Thumbnail Maker
1280×720 YouTube thumbnails: photo, bold outlined title, accent bar, cutout.
About this tool
Upload a background photo and optionally a cutout (a transparent PNG from the background remover), type a headline of up to three lines and a subline, pick a style and layout, adjust the darkening, and download a 1280×720 PNG. Everything is drawn on your device.
What makes a thumbnail work
Thumbnails are viewed at about 150 pixels wide in a feed, next to dozens of others, which is why the successful formula is so consistent: a face or object on one side, three to five words in a heavy outlined typeface on the other, high contrast, and one accent colour. The tool builds exactly that and nothing more — it is not a design app, it is the layout that works with the guesswork removed. What it cannot do is tell you which words: that comes from testing in YouTube's own analytics, where click-through rate is the number to watch, and from writing the title and thumbnail as a pair that raise a question together. Keep the PNG under YouTube's 2 MB limit (the image compressor if needed), make the cutout with the background remover, and check whether a new thumbnail really beat the old one with the A/B test calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?
1280 × 720 pixels, 16:9, under 2 MB, as JPG, PNG or GIF. This tool outputs exactly that as PNG.
Can I use a different font?
It uses Impact or your system's heaviest sans-serif, which is the convention. Custom fonts are not supported, to keep the tool simple and fully offline.
Why is my text outlined?
The outline keeps text readable over any photo — it is the single most common feature of high-performing thumbnails.
Does it work for Shorts or other platforms?
It is fixed at 16:9. For square or vertical formats use the social image generator.