How To Create YouTube Thumbnails With Gimp

hello everyone my name is wendy in this video we will go over how to create youtube thumbnails with i'll be using windows and 2.10.22 which is the latest version of at the time this video was created if you would like to follow along i will leave a link to the image in the description below i downloaded this image from freepik.com you can use one of your own images if you prefer so let's get started come up to the file menu and select new here in the dialog we'll change the settings to 1280x720 these are the recommended dimensions for youtube thumbnails open the advanced options keep the default resolution at 300 pixels per inch you can always change the resolution if the final image goes over 2 megabytes keep all the default settings and then fill with select transparency then click ok we're going to create a very simple composition with an image background and some text so let's bring in our image come up to the file menu click on open as layers navigate to the folder where your image is and select your image then click on open if you look over at the layers panel you will see a new layer has been created for the image this image is very big we can manually adjust the size by using the move tool and the scale tool however we can also use another method which might be easier come up to the layers menu and select scale layer now in the dialog you can see there are options to adjust the settings for the heights and the width values when the chain is closed it will scale everything in proportion so we only need to set one value i'll set the width to a value of 1500 hit enter on the keyboard then scale let's come up to the main toolbox and make sure we have the move tool and position the image the image is still bigger than the actual canvas size i wanted it that way so i could move the image and find a good position i will resize the image layer once i've added the text background now we're going to add some guidelines guides will help to position the image and elements precisely come up to the top menu image menu select guides new guide by percent and in the dialog in direction select vertical position 50 then click ok the guide has been positioned exactly in the center of the canvas let's create one more guide it'll be another vertical guide however this time type in a value of 75 then press ok before we move on come up to the view menu and make sure snap to guides is checked this will snap the image and elements to the guides now let's add some text come up to the toolbox and select the text tool let's have a look at the text settings and options first to change a font click on the a icon you can scroll through the fonts menu i'll be using a montserrat font however if you prefer you can use an aerial the font size type in a value of 30 and in the unit setup make sure it's set to pixels make sure entire leasing is checked this will create smoother edges and curves on the text click in the color box and from the color selector select white as it's an easy color to read in justify you can line the text to the left to the right center and filled select center next is indent after that is the line spacing value which we'll come back to after and then the letter spacing in box we'll keep the default option for dynamic mode come over to the canvas and we'll leave a space at the top to add gimp's logo click on the guideline four boxes will appear this is where the text will be displayed and also a small semi-transparent menu has appeared above the text box this is a great little tool as you can edit individual letters and words by selecting them without having to modify all the text let's start typing our text with the caps on or in capital letters type how to create hit the enter key to start a new line next type youtube hit enter thumbnails hit enter with hit enter and there are several ways to select the text with the mouse pointer inside the box boundary double-click beside the word triple click beside a sentence hold the mouse button down and move over all the text or ctrl a and that will also select all the text with all the text selected let's come up to the semi-transparent menu above there are five buttons on the left let's have a look at the four a's first the first day will convert the text to bold the next italic the next underline and the last one is strikethrough and the very first button will clear the style of the selected text we just want the bold text so click the first a now come over to the settings panel set the line spacing to 30 then hit enter let's go back over to the text box click anywhere inside the boundaries just to deselect the text and now select youtube and thumbnails come up to the menu above and in font size type in a value of 80 and hit enter we'll also do the same for select type in a value of 80 and hit enter go over to the layers panel when we started typing a new layer had automatically been created for the text and the title is how to create now let's position the text again come over to the toolbox and select the move tool click hold and drag the text to do this place the mouse pointer on a letter or it will move the layer below and in the center of the text there is a small plus icon this will snap to the guide now we can add wilbur that's the name of gimp's logo now let's go over to the brushes dialog mine is situated on the right hand side however if you can't see your dialog come up to the windows menu dockable dialogs and select brushes now from the menu if you scroll right down to the bottom you'll find the icon drag it out onto the canvas as you can see it's very big so we're going to have to scale it