youtube-thumbnail-design

Create high-CTR YouTube thumbnails with AI image generation via inference.sh CLI. Requires inference.sh CLI ( belt ). Install instructions Your thumbnail appears at roughly 120px wide on mobile — that's how most viewers first see it. At 120px, viewers must be able to identify: Test: view your thumbnail at 120px width. If it's a muddy blur, redesign. Avoid placing critical elements in: Thumbnails with faces get higher CTR than faceless thumbnails. Expression matters: Test one variable at a time: Browse all apps: belt app list - The mood/emotion (from colors and expression) - The general subject (from composition) - The text (if any — only if large enough) - Bottom-right corner (video duration timestamp) - Bottom-left corner (chapter markers, progress bar) - Extreme edges (cropping varies by device) - Background and text/subject should be complementary or high-contrast - Avoid same-temperature colors touching (red on orange = mud) - Use 3 colors maximum per thumbnail - Saturate more than real life — thumbnails compete with bright UI - Lists/numbers: "7 Tips", "Top 10" - Strong opinions: "STOP Doing This" - Results: "$10K in 30 Days" - Comparisons: "vs" between two things - The video title already says it (redundant) - The emotion/visual tells the story - You can't make it large enough to read at 120px - Face should fill 30-50% of the thumbnail - Eyes looking toward the text or...