Optimize your YouTube banner with these dimensions:2560 pixels wide and 1440 pixels high. Remember that banners look different on desktop, mobile, and TV screens.
Videos are all the rage right now, and for the foreseeable future, YouTube is a fantastic platform that more businesses should embrace.
While most businesses have optimized their Facebook pages and Instagram profiles, many small businesses neglect their YouTube accounts, if they have any at all. Luckily, making your YouTube banner look incredible isn't too difficult. The first step to making your channel look great (and legit) is high-quality YouTube channel art.
In this post, we're going to discuss everything related to these banners, including the best YouTube banner sizes, examples, and practices.
Bonus:We've integrated YouTube's banner dimensions and safety zones into our graphic design tool.Create a YouTube Banner for Free!
YouTube Banner Guidelines
While setting the right banner size on your desktop can be tiring enough, you need to make sure your banner looks good on multiple types of devices and browsers. Since it displays differently on all devices, it's a good idea to follow YouTube's official size recommendations for the ideal image size for YouTube channels.
Youtube sea, the best banner size is 2560 pixels wide and 1440 pixels high. However, there are other size requirements to consider. These include:
- Minimum file dimensions: 2048 x 1152
- Minimum safe area for text and logos: 1546 x 423 pixels, although larger images may be cropped on certain devices or displays
- Maximum width: 2560 x 423 pixels, so the "safe area" is always visible despite the size of the screen
- Maximum file size: 6MB (but file size can be smaller)
While using the 2560 x 1440 pixel size will ensure your banner will fit properly on a TV screen, you also need to think about how your banner will look on desktops and devices. Check out the template below showing how your banner will appear on different devices. These security zones were also integrated directly into Snappa.
How to create a YouTube banner with Snappa
Don't want to wrestle with your banner to get it the right size? Snappa can help, and our drag-and-drop design software is easy to use, even if you have zero graphic design experience. Here's a video we made to show you how to create a YouTube banner for your channel!
To make things as easy and painless as possible, you can choose one of Snappa's customizable preset sizesYouTube banner templates. These can be found under the "Headers" section in Snappa's Templates section and are automatically resized to the YouTube channel's perfect graphic size. When you're readyCreate a Free YouTube Bannerin less than 5 minutes!
There are hundreds of templates to choose from, all of which can be customized.
When you design your banner in Snappa, the software automatically shows you which areas are visible on different screens. In the example below, you can see that the top and bottom areas of the screen are TV-only areas, while the desktop safe areas are also shown. This allows you to create designs that look great on all devices. We recommend keeping your design in the inner safe zone like this example below and you'll never have to worry about your design getting choppy on phones or iPads.
These YouTube banner templates are fully customizable. You can substituteStock photos, and add (or remove) both design elements such as shapes and graphics,and lyrics. And while you can (and should) focus primarily on the areas in the center of the image that are visible from all devices, you can add non-essential design elements to the "TV-only" or "desktop-only" areas.
How to upload YouTube channel art
Uploading your YouTube banner only takes a few seconds. To add a YouTube banner, navigate to your YT channel. You can also do this by going to your "YouTube-Studio“by clicking on the channel icon at the top right of your screen and selecting "YouTube Studio".
From there, you can scroll down and click Customization.
Alternatively, if you're already viewing your channel page, you can access the channel customization page by simply clicking the blue Customize Channel button:
On this page, you can click the "Branding" heading and then scroll down to the "Banner Image" section. From there you can click "Change" where you can upload your new banner image file.
Once you've done that, you'll be shown a preview of how the banner will appear on desktop, TV, and all devices (both tablet and mobile).
Snappa's templates are designed so that the most important things are always visible, but if you're using your own image you'll probably want to adjust the crop manually. However, you can only adjust the crop so that there is room for the TV above and below. You cannot set the lower-left corner of an image as your desktop crop.
When you're happy with it, all you have to do is click "Done" and "Publish" and your YT banner will appear live on your profile. It can be changed at any time.
What Should My YouTube Banner Design Be?
Your banner can be anything, but it should help users quickly identify your business. If your banner doesn't help establish brand awareness, it probably isn't all that effective. We have provided thoseThe Best YouTube Banner Ideas& examples in one post to get you started!
As seen below, Snappa's own YouTube channel is pretty straightforward and to the point; It features our logo (which is the channel's symbol), the brand's colors and the word "TV" in an illustration of a television. We also included some squiggly lines that we use throughout our branding.
Most businesses typically benefit from using the same or similar colors, fonts, logos, and slogans from their business. If your small business is just you, you can even put a picture of yourself in the channel graphic to show users someone they can easily relate to. A great example of this is Haley Dasovich's channel below.
You can change your banner to promote special events like an upcoming webinar or event organized by your company. I'd recommend only doing this for big events that you really want to drive more traffic to, and keeping your channel art consistent (and evergreen) the rest of the time.
Best practices for YouTube banners
When it comes time to create your YouTube banner, the sky's the limit. That being said, there are a few best practices you should follow to create a strong banner that represents your business well.
