What are Instagram highlight covers?

An Instagram highlight cover is the small circular icon that sits above your profile grid and represents one highlights folder, the place old stories live permanently once they would otherwise disappear after 24 hours. Instagram lets you crop the cover from any photo or story frame. A hills Instagram highlight cover swaps that default crop for a landscape icon you design yourself, built and customized on VEED's story template gallery.

How do I find Instagram highlight covers?

Instagram itself only offers cropping tools, no built-in library of ready-made covers, so most people search outside the app for pre-made icon sets like hills or landscape designs. VEED's asset library holds a browsable, filterable gallery of Instagram story templates, including hills and nature-style highlight covers, and every result opens straight into the editor instead of a download link.

How do I use a highlight cover on my Instagram story?

To set a highlight cover, open your Instagram profile, tap into an existing highlights folder or create one, tap Edit Highlight, and choose a cover photo from your camera roll. Design that cover first: build a hills-themed story in VEED, adjust the colors and icon to match your other folders, then download it and select the same image inside Instagram's own cover picker.

Can I make my own Instagram highlight cover?

Yes. Instagram lets you upload any photo as a highlight cover, so a custom icon works the same way a stock one does. VEED gives you a starting point instead of a blank camera roll: pick a hills or landscape template, edit the prompt to change the artwork, swap the label text, and keep the palette consistent across every folder in your profile.

How is this different from Instagram's built-in highlight covers?

Instagram's own highlight cover feature only crops whatever photo or story frame you already have. It doesn't generate artwork, offer icon templates, or match colors across folders for you. VEED's Instagram story templates start you with a hills or landscape design you can edit by prompt, then brand it with your saved colors and fonts, so the whole row above your grid looks like one set instead of separate crops.

What size should an Instagram highlight cover be?

Instagram displays every highlight cover as a small circle above your profile grid, cropped automatically from whichever photo or story frame you select, so there is no separate export size to hit. Because VEED's hills-themed templates are built at standard Instagram story dimensions, 1080 x 1920 px at a 9:16 ratio, your cover art fills the frame edge to edge, and Instagram's own crop takes care of the rest when you set it.

Trusted by 1M+ creators

Hills Instagram Highlight Cover

Browse hills and landscape highlight cover templates, start from one that fits your profile, and swap in your own colors, label text, and icon style.

Customize a Hills Highlight Cover Now

No credit card required

3D Surface

Vibrant, Bold, Shapes

Edgy Typography

Vibrant, Bold, Shapes

Corner Shop

Vibrant, Bold, Shapes

4.6

2,100+ reviews

A landscape icon that ties your highlight folders together

A hills Instagram highlight cover is the small round icon above your profile grid that labels one highlights folder, cropped from a photo or story frame. Build that icon from a hills template and edit it in the browser, with nothing to download until it is ready.

VEED's gallery includes landscape covers, or start blank and prompt your own hills icon with the AI image generator. Swap the colors and label text, and keep every cover in the set looking like one collection.

How to design a hills Instagram highlight cover:

Step 01

Browse templates and pick a story

Explore the gallery of Instagram story templates and choose one that fits your story. Select it to open it in the editor.

Step 02

Edit the template and swap in your elements

Replace the placeholders with your own. Rewrite the copy, drop in your photos, and adjust the colors to match your brand. Edit the prompt to change the artwork while the layout stays put.

Step 03

Resize and post to Instagram

Resize to Instagram story dimensions and export. Download your story, ready to share on Instagram.

Learn More

Watch how to design a hills Instagram highlight cover

Edit the hill silhouette by prompt, not by hand

Change the hill silhouette, the sky gradient, or the accent color without dragging a node. Rewrite the prompt and the landscape redraws itself while your label and icon frame stay put. Swap sunset for sage green between covers, right in the browser.

Instagram's cover picker stops at your camera roll

Instagram only lets you crop a cover from a photo or story frame; there is no built-in library of hills or landscape icons. VEED's gallery is filterable and browsable, so a hills-themed template opens straight into the editor instead of a camera-roll search.

