How I Make My YouTube Thumbnails

Your thumbnails are arguably the most important part of your video on YouTube, so it's worth spending a bit of extra time on them. Here's how I make my thumbnails, so I hope it helps with yours too!

Time Markers:
0:00 - Why Thumbnails Matter
1:59 - Where to Begin (Find What Works)
2:56 - Taking a Thumbnail Photo
4:03 - Using Lightroom and Photoshop
5:50 - Using Procreate on the iPad Pro for Titles
7:51 - Hand Lettering Basics
8:49 - Putting It All Together With Photoshop
12:04 - Fix a Broken Thumbnail
12:46 - It's Not About the Views

•Here's a playlist of videos that will help with thumbnails:

Episode 132: How I Make My YouTube Thumbnails

» Ready to start your own podcast? Check out The Podcaster Playbook, my step-by-step DIY course to help you launch your show!

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Instagram & Twitter: @sodarntom

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– Who Am I? –

Hi! My name is Tom Buck. As a lifelong A/V nerd, I’m here to help you level up the audio and video quality of your streams, podcasts, puns, and videos. I was a high school Digital Media teacher for 11 years, and I started this channel in 2017 as a project to share my enthusiasm for digital media and teaching others while having fun along the way.

New videos are uploaded every Thursday morning, and more often when possible!

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#thumbnail #graphicdesign #Procreate
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[MarkDuffyPhotography]

When you are creating your thumbnail in Photoshop next time, try it at 1920x1080 but when you go to export use the Save for Web option or Ctrl Alt Shift S is the shortcut, a dialog box will open with a preview, top right you can set your optimisation, bring the quality down til the preview size says it will be smaller than 2MB. Also another tip, if you're saving your thumbnails out as PNG format, they're usually double the file size to JPG as they're uncompressed. When bringing your quality down in the JPG format, I wouldn't go below 70% hope this helps. Just found your channel, you're creating savage work.


Mark

[qstyler]

really I don't know how this channel had only 8.5k subs with all this big and amazing works on it ( video, voice, editing, subject ) all of them are better than millions of channels had more subs, keep this amazing channel .

[Creativeinc]

So true! Just like hollywood movies have their posters that get us hyped to watch it, thumbnails serve a very similar purpose. All about finding that unique style that fits to the content you're creating, but continues to be eye-catching enough to encourage new viewers to stop by!

[gamerpoets]

2MB is the size limit. If you have photoshop you can keep it 1080 but downscale the output (if needed). Only program I've used so far for thumbnails so I"m not sure about others. When exporting There are max and min res options. I keep it high as I can. Sometimes its max other times its a step or two down.

[chrishughes]

How this channel only has 10k subs is beyond me. You deserve and will get a million one day, no doubt. Great content, amazing presentation. Very inspiring. Thank you :)

[KaiAndrew]

Dude! Loving the shift in videos lately. I'm jealous of both your thumbnails and video quality.

[joe_fabricator]

You Nailed it! Great video Tom. The black bar under the text looks really good. A nice touch.

[hannatrue]

I'm loving your content, Tom... especially the videos that incorporate hand-lettering! Thank you so much for your entertaining AND practical videos! Can't wait to watch more and see your channel continue to grow!

[ExploringCanadaInfo]

I got here from @Peter Lindgren Vlogs community tab suggestion to check you out. Then I noticed how amazing your thumbnails are. So good! Really, really good! I've been watching videos including your banner and end screens video, and now I've discovered your thumbnail video. Looking forward to learning from you in this vid ' cause yours are great!

[hotlineoperator]

This channel is more professional than many others. Well done.

[EricWen]

Love the thoughts and process in this video Tom! So awesome to see this! Looks super fun too! I really wanna try hand lettering for myself and maybe even my videos! :) Thanks so much for putting this together!

[EddiePotatoes]

This was excellent. Thanks so much for sharing.

[HenryThomas]

So good! Thank you for sharing your process; this helps a lo!

[gearpoint]

Hi Tom, i found you channel listening to your podcast with Peter (great job btw) great video, i had no idea that you spent so much time and details on your thumbnails. great tip about using the ipad with procreate, i will definitely try this in the future.

[EudaimonicTraveler]

Well explained! This video gave me some idea to come up with my own style of thumbnails. I've become a fan of your channel :)

[sseltaeb]

Thank you for this! I am new to the channel (because I saw a review of the Rodecaster Pro that you did), and I subscribed for that. Then I quickly discovered all of the other amazing content you have, here.

I was specifically wondering how you made these thumbnails, so this was excellent to watch. Your thumbnails have a great style and are immediately identifiable! :)

[rockentry]

hahahah seriously! 0:42 Don't we all just hate that intense all of a sudden drop! Damn, Algorithm!

Also, Thanks for sharing your thumbnail process, loved it.

[biggerfishTX]

Woah you gotta me 🙃 I spent a bunch of time on what the font dot com looking for the font you were using! Now I gotta do a Tom Buck deep dive about hand lettering - there goes my Saturday

[RexxReviews]

Tom if you see this, I have that same overhead rig you have. A few months back they came out with a 4ft long top bar t o make it wider.

[STEAMLabDenver]

Thanks! Your thumbnails are definitely high quality and interesting.