YouTube allows you to choose a screen from your video as your thumbnail or create a customized one. But, even if you have the best background for your video thumbnail or banner, choosing a complimenting font can be tricky. This article will reveal the 25 best fonts for YouTube thumbnails and banners.
According to YouTube statistics, 90% of popular videos tend to have customized thumbnails. So, as a YouTube content creator, you too should consider customizing your video’s thumbnails. It will help you stand apart from your competitors and grow your subscribers by increasing your content’s click-through rate.
This article will answer one of the most fundamental questions that puzzle many YouTubers: “what is the best font for YouTube thumbnails?”
We have compiled a list of 25 fonts for YouTube thumbnails and banners that will impress your audience and help you build a brand image for yourself.
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We also share a few tips and tricks that can help you reap the maximum benefits from these awesome typefaces.
25 Cool Fonts for YouTube Banners and Thumbnails
1. Impact (free)
One of the most popular fonts for thumbnail text, Impact is a simple but bold font for YouTube videos.
It is a free font and can be adjusted according to your taste to make an impact on your audience. Ah, that wordplay!
One of the most popular YouTube creators, PewDiePie, has been using Impact font in many of his videos for a long time. He has over 100 million subscribers, so he is undoubtedly winning the click-through rate game by creating visually-pleasing thumbnails with quirky imagery and complementing fonts.
2. River Drive (free for personal use)
River Drive can be a good choice if you want to add that oomph factor to your YouTube videos. The font is free for personal projects, but you need to purchase the licensed version for commercial use.
Even if you have basic editing skills, you can adjust this font to look like it’s a part of the background image. Its “heavy chalk” effect makes it bold and impactful, so when viewers are scrolling through the trove of YouTube videos, this font can make them stop and click on your video.
3. DK Mandarin Whispers (free for personal use)
DK Mandarin Whispers is one of the cool fonts for YouTube banners and thumbnails, especially if you make lifestyle or travel vlogs.
The font is available in various sizes and styles and can be adjusted as per your preferences to create a catchy banner or thumbnail. DK Mandarin Whispers is a playful and noteworthy font that can blend with different colors, images, and stickers to create a thumbnail that your audience will love to click on.
4. Bebas (free)
This is one of the best fonts for YouTube videos to highlight your thumbnail text and catch your audience’s attention.
Bebas is perfect for instructional videos like recipe tutorials, make-up tutorials, and DIY videos. This font looks equally impactful on thumbnails and banners and looks the best when used in white and black outlines, like the image below. Bebas is free to use for both personal and commercial projects.
Bebas’ updated version Bebas Neue comes with a slenderer letter set and can be used for free in Adobe fonts.
5. Juan Cock (free for personal use)
Juan Cock is a modern and uniquely stylish font with a masculine vibe. If your target audience is male, this masculine font can be a good choice for your YouTube thumbnails.
This edgy font is minimalist and versatile, and thus you can use it in YouTube banners, thumbnails, in-video texts, subtitles, and logos. The font comes in lower and upper cases.
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6. Beauty and the Beast (free for personal use)
The font is aptly named as it blends boldness with flamboyance. Beauty and the Beast font is suitable for highlighting the thumbnail text and making your video stand out. It looks the best when used on a colorful background.
It is used chiefly in life-hack videos; however, the font has also been seen in streaming and gaming videos. Alisha Marie, a content creator with over 8 million subscribers, used to love this font but has switched to much simpler fonts since.
7. Badaboom BB (free for personal use)
Badaboom BB is one of the best fonts for YouTube thumbnails that screams “Attention!”. Even the name is quirky enough to make you grin.
If your content is experimental and fun, then this font can be a perfect choice. Wengie loves this font and constantly uses it on her thumbnails, and the font looks the best when used in bright colors and strong outlines.
8. Config Rounded (purchase only)
If you want to give your YouTube thumbnails a sleek and professional look, then Config Rounded can be the best font for your YouTube thumbnails.
The rounded edges of this font add a touch of simplicity. Its variety of shapes and sizes makes it versatile enough to be used in thumbnails, banners, subtitles, in-video texts, and even logos.
This font is a suitable option for business-related or informational channels.
9. Caribold (purchase only)
Caribold is one of the cool fonts for YouTube banners and thumbnails for its emphasizing bold outlines and borders. The dark shadows make the text stand out from the background.
This font can be a good choice for your thumbnails if you make how-to videos.
10. Horsemen (purchase only)
Horsemen can be a great font choice for your channel if you want to add a fiery, retro look to your thumbnails and banners.
The typeface comes with a wavy style inspired by the music and artwork of the 70s and 80s. The font is available for purchase only and comes in regular and slant versions.
11. Roboto (free)
One of the most popular fonts for YouTube videos is Roboto. It comes with a lean typeface and round dots on the letters i and j.
If you are a beginner on YouTube and do not know which font to choose for your thumbnails and banners, then Roboto can be a safe bet. The font’s easy readability and simple design make it a perfect choice to use in subtitles.
Roboto is the default font for the YouTube platform; the platform switched to Roboto from Arial back in 2015. They even use it for closed captions.
12. Frisky Puppy (free for personal use)
Frisky Puppy is a cute font that is an excellent choice for videos targeted toward children.
The font is cute and jolly and adds a touch of enthusiasm to your thumbnails and banners. Its bold and cartoonish font style makes it pop and easily readable to kids.
13. Game Over (purchase only)
Game Over is a stylish brush font that looks the best when used in video text, for example, lyrics videos. It is a cool font for YouTube banners and thumbnails, but it is more suitable for in-video texts.