Build a matching hills icon for every highlight folder

Design one cover for Travel, then reuse the palette and hill line for Home, Diary, and Nature so the row above your grid reads as one set. Start from a correctly sized blank canvas, save colors and fonts to your brand kit, and pull them back with the AI image editor or the image resizer the next time you add a folder.

Customize a Hills Highlight Cover Now

FAQ

An Instagram highlight cover is the small circular icon that sits above your profile grid and represents one highlights folder, the place old stories live permanently once they would otherwise disappear after 24 hours. Instagram lets you crop the cover from any photo or story frame. A hills Instagram highlight cover swaps that default crop for a landscape icon you design yourself, built and customized on VEED's story template gallery.
Instagram itself only offers cropping tools, no built-in library of ready-made covers, so most people search outside the app for pre-made icon sets like hills or landscape designs. VEED's asset library holds a browsable, filterable gallery of Instagram story templates, including hills and nature-style highlight covers, and every result opens straight into the editor instead of a download link.
To set a highlight cover, open your Instagram profile, tap into an existing highlights folder or create one, tap Edit Highlight, and choose a cover photo from your camera roll. Design that cover first: build a hills-themed story in VEED, adjust the colors and icon to match your other folders, then download it and select the same image inside Instagram's own cover picker.
Yes. Instagram lets you upload any photo as a highlight cover, so a custom icon works the same way a stock one does. VEED gives you a starting point instead of a blank camera roll: pick a hills or landscape template, edit the prompt to change the artwork, swap the label text, and keep the palette consistent across every folder in your profile.
Instagram's own highlight cover feature only crops whatever photo or story frame you already have. It doesn't generate artwork, offer icon templates, or match colors across folders for you. VEED's Instagram story templates start you with a hills or landscape design you can edit by prompt, then brand it with your saved colors and fonts, so the whole row above your grid looks like one set instead of separate crops.
Instagram displays every highlight cover as a small circle above your profile grid, cropped automatically from whichever photo or story frame you select, so there is no separate export size to hit. Because VEED's hills-themed templates are built at standard Instagram story dimensions, 1080 x 1920 px at a 9:16 ratio, your cover art fills the frame edge to edge, and Instagram's own crop takes care of the rest when you set it.

Loved by creators.

Loved by the Fortune 500

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

The first four videos i created with VEED got over 40,000 impressions on LinkedIn.

Travis Tyler

Senior Content Producer,
PandaDoc

“

I found VEED at the right time: if you're making UGC ads and not using Eye Contact Correction and Noise Reduction on VEED you're missing out on ROI.

Sebastian Schurgers

Head of Growth Marketing,
Gronda

“

With VEED I didn't need 15 tutorials - I jumped straight in and started editing.

Gwenne Wilcox

Founder,
Brand Brainery

“

You can go beyond choppping things. VEED actually makes my videos look great.

Michael Glover

Demand Gen Manager,
ConvertFlow

Discover more

Explore related tools

When it comes to amazing videos, all you need is VEED

Customize a Hills Highlight Cover Now

No credit card required

More than a hills Instagram highlight cover

A hills Instagram highlight cover is just the start of what the same editor can do for your profile. Start from a landscape template or a fresh prompt, rewrite the label copy, swap the sky gradient or hill color, and brand it with the logo, colors, and fonts saved to your brand kit. VEED is an AI image creation platform, so the same hills icon carries over into the next cover in your set, a fresh folder added later, or a feed-sized version of the same landscape motif for your grid.

Hills Instagram Highlight Cover

A landscape icon that ties your highlight folders together

How to design a hills Instagram highlight cover:

Browse templates and pick a story

Edit the template and swap in your elements

Resize and post to Instagram

Watch how to design a hills Instagram highlight cover

Edit the hill silhouette by prompt, not by hand

Instagram's cover picker stops at your camera roll

Build a matching hills icon for every highlight folder

FAQ

Loved by creators.

More from VEED

How Long is an Instagram Story: A Creator’s Guide

How to Add Music to an Instagram Post, Reel, or Story in 2026

Global Branded Content: Creating Videos That Resonates Across Markets

When it comes to amazing videos, all you need is VEED

More than a hills Instagram highlight cover