These best practices include:
Don't neglect areas outside of mobile-only areas
When designing your channel art, it's easy to focus on that one tiny rectangle in the center of the canvas and ignore everything else. However, this is a mistake. While you want to make sure your banner hasn't clipped anything on the smallest screens, you also want to make sure it looks amazing on the largest screens that can display your content.
Using interesting but subtle background images is an easy way to ensure the banner looks good on all devices. The art will naturally take up the screen instead of looking like a bunch of empty space around a small content rectangle. That is a good thing.
Account for social network sharing buttons
If you look at a YouTube channel's banner graphic, you'll notice that the bottom-right corner has a gray overlay containing your social sharing and website links, as well as the channel's icon. You must take this into account when building the image.
You want your social sharing and site links to be prominent and easy to spot so people visit you on other platforms, but you also don't want them to obscure important information or design elements in the banner.
These links appear in the bottom right corner when you add them (which you should). Avoid entering important information in these areas and you will be fine.
Only use high-quality images
Remember when we all had trouble uploading Facebook or Myspace profile pics? We got the thumbnail size right, but when someone clicked it and opened it "full size," it was blurry and didn't scale properly. You don't want this to happen to your YouTube banner when it's displayed on a TV screen.
There are two ways to avoid this. The first is to always start with images that follow YouTube's recommended sizing guidelines, which we discussed in a section above. By using that exact size and not one that is smaller but proportionately equivalent, your image will scale well on large screens.
The second way to avoid this is to only use high-quality (and preferably high-resolution) images. Because of this, Snappa's library of stock photos and designs is of extremely high quality.
Simple, clean designs are always best
The vast majority of users will only see your channel on desktop and/or mobile, and they only see a small portion of a rectangle. The last thing you want is for the banner to be so overwhelming and cluttered that it can't even recognize your logo or social links.
If you look at SnappasYouTube banner templatesall in a row (some of which are pictured above), you'll find that we do this through heavy use of negative space and clean lines. Even when background images are complex, the banner stays grounded and organized with clean, simple shapes and text somewhere on it.
Make sure it works with your channel icon
YourYouTube profile pictureis YouTube's equivalent of a Facebook profile picture. It's important to ensure that the channel icon works well with your channel art as they will be displayed at the same time. This is shown in the example below on the TechLinked channel banner.
To change your channel icon, you can return to the channel customization page. You'll need to click the "Branding" heading again and then upload your channel's new profile picture at the top of this page.The best YouTube profile picture size is 800 x 800 pixels, but note that these are square dimensions and YouTube profile pictures get a circular crop. For more information on YT profile pictures, we have afull instructions on how to do this here.
You can use identical colors from the icon in the banner design to give it a more seamless look. The following Adidas Originals banner does that well. They use their classic blue branding color in their profile picture as well as in their banner which blends nicely with their profile graphic.
Final Thoughts
Well-designed YouTube banners are necessary to fully brand your channel and make it look both distinctive and more believable. And now, thanks to user-friendly tools such assnap(which comes with fully customizable predefined templates),Anyone can create beautiful, captivating channel artwith no design experience required. Remember to update your banner from time to time to keep it looking modern, especially if you're changing your overall company branding or the look of your YouTube channel.
What do you think? What is your favorite YouTube banner example? How do you stand out? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
FAQs
How do I choose a banner size? ›
Your banner size should also be determined by what you want included in the design. The more text and images you want, the bigger size you may need to make everything fit. The smaller the text and images are, you could possibly use a smaller banner, but also remember people will have to be closer to read it.
What is a professional banner size? ›Use the most effective, standard banner sizes
728×90px — Leaderboard. 300×600px — Half Page. 300×250px — Medium Rectangle. 336×280px — Large Rectangle.
A leaderboard is a display ad unit that is 728 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall. It is commonly called a 728×90 or Leaderboard, but can also be referred to as a Leaderboard Banner or Super Banner. A 728×90 ad is usually placed at the top of a webpage so that it will be seen immediately when the page loads.
How do you make a perfect banner? ›If you're designing a banner that's meant to get your name out there and create better brand recognition, it's crucial for the design to prominently feature your brand's colors. Not only do you want your banner to feature your brand's colors, but you also want to make sure it does so accurately.
What size is a 4x6 banner in inches? ›The dimension 4×6 is measured in inches. So a 4×6 photo is about 4×6 inches. It is 4 by 5⅞ inches, to be exact.
What is a good size for an outdoor banner? ›A typical horizontal outdoor vinyl banners is 3ft x 10ft. 6ft x 2ft is a popular size as well. Standard vertical outdoor vinyl banners should ideally be 4ft x 10ft and not lower than 4ft x 6ft.
What size banner for a 10x10 booth? ›We have a great price you won't beat anywhere locally for a printed 3' X 8' banner with grommets (this is what you want for a 10' X 10' tent).
How big is a 8x12 banner? ›Banner Size in Feet: 8 ft High x 12 ft Long. Banner Size in Inches: 96 in High x 144 in Long.