Content Creators

Communities

Just About

Video Games

Elite Dangerous

SMITE 2

EVE Online

Minecraft

Nightingale

Pokémon

Content Creators

Sport

There’s more to love

Help shape the future of our platform as we build the best place to express and enjoy your passions, whatever they may be.

Join now

Content Creators

Feed Bounties Curated

Lanah Tyra

Content Creators

Discussion

ago

What do you use for creating Youtube thumbnails?

Not sure if I want to part with Photoshop, as I use it for other things too and love the layer management, but was wondering if there's something else better suited to make quick thumbnails. I looked at Canva and Adobe Express but the things I liked were either in the paid version or didn't quite fit my style of content. So at the moment everything is leading back to Photoshop...

What are you all using? Any free or cheaper alternative to Photoshop? I'm on the £10 per month photography package so it's not too expensive but still...

Created at 9:39am, 5th May, 2024. Page last updated at 3:29am, 20th May, 2024.

Konquest 5/5/2024, 10:05:28 AM

I've been using photoshop for years as a graphics designer and loving it. I have both photoshop and canva but to be honest I use Canva much more compared to photoshop as the built in graphics and photo galleries are a great help with all the assets at hand. I find that if you use background removal canva does a better job. But I'm old school so I still do background removal by hand unless I'm in a rush. There are minor limitations to what canva can do and for that I just finish up in photoshop e.g. cutting certain parts and combining but for 95% of the time canva is good. another thing to note with canva one subscription can be shared with 5 friends using teams.

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:14:33 PM

Konquest

Oh good to know that Canva is better at that... is it in the paid version only or can the free one do it as well? Because I'm so used to PS now, if I pay for something I'ld rather pay for PS, but if free Canva can do background removal that would be great. One thing I couldn't figure out in Canva to do gradients from colour to transparent, and that's something I use fairly often in PS. But I'll have a look at Gimp and see what that can do.

Dave 5/5/2024, 10:13:47 AM

I've only done a handful, but I'm using Canva free version. I try to avoid ongoing monthly/yearly commitments as much as possible where there are decent alternatives or a one time purchase. Monthly subs/bills can really stack up over time if you aren't careful.

I've never liked any Adobe software though. They always seem to go for incredibly complicated or incredibly simple and basic. They never seem to make anything that has that middle ground balance between the two.

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:12:36 PM

Dave

I used Adobe at uni so that's what I'm used to but I'm trying to get away from the subscription as I'm not fond of that payment model either.

FirestormGamingTeam 5/5/2024, 10:19:25 AM

I don't use Photoshop, mostly because I refuse to pay for it. I use these two sites, one for text and one to edit my image.

https://www.online-image-editor.com/

https://textcraft.nett

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:11:36 PM

FirestormGamingTeam

Nice, I'll check these out. I bought PS when it was still a one-time purchase and didn't like when they went subscription. One month I would use it a lot and then maybe not touch it for weeks... tried to cancel subscription and resub when I needed it, but I would need it at such random times and it's a hassle to constantly resub when I need it.

Konquest 5/5/2024, 11:32:02 AM

Oh I forgot completely I do use GIMP(100% Free) as well and I think its the perfect alternative to PS as Davinci resolve is to Premier Pro. I made the switch for video but for images I'm still stuck on PS.

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:09:02 PM

Konquest

I might need to check out Gimp. Swapped from Permier Pro to Davinci, it was painful at the beginning to adjust the muscle memory to the different keybinds, but loving it now and was hoping I can find something similar to replace PS with.

Horror and Cats 5/5/2024, 12:00:00 PM

I use PowerPoint lol. I’m basic, but so far have yet to run into anything I can’t do.

Dave 5/5/2024, 12:17:51 PM

Horror and Cats

Canva is actually very similar to PowerPoint!

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:07:52 PM

Dave

That was my thought as well when I used it for a bit. It's not bad, but I think I need to have a good look through the assets in it, plus upload some of my own.

Sturmer 5/5/2024, 1:33:40 PM

MS Paint, recently they added option to work with layers, more convenient

Dave 5/5/2024, 1:41:23 PM

Sturmer

Use paint and notepad all the time, lol.

Lanah Tyra 5/5/2024, 3:07:05 PM

Sturmer

Oh Paint has layers now? I might need to try that...

Sturmer 5/5/2024, 3:58:05 PM

Lanah Tyra

Yup

For something serious or precise I'd use GIMP, paint shines bcoz it is super fast, you just click and it's ready to serve. Just download fonts you like, use Windows build-in snippet, and slap text over in MS Paint via layers.

Lanah Tyra 5/6/2024, 10:00:57 AM

Sturmer

Ah, not bad, shame it can't save into a format where the layers remain editable :( Looks like I'll stick with GIMP, it opened my PSD files so that's a good start.

Sturmer 5/6/2024, 10:52:59 AM

Lanah Tyra

Yeah, it's for singular throw-away works. If you do not like the GIMP try Paint.NET, also freeware, have layers etc. a lightweight photoshop

Makster 5/5/2024, 6:12:14 PM

My computer is too bad to run any version of photoshop so I have found a browser version called Photopea

https://www.photopea.com/

Which thankfully retains all the hotkeys and key bindings as photoshop rather than changing it around like GIMP

Lanah Tyra 5/6/2024, 9:55:18 AM

Makster

I tried this one before but the adds on the side are really bothering me as it takes off a lot from the useful screen space. Otherwise would use it.

Makster 5/6/2024, 9:57:27 AM

Lanah Tyra

Yeah I've found some annoyances such as Ctrl+ + to zoom often zooms the whole webpage rather than canvas but it's the only option I have and it works for the small projects I do