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YouTube Banner Maker

YouTube banner maker, free and with no signup: start on a blank 2560 x 1440 banner, or upload a picture and build your channel banner on it. A guide marks exactly what mobile, tablet, desktop and TV will show, and it stays out of the download.

Part of Piknova's free toolkit
2560 x 1440, every crop marked

See the Crop.
Before YouTube Does.

Every YouTube banner gets cropped four different ways, and most people find out when their channel name loses its first letter on a phone. Here the crops are drawn on the canvas while you work, so the text and logo go where every screen can see them, and the lines disappear when you download.

Free To Use Nothing Uploaded No Watermark

Tools that pair well with this one

All free, all in your browser, no signup.

Why use Piknova?

A banner maker that shows you the crop. to get the job done.

What you get here that a template site or a size checker leaves out.

Piknova

What you get
  • Mobile, tablet, desktop and TV crops marked on the canvas
  • Design and check in one place
  • Start blank or build on your own picture
  • The guide is left out of the download for you
  • No signup, no watermark, nothing uploaded

Other tools

What you put up with
  • A template you hope is centred
  • A preview tool you upload the finished file to
  • Pick a template, then replace everything in it
  • Guide lines you have to delete by hand
  • An account before the download button works

How to make a YouTube banner

Three steps, no account.

  1. 01

    Start blank or upload

    Press Start editing for a white 2560 x 1440 banner, or Upload an image to build on a picture you already have. PNG, JPG or WebP, up to 25 MB.

  2. 02

    Keep the important bits in the middle

    Put your channel name and logo inside the box labelled Text and logo safe area. That strip is all a phone shows. Everything outside it is a bonus for bigger screens.

  3. 03

    Download it, then upload to YouTube

    Export at actual size and the guide is left out. In YouTube Studio, open Customization, then Branding, and upload it as your banner image.

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Size and dimensions

YouTube channel banner size and dimensions

YouTube asks for one image and shows a different piece of it on every screen, so the size question has two answers: the canvas you upload, and the strip people actually see.

  • Recommended: 2560 x 1440: The size the editor opens on. It is 16:9, the shape of a TV screen, which is the only screen that shows all of it.
  • Minimum: 2048 x 1152: YouTube refuses anything smaller at upload. Same 16:9 shape, just fewer pixels.
  • File size: 6 MB or less: Easy to miss with a photo-heavy PNG at full size. More on that in the FAQ.
  • Safe area: 1546 x 423: Centred, at full size. YouTube quotes it as 1235 x 338 at the minimum size, which is the same proportion of the image, so the guide here uses the full-size number.

Every number on this page comes from YouTube's own help page rather than a blog's best guess, and the guide is drawn from the same numbers, pixel for pixel.

Safe area

The YouTube banner safe area, and why 1546 x 423 is the number that matters

If you remember one size, make it this one. The safe area, or safe zone, is the centred strip that every device shows, which makes it the only place a channel name is guaranteed to survive.

A phone shows that strip and nothing else. So does a desktop browser at its narrowest. Wider windows and tablets add some width on either side, and a TV adds the top and bottom, but nobody ever sees less than the safe area. Text and logos go inside it; mood, colour and background can spill out.

Leave a margin inside the safe area too. A logo touching the edge of 1546 x 423 is technically visible and looks cramped on every screen at once.

On the guide it is the innermost pair of lines, labelled Desktop min and mobile 1546 x 423, with Text and logo safe area written across the middle so you cannot miss it while you work.

Every screen

YouTube banner size for mobile, tablet, desktop and TV

One upload, four crops. Here is what each screen does with your 2560 x 1440 image, and how the guide marks it.

  • Mobile: 1546 x 423 from the centre, the safe area and nothing else. The innermost lines on the guide.
  • Tablet: 1855 x 423 from the centre. The middle pair of lines, a little wider than a phone.
  • Desktop: Anywhere from 1546 x 423 up to the full 2560 x 423, depending on how wide the browser window is. The outer box on the guide is the widest a desktop gets.
  • TV: All 2560 x 1440. The only screen that shows the top and bottom of your image, which is why those parts are shaded on the guide.

That is why the canvas is so tall when everything except a TV shows a thin strip. Put background in the shaded area that looks good when it is there and is not missed when it is not.

From a picture

Make a YouTube banner from an image you already have

A photo, a piece of game art or a logo is usually where a banner starts, and none of them arrive at 2560 x 1440.

Press Upload an image and the picture lands on the banner contained, not cropped. A 16:9 picture fills the canvas exactly; anything wider, taller or smaller sits whole in the middle, so you decide what to trim. Drag it, scale it, and check it against the guide. That is the whole job of resizing an image for a YouTube banner, done by eye instead of by arithmetic.

Your picture sits above the guide in the layers panel, so a full-size photo covers the lines. Drag the guide layer above it while you line things up. It is still left out of the download wherever it sits.

If all you need is the picture at 2560 x 1440 with nothing added, the image resizer does it in one step.

Other tools for the same banner

Resize an imageSet 2560 x 1440 exactly, when the picture is already the banner.Add text to an imageThe same text tool, for a thumbnail or a post to go with the banner.Overlay an image on an imagePut a logo or a cut-out on top of a background photo.

Who uses this

When people reach for a YouTube banner creator

Nobody makes a banner for fun. It is usually one job inside a bigger one, and the job decides what goes in the safe area.

A brand new channel

Replacing YouTube's blank grey strip with a name and a reason to subscribe before the first upload goes live.

A rebrand

New name, new logo, new niche. The banner is the first place returning viewers notice it.

An upload schedule

Putting the days you post inside the safe area, where phones still show them.

Streams and series

Swapping the art for a season, an event or a live schedule, then swapping it back.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How the banner maker works, and where it stops.

Press Start editing above for a blank 2560 x 1440 banner, or Upload an image to start from a picture. The guide on the canvas marks what each screen shows.

Add your channel name and logo inside the box labelled Text and logo safe area, fill the rest with background, then press Download. The guide is left out of the file.

Yes. No sign up, no watermark, no export limit. The banner is made in your browser rather than on our servers, so there is no per-banner cost for us to pass on.

2560 x 1440 pixels, 6 MB or less, with text and logos inside the centred 1546 x 423 safe area. The minimum YouTube accepts is 2048 x 1152. The editor opens on 2560 x 1440, so you start at the right size without typing anything.

No. The guide is a layer marked as not part of the download, and every export skips it, whether you download, copy or share. If you want to see the banner without it while you work, hide it from the layers panel.

PNG for flat colour and lettering, where it keeps edges sharp. JPG for anything built on a photo, because a full-size PNG of a photo can go past YouTube's 6 MB limit.

If YouTube rejects the file as too large, download it again as JPG at actual size. The export menu shows how big the last download was, so you can check before you upload.

One, and it is the one that matters: the safe-area template the editor opens on, with every device crop marked. There is no gallery of ready-made designs to pick from. The point is to build your own banner on top of the guide, with your picture and your channel name where every screen will show them.

Open YouTube Studio, go to Customization, then Branding, and under Banner image choose Upload. YouTube shows a preview of the crops before you publish. This tool does not connect to your YouTube account, so that last step is yours.

Yes, though a bigger screen is more comfortable at 2560 x 1440. The guide works the same on a phone. The layers panel is hidden on narrow screens to leave room for the canvas, so hiding or reordering the guide is easier on a laptop.

No. The Upload an image button opens the picture in your browser, and the banner is drawn there. Nothing is sent to a server, which is also why nobody here can see what you were making.

Make your banner now

Start blank or drop a picture. Every crop is marked, the download is clean, and nothing gets uploaded.

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