YouTube Thumbnail Maker

How the YouTube Thumbnail Maker works

YouTube thumbnail maker: few words, one subject, 1280 by 720

A thumbnail is seen small. In search results and the suggested list it is a fraction of its full size, next to many others, so the details that matter are the ones that survive shrinking: three or four words in a heavy face, strong contrast with the background, one face or object, and little else. This page is built around that. The default title is Arial Black with an outline, a dark band sits behind it so it reads over any photo, and the canvas is locked to the size YouTube asks for.

The size and file rules

YouTube's guidance for custom thumbnails asks for 1280 by 720 pixels, a 16:9 ratio, in JPG, GIF or PNG, under 2 MB. The canvas is exactly 1280 by 720 and every download is exported at that size, whatever the zoom on your screen.

Download JPEG saves at 92% quality. It is the safer choice for a photo background, because a PNG of a detailed photo is the most likely file to pass 2 MB. Download PNG is lossless. Download SVG keeps the shapes and text as vector markup, which is useful for editing elsewhere, but it is not a format YouTube accepts.

Background

The first image you add becomes the background. It is scaled to cover the whole frame: the larger of 1280 divided by its width and 720 divided by its height. Anything beyond the frame is cropped from the edges, so a square or portrait photo loses its top and bottom. The background cannot be moved, which keeps the title in place. If the crop matters, use the aspect ratio cropper first and add the cropped result.

If you want no photo, the two colour fields make a diagonal gradient from the top left corner to the bottom right. Pick colours that are far apart in brightness so the title stands out even where the two blend.

If the background is a frame from your own video, the getting a still from a video post covers choosing a sharp frame.

Title and band

Title size is measured in pixels of the final image. The slider runs from 40 to 160 in steps of 2 and starts at 84, which fits four or five short words on one line across the 1200-pixel text width. A single word can use the full 160. The outline thickness scales with the size (size divided by 14, so 6 pixels at the default), which keeps the outline in proportion as the text grows.

The dark band is drawn at twice the title size and anchored to the bottom edge, so a larger title brings a taller band. Turn it off with the checkbox if the background is already dark enough. The text colour defaults to white and the outline to black, which is the strongest pairing available without a second colour.

ALL CAPS is on by default. A heavy face in capitals is the usual choice because capitals keep their shape at small sizes. Turn it off for a name or a title that needs lower-case letters.

Faces, arrows and boxes

Every image after the first is placed as a movable layer. It is scaled to fit within 80% of the frame, is never enlarged, and starts centred. That is the place for a cut-out of yourself from the background remover, a product shot or a channel logo. Use a cut-out with a transparent background or the edges will show a box.

Box, Circle and Arrow are each drawn in red (#e11d48) with a 4-pixel line by default. A box is 320 by 180 pixels, a circle is 320 pixels across, and an arrow is 320 pixels long with a head. Select a shape to change its colour and line width. The common devices work because they answer the viewer's question of where to look: a circled face, an arrow to the object, a red box round a number. Pick one. Three marks on one thumbnail compete with each other.

Add text drops a second text box, set in Arial at 60 pixels and centred, for a subtitle or a number. Change its font and colour from the Selected item panel.

Tips and pitfalls

• Judge it at the size it will be seen. Shrink the browser window or step back from the screen until the canvas is the width of a thumb.
• Keep the bottom-right corner clear. YouTube lays the video length over that corner of the thumbnail, so do not put a key word or number there.
• Check the file size. Open the downloaded file and confirm it is under 2 MB.
• Stick to installed fonts. The page cannot load a font file, so use Arial Black or Impact for the title.

Reading the finished thumbnail

Look at the canvas once at full size and once shrunk. At full size, every word should be readable and the subject clear. At thumb size, the title should still be the first thing you read and the subject should still be a recognisable shape. If either fails, the fix is usually a bigger title, a heavier outline or one fewer word.

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