Managing channel art
After you’ve created the art for your channel (or received art from the nice person you convinced to help you), it’s time to add that art to your channel. YouTube has made this a pretty straightforward process; here are the steps:
- With your Channel in Edit mode, click the Add Channel Art
You shouldn’t have any trouble spotting this button. It’s the blue button that says Add Channel Art in the center of the placeholder banner.
If you’ve already set your channel art and want to change it, the Add Channel Art button is no longer an option. In this case, roll the mouse pointer over the banner, and a small box with the familiar Pencil icon appears. Click this icon to edit your channel art and open the Artwork dialog box.
- In the dialog box that appears (see Figure 3-3), choose from one of the following options to add new channel art:
FIGURE 3-3:
The Upload
Photos
dialog box.
- Upload Photos: This is the default option for adding photos to your
If you’ve created your own artwork as spelled out in the previous section,
more likely than not your artwork is somewhere on your computer. To upload that artwork, click the Select a Photo from Your Computer button, use the dialog box that appears to navigate to the fi location, and then select it. Alternatively, you can just drag-and-drop the fi onto this window, and it should start the upload.
- Your Photos: Selecting this option allows you to choose a photo from your Google Photos Because you’ve probably just created this account,
you’re unlikely to have photos in any Google Photos albums — the Your Photos option probably won’t be the option you choose. You can safely ignore this.
- Gallery: If you haven’t created your own channel art, the Gallery section shown in Figure 3-4 provides you with some stock images that YouTube
furnishes for free. Though none of them is great-looking, and they’re unlikely to be excellent branding choices for your channel, they’re miles better than leaving the default placeholder image as your channels banner.
FIGURE 3-4:
The Channel Art gallery.
As you complete each step in the process of branding your channel, it’s a good idea to click on either of the options on the View As menu next to your channel’s name (accessible when your channel is in Edit mode). Clicking here lets you look at your channel as the public would see it, without all the controls you see as the owner of the channel. This is the best way to understand how the changes you’re making will aff the look of your channel.
- (Optional) Crop your
After you select a photo, you see a preview of your channel art across various devices. If you decide that you want to crop your photo, click the Adjust the Crop button to move the cropping mask around to select the portion of the photo you want to use. Click the Device Preview button to return to the preview of the art on diff devices.
- After the size and placement of the image are to your satisfaction, click Select, and your channel art is in place!