The thumbnail is the first thing your audience will see. It will determine whether they'd like to give your video a shot or disregard it altogether. If you want your content to draw attention and pique the interest of a wider audience, you need to work on your cover. For that, you need a thumbnail generator.
With a free YouTube thumbnail maker online, you can easily make an eye-catching thumbnail that can increase your view count and boost your subscriber base. Don't know which is the best? Check our best tools below.
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Top 5 Free YouTube Thumbnail Makers Online
There are many tools at your disposal – both video and photo editors can help you design a thumbnail. However, your options are a bit more limited if you're looking for a reliable but free thumbnail creator for YouTube. The following are some of the best online YouTube thumbnail creators.
Snappa
Snappa is an all-around graphics design tool commonly used for creating social media posts, marketing graphics, blog art, and more. It's a simple web-based solution that gives you access to useful templates and free stock media you can use to create versatile designs.
It has a dedicated YouTube thumbnail creator designed to be quick and efficient. You can add one of over 5 million high-resolution, royalty-free images or upload your own snapshots to get started. Customize your text, create overlays, and be done in minutes.
- Generate thumbnails in seconds with AI.
- Choose from 200+ thumbnail templates.
- Powerful AI for effortless content creation.
- Intuitive, professional yet beginner-friendly.
- Works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.
Renderforest
Renderforest is an online YouTube thumbnail maker that offers 40+ templates. It boasts a vast library of thumbnail templates for virtually any niche you might be in on YouTube – hardcore gamers, cutesy gamers, foodies, educational content creators, travelers, and more. It's up to you to find a template that suits you and then get to work. You can fully personalize your thumbnails with your own media or stock photos, add unique icons, change the background, and more.
FotoJet
FotoJet is an online YouTube thumbnail maker that consists of 700+ templates. You can use it for high-quality graphic designs, extensive photo editing, making collages, and more.
It offers a solid selection of features to make your videos appear more attractive. You can easily mix and match its templates, clipart images, and your own media to create stunning designs. Perhaps the best part about it is that not only is there a free-to-use version, but it also requires no sign-ins or registrations. Simply visit the website and start working on your thumbnail.
Visme
As a free YouTube thumbnail maker, Visme offers 100+ YouTube thumbnail templates and allows you to add fun visuals, create stunning text graphics, and make your thumbnails your own. You can use its templates to expedite the process of creating thumbnails, or you can start from scratch if you prefer. It has a more significant learning curve than similar tools, but it shouldn't take too long to get accustomed to it.
Picmaker
Although primarily designed for small businesses, Picmaker can be an excellent choice for independent YouTube creators. AI-powered, it has everything you need to stand out on any social media platform.
Its YouTube thumbnail maker has numerous templates that suit any creator's niche. It offers dozens of fonts, customizable backgrounds, numerous color options, and more. While it's more versatile when you subscribe to one of its paid plans, its free version has enough features for beginners just testing the waters on YouTube.
How to Use an Online Free YouTube Thumbnail Maker?
While all free online thumbnail makers for YouTube are unique in their own ways, offering different feature sets, templates, and more, they all have a highly similar workflow for creating thumbnails. With Snappa, for instance, the process requires just a few steps:
- Visit the website and select the type of graphics you want to create (YouTube thumbnail);
- Choose a template;
- Upload a snapshot from your video or other media you want to use;
- Add text, stickers, stock media, and more;
- Click Download, then upload the thumbnail to YouTube when uploading the video.
Pros and Cons of Using Online YouTube Thumbnail Makers
Best Offline Thumbnail Maker for YouTube
While using an online thumbnail editor can be convenient for novice YouTube creators, you need to use pro solutions if you want to be a pro. Downloadable tools like Wondershare Filmora give you more power and flexibility to create truly stunning thumbnails that will quickly grab your audience's attention. Not only can you use it to create eye-catching thumbnails, but you can also rely on it for perfecting your entire YouTube video – from start to finish.
- It offers almost 200 thumbnail templates for free to use for different topics such as vlogs, education, gaming, food, and others.
- It has 100+ Advanced video editing features such as AI portrait cutout, smart masking, text editing, and more.
- It provides 2.3M+ visual assets including texts, stickers, effects, etc.
- It has a vast library of endless video templates.
- Remove the background easily with one click.
- Directly create YouTube thumbnails from video content.
- Compress and upload videos to YouTube without quality loss.
The best part is that despite being an advanced tool, Filmora remains perfectly easy to use. In just a few steps, you can have your YouTube-worthy templates that will impress your target audience.
How to Create a YouTube Thumbnail with Filmora?
- Install Wondershare Filmora, then click the Login button to sign in to your account;
- From the main menu, select the 16:9 Aspect Ratio and click New Project;
- Click the Import button to upload your video for YouTube and drag it to the timeline;
- Click any black space of the timeline, and navigate to Project Info > Thumbnail > Edit.
- It will automatically extract the best frames from videos and you can choose any picture as the thumbnail > then click Edit.
- Go to template > choose the one you would like to download and apply.
- Double-click the texts > then customize them according to your preference. You can click Save to keep the results. Or directly click Export to Local to save the YouTube thumbnail without watermarks.
- Tick the box to add the thumbnail to the beginning of your video. Then you can export the video, or directly upload it to YouTube.
Tips for Creating YouTube Thumbnails Online and Offline
Virtually any YouTube thumbnail generator – free or paid – will let you play around with the thumbnail's appearance as much as you want. Though the specific design will vary based on your audience preferences, your niche, and your overall style, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind when creating it:
- Avoid clickbait – your thumbnail should give a glance into your actual video content. It shouldn't be misleading or inaccurate in any way.
- Leave some white space – it can be tempting to put as much information, text, and images in your thumbnails as possible. However, that will only leave them looking cluttered and unappealing. Leave some white space and only put in elements that matter;
- Stay consistent – a uniform look for all your thumbnails can improve your brand recognition, but that doesn't mean reusing the same thumbnail repeatedly. Stay consistent by always including your logo, for example, or using a specific color scheme.
You might have to go through a period of trial and error until you've pinpointed a thumbnail design that works for you and your viewers. So, don't be afraid to experiment.
Conclusion
Your thumbnail has a greater impact on your view count on YouTube than you might think. We've discussed the best free online YouTube thumbnail makers, most of them offer various YouTube templates, and can be edited directly. But if you need a reliable downloadable tool, try Wondershare Filmora for more power, flexibility, and versatility.
