How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail in Photoshop

If you're producing your own YouTube videos, you may want to add a thumbnail to your creations. That's easily done in Photoshop!

Steps

1
Open a New Photoshop Document. Press Ctlr+N or go to File and then New.
- 1280×720 or 1920×1080 will be good for a thumbnail.
2
Startup with the background. Fill the background with a gradient. To do this, select the gradient tool (hold down the Paint Bucket tool). Choose a fill option from the gradient samples. Then press and hold to make a starting point and ending point.

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3
Add a picture to the thumbnail. For example, you might add a logo. To add that image, go to File then Place.
4
Add text. In order to do this press "T" and type what you want to display.
- Add some effects to the text if desired, such as drop shadow. To do this, hit Drop Shadow from the little FX icon.
5
Put a rectangle behind the text (optional). Hold down the shape tools icon and select the rectangle tool. Then drag in your image to draw the rectangle; decrease its opacity to 50% or 25%.
- Make sure that the rectangle layer is under the text layer.
6
Save the thumbnail. Go to File and choose Save for web. Select PNG-24 and press Save.