a video who are still watching a few seconds in. It grades the opening, not the body.
Retention curve
Retention curve meaning: how many starters are still watching at each second. Watch time is the area under that curve.
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