Face placement automatically sizes and positions a photo so the subject's face lands at the same height and scale every time — no matter how the photo was cropped or how far the subject stood from the camera. It's built for designs you reuse across many different people, where the face has to land in exactly the same spot each time. This article explains what it does, and — just as important — when to use a normal fit mode instead.
What face placement is for
Use face placement on single-subject designs that the same template will produce over and over with different photos — an individual player card, a multi-photo shareable, or a plaque. In those layouts the face has to sit in a precise, repeatable position: the same template might receive a tightly cropped headshot for one athlete and a full-body shot for the next, and face placement makes the face land identically either way.
Where it does not belong is a team photo. For team composites — a row of player frames in a single layout — use Top Fill with face placement off. Top Fill fills each frame from the top and gives a clean, uniform row without per-photo face detection, and it's the right tool for that job. Reach for face placement only when a single subject's face has to hit an exact mark.
The two controls, in plain terms
Face placement is driven by two things you draw directly on the canvas:
- The face-target box — a rectangle that says "the face goes here, at this size." The photo is scaled and positioned so the detected face fills this box. Make the box bigger and the face renders bigger; drag it lower and the face sits lower in the frame.
- The max content line — a horizontal ceiling for the photo's content. Nothing in the photo (hair, a raised bat, a glove held overhead) extends above this line. It keeps tall poses from crashing into headers, logos, or anything above the photo.
You set both once on the template. After that, every new photo the design receives conforms automatically.
When to use face placement vs. a normal fit mode
| Use face placement when… | Use Top Fill or another fit mode (Cover, Contain, Fill) when… |
|---|---|
| It's a single-subject design — an individual card, a multi-photo shareable, or a plaque — reused for many different people | It's a team photo — use Top Fill with face placement off for a uniform row |
| The face must land at an exact, repeatable spot and size across every photo the template receives | The photo is a one-off hero shot, background, or product image you'll place by hand |
| Source photos arrive cropped inconsistently and the face still has to match | Filling the frame edge-to-edge matters more than where the face lands |
One expectation to set: face placement makes the face consistent. How much of the subject's body shows still depends on how each source photo was framed — a photo cropped at the waist and a full-body photo will show different amounts of the subject, by design, while the faces match.
Available to every organization
Face detection and face placement work for all organizations — they do not require Background Removal. The two pair nicely (a clean cut-out plus a precisely placed face is a common combination on plaques and shareables), but each works on its own.
Where you'll find it
Face placement lives in the photo layer's properties panel in the editor. You enable it per photo layer with the Face placement checkbox, then use Detect Face and the Edit face placement control to tune the on-canvas overlays.
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