YouTube Thumbnail and Banner Maker

Thumbnails and banners built from layers

A strong thumbnail or channel banner is mostly three things: a clear background, a few big words and a face or logo. This editor gives you exactly those building blocks, with the correct sizes already set.

Pick a format

Use the buttons at the top: YouTube thumbnail (1280 x 720), YouTube channel banner (2560 x 1440), X header (1500 x 500), LinkedIn personal banner (1584 x 396), LinkedIn company cover (1128 x 191) and Facebook cover (820 x 312). The canvas resizes to the exact pixels of each platform.

Build the design

1. Choose a background: a gradient, a solid colour or your own picture, which you can darken for contrast.
2. Press Add text. Select the layer in the list, type your words and choose a bold font like Anton or Montserrat. A thick outline and a drop shadow help text stand out on busy backgrounds.
3. Press Add image to place a logo, a photo or a product. Scale it, rotate it, change its opacity or crop it to a circle.
4. Drag layers on the canvas to move them, or fine-tune with the position sliders.
5. Use Bring forward, Send back, Duplicate and Delete to organise the stack.
6. Download as PNG for sharp text or JPG for a smaller file.

Safe areas matter

The dashed guides show where each platform may cover or crop your design. Cyan marks the area that is always visible, red marks areas covered by interface elements such as the duration badge on thumbnails or the profile picture on banners.

Thumbnail tips

• Use three to five words at most.
• High contrast beats clever: bright text on a dark background, or the reverse.
• Show faces with clear emotion where it suits your content.
• Check the design at small size. Thumbnails are often shown only 168 pixels wide.