
If you are already or are looking to be a professional YouTuber, no matter what your focus is, you want to be sure that your page looks the part. This means having a banner on your channel that gives the audience a glimpse of who you are and what you are sharing. While many people have no trouble coming up with ideas for their banner and like the way they look, they may discover that their YouTube banner looks zoomed in on different devices and wonder why.
The main reason that your YouTube banner zooms in is that it does not fit into the size parameters. Artwork that may look great when viewed on a computer or tv screen, will end up zoomed in when viewed on a phone or another smaller device due to the number of pixels.
If you find yourself in this dilemma, there is no need to worry. There are some general guidelines so that your art not only fits within the size parameters but so that the artwork is positioned in such a way that everything the audience needs to know is right in their line of sight. Read on to find out more about what to keep in mind when uploading your YouTube banner.
What Size Should My YouTube Banner Be?
You may be wondering exactly how much banner size can differ, so let’s break it down a bit by the device.
- Television: 2560×1440 pixels
- Desktop: 2560×423 pixels
- Tablet: 1855×423 pixels
- Mobile: 1546×423 pixels
As you can see the wide variety in size means that if the banner is too big or small then it will differ across devices. So now you may be wondering what the parameters are where your banner will not zoom in regardless of which device you are using. This article does an excellent job of breaking it down, but the basics are this:
- Ideal size: 2560×1440 pixels. This is the sweet spot where you are guaranteed to have a banner that looks great no matter what kind of device you are viewing it on.
- The smallest size that will still work: 2048×1152 pixels
- The biggest width size that will still work: 2560 pixels
It is also important to make sure that the size of the file that you upload is no more than 6MB. If you are attached to a certain piece of art but is larger than 6MB then you can convert it to a PNG or JPG file.
What Else Should I Consider When Uploading My Banner?
Apart from the size of the artwork you are uploading, there are a couple of other questions you should ask yourself, as well.
- What is the safe area?
- What is the aspect ratio?
The Safe Area
The safe area is the spot within the banner where all the pertinent information that you want everyone to see will be located. If the information is located within the safe area, then no matter what kind of device your audience is on, they will see it even if the banner ends up zoomed in. This safe area is located right in the middle of the banner at 1546×423 pixels.
The Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio is the ratio of width to height, and the ideal aspect ratio for a YouTube banner should be 16 in width to 9 in height. When the size of your banner has this aspect ratio, you can try different pixel sizes, and the artwork will stay in the same place (relatively) on your banner.
Conclusion
Many people have had the struggle of uploading a YouTube banner that looks great on a computer screen, but then they go to look at their page while they are on their phone and find to their dismay that the banner has zoomed in and looks a mess. The reason it can look so wildly different across devices is that different devices show different ratios of pixels.
Because it can be confusing to your YouTube banner to look good on all devices, we recommend starting with a YouTube Banner Template. By using a template, your banner will be pre-formatted to look good on all screen sizes.
The sweet spot where the size will look great across all devices is 2560×1440 pixels. Some other things to make sure of are to make sure that all the pertinent information is located in the center of your banner, and that the ratio of width to height is 16 to 9.
Ready to get started making your YouTube banner? Head over to Placeit.net to choose a banner template that represents your channel!