come over to the toolbox and select the scale tool then click on the icon to activate the tool you can manually adjust the size by dragging on the small boxes on the corners or the sides let's go to the settings first and in guides check keep expect now everything will scale in proportion come over to the logo and let's drag on this corner when you're happy with the size come over to the scale settings on the right hand side here you can also manually type in the width and the heights you can reset and start again readjust and scale let's just confirm the scale click on the scale button now before you do anything grab the move tool to disactivate the scale option move the icon and snap it onto the guide this will center it with the rest of the text i'm going to create a background layer to go below the text so come over here to the panel select new layer just keep all the default settings keep transparency and click ok now we're going to move this layer make sure it is below the text and above the image below the panel there are two arrows click on the downward arrow we still have the first background layer that we created at the very beginning actually we don't need this now so click on the delete button to remove it then come back and select the other layer now we can come up to the toolbox and grab the free select tool to draw out the shape you can draw it a straight line right down the center or a slanted line let's create the slanted line with the mouse pointer outside of the canvas click once to leave a point and move over to the opposite side leave a space between the line and the letter t you can also hold the ctrl key down to draw out vertical or horizontal lines click and move and start to draw out the shape at each corner click and leave a point and then come back to the very first point that we created when we hover over the first point it will turn yellow click on the top of it to close the selection the selection is displayed with small black and white dots moving around the selection border these dots are called marching ends now we can come over and click in the foreground color box and if you want to follow along just type in the html notation for 577956 then click ok ok now let's go up to the edit menu and select fill with foreground color even though the selection is finished we are still left with the marching ants so come up to the select menu and select none now we can reposition the image so come back up to the toolbox and select the move tool then come over to the layers panel and select the layer the image layer when you're happy with the position make sure the image borders are still covering all of the canvas if it is shorter on the right side that is okay as the color background will cover it now we can resize the image come up to the layers menu and select layer to image size and this will resize the image to the actual size of the canvas you can finish here if you like or you can create a small background color box to go below the text first we need to do is to create a new layer you can do this by clicking on the new layer button below the layers panel change the name and in the default settings and fill with select transparency then click ok now let's reposition the layer in the layer stack so come into the panel the layer that we just created has to be between the text layer and the green background now come over to the toolbox and grab the rectangle select tool and click and drag out a rectangle shape around the text now let's have a look at the rectangle we just created the selection is displayed with moving ends around the selection border everything inside the rectangle selection will be edited you can change the size by placing the mouse pointer inside the rectangle and dragging on the sides when you're happy with the size come over to the toolbox and grab the eyedropper tool this is a great little tool for taking color samples from an image i'll select the coral shades the color samples are displayed on the foreground color box when you're happy with the color click in the foreground color box to open the dialog i was testing this before and the original color is not the one that you can see here now in the color selector if you'd like to copy the html notations please do it is cf5b48 then click ok now all we need to do is grab the full bucket tool from the toolbox and click inside the rectangle selection to stop the selection of moving ends go up to the top menu and select select none now we can remove the guides and have a good look at the thumbnail let's export the image now so come up to the file menu export as choose the file that you want to save your image in now let's type in a name youtube accepts file formats such as jpeg png and gif type in the file format you want or you can scroll down to the bottom of the dialog and select the file format from the menu then click on export now here in the dialog i'll leave all the default settings and click export again we'll wrap up here for this video i hope you found this video helpful and i'll see you in the next video enjoy

Channel: Wendy Huther

Views: 974

Keywords: gimp Beginners, how to create YouTube thumbnails, gimp for beginners, gimp youtube thumbnail, Youtube custom thumbnail in Gimp, Gimp Youtube custom thumbnails, youtube thumbnail size gimp, How To Create YouTube Thumbnails With Gimp, thumbnail gimp, Gimp Youtube thumbnails, Gimp how to make youtube thumbnails, make free youtube thumbnails gimp, how to make youtube thumbnail easy and free gimp, tutorial for youtube thumbnails gimp, wendy huther, gimp, gimp tutorial

Id: BNQguj1hPLo

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021