YouTube Banner Graphics

[Dave Castle 4]

Hello Everyone, I've been a customer as long as I can remember and for some reason, I am having a challenge outputting a YT Banner. the file I get is only 315 px.

The image is amazing but I'm close to 3 hours into what should be an easy fix and I am finding no solution. Even with the image format at the required size no luck, darn it :-)

I have a lot more to do today than wrestle a banner LOL.

So any insights would be helpful as I have a number of them to do in Creator 7

Love the products and Marc and team are wonderful to work with for over a decade, this has me stumped. PS made a mess of the image, as did every other image software in my toolbox.

Thanks All, 

Dave Castle

[KD-did 146]

Check the formatting of the canvas.Top box should be checked .

[Dave Castle 4]

Hello KD-did, thank you for your reply, I tried it as well with the same results.

the output is only a thumbnail-sized image. 

I am open to more ideas! 

Thanks again for your help

Dave

[KD-did 146]

My first thought before seeing your screen shot was that you were looking at the thumbnail. Have you exported your work to your desktop?

What is your OS?

[Dave Castle 4]

Hello again, I tend to save the work to the related folder for that project not the desktop.

I'm on Win 10.

Thank you for staying on this KD-did

[Lance Tindall 40]

Hi Dave, Just want to check on this. I tend to agree with KD-did on your image that you are looking at being a 'thumb'.

If you look in any of the Laughingbird template sets, there is a thumb of the template. They are all 300 by something.

Make sure you are EXPORTING your image using one of the options circled in my attached image. As KD-did suggested, try exporting it to your desktop. Just as a test. You can change that location if it works.

I'm thinking 1 of 2 things here. Either you are SAVING and not EXPORTING, or you are trying to EXPORT to a template folder ( or a folder that has a template in it ) and your file is either not overwriting one already there, or is being resized somehow.

I'm really interested in seeing what happens when you try to EXPORT to your desktop. Should tell us a lot.

[Dave Castle 4]

Excellent Lance while I try that I'll share these insights with you folks.

[Dave Castle 4]

Stunned is the word that comes to mind.

It worked sending to the desktop!

Thank you to each of you for your help on this. 

[Lance Tindall 40]

Hi Dave, okay, looking at those attached images one thing jumps right out. 2nd image down. See that file that ends with .tlc ?

You should NEVER be looking in a directory with that file! Do not save to it, export to it, or even look at it. That is a folder used by the software. Messing with it, messes with the program. Get out!

Sorry for getting excited. That will cure your issue though.

Now, something else. The name of one of those PNG images starts with TLC6. Are you using version 6? Have you not upgraded to v7.2.9? It's free.

Just wondering. Waiting to hear how your export to the desktop goes...

[Lance Tindall 40]

Glad that worked! You should be able to create work folders to export your images to. Just stay out of the template folders!

Have fun!

[Dave Castle 4]

Funny I have always exported folders like that.

What a relief that all I need is to export and done. 

That will save me years of time going forward.

Also I sure thought I was on the latest version of 7 let me look 

[Dave Castle 4]

Yep current version whew!

[Dave Castle 4]

I sure will you take care!

Thanks for your help on this! 

Off I go!

Have a great rest of the week!

[Lance Tindall 40]

Cool. Probably an old file that was showing.

Glad it's all working for you. Enjoy.

[Dave Castle 4]

Thanks for your insights this was a watershed moment of clarity. lol

[Dave Castle 4]

One more thought here if I may, should I put all those folders into a Laughing Bird system file or library?

I think I could also delete them all as the images are called up inside the software too!

As it was today thanks much for the great insights and taking ownership of seeing this through with me.

[Lance Tindall 40]

No! Do not move or delete the templates or elements.

The Creator 7 uses very specific directories for the templates and elements. The graphics MUST be in those directories in the /Laughingbird Documents folder or you will not be able to access them.

The 'working directory' is /Documents/Laughingbird Documents/Logo Libraries/My Templates

That is the ONLY directory you can really do anything with, that the program creates.

Any template you modify or create is saved to that folder. You should not save ANY other file or files to that directory. 

If you ever get so many templates saved there that it becomes a problem, you can rename that folder with the program closed. The next time you open the program it will create a new /My Templates folder.

That said ...

What I do is create 'Client' folders to work with.

Simply create your folders in the /Documents/Laughingbird Documents/Logo Libraries folder

ie.   /Documents/Laughingbird Documents/Logo Libraries/Client 1

       /Documents/Laughingbird Documents/Logo Libraries/Client 2, and so forth ...

You can name these Client folders with whatever names you choose. They will not show up in the menu while they are empty. Once you have at least 1 template saved in them, then they will show up.

Now, the way the program works.. .

Once you select to open a template, it will be automatically SAVED in the /My Templates folder

You must select 'Save As' to save the template to your Client folder

Every time you open that Client template it will want to save into the /My Templates folder automatically. After any modification that you wish to keep, you should select 'Save As' and save the template to your Client folder. If you want to keep variations, then simply use an incremental name.  

ie. Select Save As and save the template as Version 1 in the folder Client 1

While working on Version 1, if you want to save a particular look, select Save As and save Version 2 to Client 1, and so forth.

When you finish and try to exit the program or start another template, the program will ask if you want to save the template you are working on. You don't have to. You have already saved it to your Client folder. If you save it here, then it will save to the /My Templates folder.

Doing this lets you keep your work organised by Clients or Projects, or however you choose.

Just remember, the folder will not show in that side menu until at least 1 template is saved to it.

To DELETE versions you no longer want to keep, simply delete the folders from those Client or Project folders. You can use ALT+ select to delete from the /My Templates folder, but not from any other template folder. You have to delete them manually.

Let me know if you need more information.

 

[Dave Castle 4]

Excellent crash course Lance thank you.

So for me, I can get rid of all those folders I've spread around the hard drive as all the client folders are not necessary.

You and KD-did have been immeasurable I've had the software for over 10 years and I've learned more in these couple days with you folks than I taught myself as a casual user.

Now I feel comfortable offering this as a service to the business world.

What is the secret, or size, to get the banner to be clear and not fuzzy I feel it they all look a tad out of focus  - or worse?

Is it not good practice to construct the banner based on the edges of the YouTube Guide? 

Here is the channel ID UCyRQ7XLPftwRXmbuRJBY2bw for the one of mine in question   

[Lance Tindall 40]

Hi Dave,

I have an appointment and have to leave right now. I will get back to you on this later today.

Quick answer - Google, Facebook and the rest are always changing the size of the required images. Facebook is the worse. I can help you find the right size, but later today. 

Back soon.

[Dave Castle 4]

You Go Lance be well!

 

[Lance Tindall 40]

Hi Dave,

Well, best laid plans of mice and men ... been a heck of a day.

Okay, short answer. As you can see by the image I attached, The Creator sets the size for YouTube banners at 2560 x 1440

Yet, according to https://learn.g2.com/youtube-banner-size the banner size should be 2560 x 1140.

So, the size required has changed since the last TC7 update! Therefore, your image is distorted and fuzzy looking.

Great thing about The Creator 7, simply adjust the size of your canvas and create your graphics according to the new specifications as shown on that web site, and you should be able to create a clear banner.

If not, Google for, or check YouTube for the correct size. Even this website I posted may be outdated! They do change sizes that often!

Hope that helps you out and sorry again for taking so long to get back to you.