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info Overview

Compose YouTube and Twitch thumbnails with 5 layouts, 8 bubbles, 12 manga effects. Drag and export 1280×720 PNG.

📘 How to Use

  1. Pick a panel layout (diagonal 5-panel, hero plus 3 reactions, trapezoid 3-stripe, clash 2-panel, or single big panel)
  2. Upload an image to each panel and add speech bubbles, manga effects, and title text
  3. Drag elements on the canvas to position them, then click the "Download image" button

Stream Thumbnail Maker

Diagonal 5-panel

Click to pick an image. Assign one per panel.

Bubbles and effects you add appear here.

lock Uploaded images stay in your browser and are never sent to any server.

drag_pan Drag images, bubbles, and effects on the canvas to reposition them.

grid_view Related

Article

Stream Thumbnail Maker | Manga-style YouTube and Twitch thumbnails in the browser

Build YouTube and Twitch stream thumbnails using comic-book panels, speech bubbles, and impact effects, entirely in your browser. 5 panel layouts, 8 bubble styles, 12 manga effects, and a one-click export to 1280×720 PNG. No Photoshop, no Procreate, no Canva — just upload screenshots or face cams, drop in dialogue and effects, and save a thumbnail that breaks the "screenshot plus white text" pattern most competing streams use.

💡 About this tool

Open the gaming category on Twitch or YouTube and most thumbnails look the same: a smooth game screenshot with a white outline title on top. Manga-style thumbnails break that visual pattern, so a viewer's eye gets caught for a fraction of a second longer — and that fraction is what decides whether they click. This tool is built for streamers, VTubers, Let's Players, and reaction-content creators who want that comic-page density without a design tool.

All the fiddly parts of a manga layout — irregular panel splits, image clipping inside each panel, bubble shapes with tails, radial effect lines — are handled on the canvas side. Your uploaded images never leave the browser; the final PNG is composited locally and saved to your machine.

The five layouts are deliberately uneven, the way real manga pages are. Diagonal 5-panel works when you have a hero shot plus four reaction beats, hero + 3 reactions is the classic "main character expressions" layout, trapezoid 3-stripe paces a slower narrative, clash 2-panel is the head-to-head VS shot, and the single big panel just lets one image carry the thumbnail.

🧐 FAQ

What size is the exported file? 1280×720 PNG (16:9), matching the recommended thumbnail spec for both YouTube and Twitch.

How many images can I drop in? Between 1 and 5, depending on the layout. Diagonal 5-panel takes 5; the single big panel takes 1.

Does the bubble text get translated? No. Whatever you type inside a bubble or as title text is drawn verbatim. Only the UI labels (effect names, layout names) are localized into five languages.

Can I move bubbles after placing them? Yes. Every bubble, effect, and text overlay is draggable on the canvas. Use the "Reset" button to clear everything.

Are uploaded images private? Yes. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server — not the uploaded screenshots, not the rendered PNG.

Will phone screenshots load with the correct rotation? Yes. Portrait images shot on a phone keep their EXIF orientation because the tool uses the browser's createImageBitmap with imageOrientation: 'from-image'.

Can I use these for non-streaming content? The 1280×720 PNG works as an OG image, a blog header, a YouTube Shorts cover, or any 16:9 social share. Nothing about the export is locked to streaming.

📚 Why manga panels work on streaming thumbnails

Manga developed panel grammar to pack pacing, eye-flow, and emphasis into a single page. Streaming thumbnails are one-frame static images, so the page-flow concept doesn't apply — but the "big panel anchors attention, small panels carry the story" rule does. A diagonal split signals tension or speed; parallel splits signal calm or sequence. The diagonal 5-panel and clash 2-panel layouts in this tool lean into that tension, while trapezoid 3-stripe leans into pacing.

Speed lines (集中線), shine bursts, and motion lines are the same effect grammar manga uses to direct the reader's eye. On a thumbnail they pull focus to a single point — usually the streamer's face or the title text. Bubbles work the same way: the bubble shape itself signals the emotional register before the viewer reads the dialogue. The "scream" bubble's jagged outline is recognised as panic across reading cultures, the "thought" bubble is read as internal monologue, and the standard rounded bubble is neutral speech.

If you're new to manga-style thumbnail design, the practical starting point is: one large panel as the focal beat, one or two smaller panels as reaction shots, one bubble with the hook line, one effect (usually speed lines or a shine burst) on the focal point. From there, more panels or more bubbles add density, but the four-element baseline already breaks the smooth-screenshot pattern.