# YouTube Thumbnail Design — guide skill for images & thumbnails

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Design YouTube thumbnails that read on a phone: dimensions, contrast, safe zones, text and faces.

- **Type:** [Guide](https://skills.varg.ai/guides.md) · [Images & thumbnails](https://skills.varg.ai/browse/skills/image.md)
- **Slug:** `inference-sh-youtube-thumbnail-design`
- **Status:** live
- **Publisher:** inference.sh (vendor, verified)
- **License:** MIT
- **Source:** https://github.com/inference-sh/skills/tree/main/guides/design/youtube-thumbnail-design
- **Works in:** Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI
- **Requires:** inference.sh account, belt CLI (`belt login`)
- **Cost:** Billed by inference.sh
- **Adoption:** 11 installs, 781 GitHub stars (skills.sh, 2026-10-26)

## What it does

A YouTube thumbnail design guide: exact dimensions, contrast rules, mobile preview, safe zones, text placement, facial-expression psychology and A/B testing. FLUX and Seedream generate the image through inference.sh.

## Use when

- A thumbnail for a video
- Improving click-through on existing thumbnails

## Install

- Claude Code: `npx skills add inference-sh/skills --skill youtube-thumbnail-design -a claude-code`
- Codex: `npx skills add inference-sh/skills --skill youtube-thumbnail-design -a codex`
- Cursor: `npx skills add inference-sh/skills --skill youtube-thumbnail-design -a cursor`
- Gemini CLI: `npx skills add inference-sh/skills --skill youtube-thumbnail-design -a gemini-cli`

**Models it drives:** flux_dev, seedream

## Used for

- [YouTube thumbnails and covers](https://skills.varg.ai/use-cases/thumbnail.md): High-CTR thumbnails and vertical covers, in a few options to choose from.

## More images & thumbnails skills

- [Higgsfield YouTube Thumbnail](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/higgsfield-youtube-thumbnail.md): Design truthful, high-CTR YouTube thumbnails and vertical covers with up to three consistent faces.
- [Slack GIF Creator](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/anthropic-slack-gif-creator.md): Make animated GIFs that pass Slack's limits: 128×128 emoji or 480×480 message GIFs, validated on export.
- [PixiJS GIFs](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/pixijs-gif.md): Load, play and control animated GIFs inside a PixiJS v8 scene.
- [AI Image Generation](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-ai-image-generation.md): Generate images with 50+ models from one CLI: GPT Image 2.5, FLUX, Gemini, Grok, Seedream, Reve and more.
- [Background Removal](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-background-removal.md): Cut subjects out of photos into clean transparent PNGs with BiRefNet.
- [FLUX Image](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-flux-image.md): Generate and restyle images with FLUX Dev LoRA and FLUX.2 Klein, including custom LoRA styles.

## Run the generation on varg

varg is one API key for the models these skills drive — Seedance 2.5, Kling 4, Veo 3.1, Wan 3, Nano Banana 2.1, GPT Image 2.5, ElevenLabs v4 and 200+ more — billed in credits, with a cost estimate before anything runs.

- Claude Code: `claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg` (skill + hosted MCP)
- Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw: `npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-ai -a <agent> -y`
- Claude.ai, ChatGPT, any MCP client: connect `https://mcp.varg.ai/mcp`
- API key: https://varg.ai/dashboard/api · Model specs: https://varg.ai/models/llms.txt