This grunge-style minimalist font is available in SVG format and can be scaled as per your requirements.
14. Tsuki (purchase only)
If you make content related to Japanese culture, Tsuki is the best font for your YouTube videos.
The bold and clear typefaces make it an excellent choice to be used for videos related to Japanese anime or manga. Recently, many gamers have been using this font in their thumbnails and videos.
15. Okashi (purchase only)
Another Japanese-inspired font, but Okashi is less sharp and edgy than Tsuki. Its boldness and roundness make it a perfect choice for YouTube banners.
The one drawback of this font is its difficult legibility. Thus we do not recommend it for in-video texts, subtitles, or thumbnails, as it would affect your click-through rate.
16. Indigo (purchase only)
You can create an excellent catchy design with Indigo. The font style is chunky and bold, and this is one of the best fonts for YouTube thumbnails because of its dual style.
The font pack comes in Regular and Outline; you can combine them to create catchy and attractive titles and thumbnails.
17. King Crayon (purchase only)
If you are looking for a fun font to blend with your fun and creative content, then a quirky font like King Crayon can be good.
The font is more suitable for fun videos targeted toward children; however, you can use it in compilation videos, comedy videos, and more.
18. Lato (free)
Lato is one of the most common yet most popular fonts. It is a professional and sleek sans serif font that can add a touch of style to your thumbnails and banners.
If your video topics are professional and business-related, Lato can be a good choice. However, remember that sans serif fonts are better suited for in-video texts and subtitles, as they are easy to read.
19.Open Sans (free)
One of the classic fonts that can be used in headlines, thumbnails, banners, logos, even in subtitles and in-video texts. It is easily readable, even in smaller sizes. Open Sans comes in various styles and sizes, thus making it a versatile font.
If your content is around professional or educational topics, Open Sans can be a great font for your YouTube videos.
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20. Bernhard (free)
A serif font, Bernhard is quite famous for its uniqueness and elegance.
The font is minimalist and adds a touch of natural simplicity to your thumbnails and banners. It is pretty popular among creators who make book reviews, lifestyle videos, DIY videos, etc.
21. Dustin (purchase only)
Dustin is a modern family font that can be great for YouTube videos. It comes in a pack of 4: regular, regular outline, regular italic, and regular outline italic.
The font is trendy, stylish, modern, and minimal. It might remind you of the Supreme brand’s logo. The font is upbeat and can help you stand out with exciting thumbnail texts and banners.
22. Bangers (free)
Comic sans has a lousy reputation among designers, but its inappropriate use can be blamed. However, it is an excellent attention-grabbing and adventurous font style for YouTube banners and thumbnails.
Bangers is one of the most popular comic sans fonts and add a touch of playfulness to your thumbnails. It goes well with most of the video topics and thus makes it a versatile font. Popular YouTuber Rclbeauty101 uses it in many of her thumbnails.
23. Roadster (free)
Roadster is a stylish display font that comes only in uppercase and comprises parallel lines that join around the corners of the letters. The stylish elongated condensed style looks neat and professional on thumbnails and banners, especially if you make travel vlogs or lifestyle hack videos.
24. Nanotech (free)
A modern, futuristic font that is perfect for technology and business-related topics. Nanotech is free to use for personal and commercial projects.
If you are looking for a cool font for a YouTube banner, Nanotech is an excellent choice.
25. Herona (purchase only)
A popular font style among gamers and streamers, Herona is a font style that comes with unique shapes and styles. The black shadow behind the text gives it an upbeat and exciting feel.
The font can be used to design thumbnails and banners but looks best in gaming logos.
Tips and Tricks for YouTube Video Fonts
1. Make it Colorful
Remember to add colors to your texts no matter which font you use. A colored text pops out and makes it easy for the audience to grasp the context of your video before they click on it.
2. Be Consistent
Choose one font style in the beginning and stick to it. Changing font styles after every few videos can harm your click-through rate and hinder you from building a proper brand image.
3. Mix it up
If you wish to experiment, pair two fonts. Use simple outlines and colors when using this dual-font styling to get the best results.
Essential Things to Know When Choosing YouTube Fonts
What is the best font for YouTube?
If you are still wondering about this, then let us reiterate that there is no single font style that suits all YouTube channels. Hence, you should choose the most suitable font for your niche.
However, Bebas Neue, Lato, Impact, and Badaboom BB are some of the most popular fonts for YouTube, and some of the most famous YouTubers use these fonts for their thumbnails, banners, and logos.
For logos, bold fonts with rounded edges are considered a good choice. Config Rounded, Indigo, Dustin, and Herona might be just what you need for your logos.
One more tip: a font size of at least 75 is considered the best font size for YouTube thumbnails and banners to make the text easily readable on a mobile screen or desktop.
What Font Do Youtubers Use For Subtitles?
Some YouTubers create videos in their native language, but they insert English subtitles in their videos for their global audience. If you fall in the same league of creators, you might wonder: what font do YouTubers use for subtitles?
As mentioned before, Roboto is the default font for the YouTube platform; they even use it for closed captions. Adhering to this, many YouTubers use Roboto font for their subtitles too. However, some creators have used other popular fonts like Lato and Impact.
Final Word
As you can see, YouTube fonts are not as straightforward as one thinks. Book a demo call with us and see how we can help you with your graphic design needs.
At ManyPixels, we assign you a talented graphic designer that will create outstanding thumbnails for you every day. You can choose a plan according to your needs and budget.
Outsource your designing tasks to us, and you keep doing what you do best: create fantastic content for your audience!
