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In 2024, The Steps YouTube Takes Once a Video Is Submitted for Viewing
The Steps YouTube Takes Once a Video Is Submitted for Viewing
How Does YouTube Work After a Video Is Uploaded
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Spark Inspiration: Free, Premium Designs for Video Marketers
Free Banner Templates & Makers for YouTube
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.
We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.
Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora
As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .
Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads
In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.
1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora
You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.
You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.
2. Behance
Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.
Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans
You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.
In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.
3. YourTube
With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.
The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).
Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.
Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates
In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.
1. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.
2. Adobe Spark
To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.
Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).
The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.
Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.
3. BeFunky
This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.
4. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.
The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.
5. Crello
Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.
Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.
6. Design Wizard
This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.
Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.
7. Fotor
Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.
There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.
8. Snappa
If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.
Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.
9. Visme
Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.
How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.
We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.
Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora
As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .
Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads
In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.
1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora
You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.
You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.
2. Behance
Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.
Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans
You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.
In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.
3. YourTube
With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.
The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).
Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.
Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates
In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.
1. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.
2. Adobe Spark
To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.
Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).
The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.
Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.
3. BeFunky
This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.
4. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.
The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.
5. Crello
Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.
Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.
6. Design Wizard
This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.
Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.
7. Fotor
Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.
There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.
8. Snappa
If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.
Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.
9. Visme
Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.
How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.
We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.
Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora
As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .
Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads
In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.
1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora
You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.
You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.
2. Behance
Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.
Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans
You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.
In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.
3. YourTube
With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.
The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).
Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.
Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates
In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.
1. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.
2. Adobe Spark
To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.
Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).
The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.
Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.
3. BeFunky
This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.
4. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.
The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.
5. Crello
Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.
Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.
6. Design Wizard
This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.
Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.
7. Fotor
Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.
There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.
8. Snappa
If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.
Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.
9. Visme
Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.
How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.
We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.
Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora
As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .
Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads
In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.
1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora
You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.
You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.
2. Behance
Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.
Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans
You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.
In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.
3. YourTube
With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.
The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).
Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.
Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates
In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.
1. Wondershare PixStudio
Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.
2. Adobe Spark
To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.
Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).
The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.
Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.
3. BeFunky
This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.
4. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.
The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.
5. Crello
Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.
Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.
6. Design Wizard
This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.
Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.
7. Fotor
Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.
There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.
8. Snappa
If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.
Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.
9. Visme
Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.
How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
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- Title: In 2024, The Steps YouTube Takes Once a Video Is Submitted for Viewing
- Author: Thomas
- Created at : 2024-05-31 12:39:50
- Updated at : 2024-06-01 12:39:50
- Link: https://youtube-help.techidaily.com/in-2024-the-steps-youtube-takes-once-a-video-is-submitted-for-viewing/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
