Thumbnails are drawn on your device. Your photos are not uploaded or stored.
Made to be read small
Most people see a thumbnail at the size of a stamp, in a sidebar or on a phone. The preview below the canvas shows it at that size, so you can check the words still read. Three to five big words beat a full sentence, and a cut-out face or product on one side with the text on the other is the layout that works best.
Questions
What are the safe zones?
YouTube puts the video length in the bottom-right corner, and the orange box marks that area so you keep words out of it. The dashed line shows a margin that stays visible when the thumbnail is cropped or rounded. The guides are only in the preview, never in the saved file.
What size and format does YouTube need?
1280 × 720 pixels in 16:9, as JPG, PNG or GIF, under 2 MB. The JPG option lowers the quality only as far as needed to stay under 2 MB.
How do I put myself on the thumbnail?
Open a photo in the background remover to get a PNG with a transparent background, then add it here as the cut-out. It sits on the opposite side to your text, and the size slider makes it bigger or smaller.
Can it use my brand colours?
Yes. If you have saved colours in Your kittybin, the background and accent start in your colours, and you can add your logo to the corner.