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About this tool
Plan YouTube thumbnail layouts with draggable visual elements, live preview, workflow tracking, branding notes, and exportable creative briefs.
A thumbnail layout planner blocks out where the face, headline, product and logo sit on the 1280×720 frame YouTube asks for, then checks that arrangement against the rules that break thumbnails in the wild: the 5% edge margin, the duration badge in the bottom-right corner, and whether the text is still readable when the image is scaled to the 168 px strip on a phone. It is for creators and thumbnail designers who want the composition settled before opening Photoshop or Figma.
Open Thumbnail Layout Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the Video title and Thumbnail headline (6 words max), then arrange the starter blocks — Presenter cut-out, Headline and Channel logo — on the 16:9 canvas, or press "Add element" for more.
Drag a block or focus it and use the arrow keys, or type exact X %, Y %, Width % and Height % values; blocks turn red when they break the 5% safe margin or sit under the shaded duration-badge corner.
Read the Layout score out of 100 with every flagged issue listed, then press "Copy brief" to copy a markdown brief with per-element pixel positions.
1280×720 at 16:9 with the 2 MB upload ceiling, not an approximate box.
Every element is re-measured at 168 px and 246 px, the two sizes viewers actually see.
Copy a markdown brief with per-element pixel positions and every flagged issue.
1280×720 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio, under 2 MB, as JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP. YouTube states 1280 wide as the recommended minimum because that is the size used for the video player preview; anything smaller gets upscaled and looks soft.
At least about 10.6% of the frame height — roughly 76 px tall on the 1280×720 master. That is the point at which text still clears 10 px on screen once the thumbnail is scaled down to the ~168 px-wide mobile suggested-videos strip, which is the smallest size it is commonly displayed at.
The bottom-right corner, roughly the last 14% of the width and 12% of the height. YouTube stamps the video duration there in almost every surface, so a logo or word placed in that corner is covered. A 5% margin on all four edges is also worth keeping clear, because different surfaces crop and round the corners differently.
Six or fewer, and three to four is better. Word count is the main driver of how small each letter has to be: at 168 px wide, a six-word headline gives each word about 28 px of horizontal space, which is already near the limit of what a viewer can read while scrolling.