Set your title and artist name in four type treatments and download a correctly sized square image.
Most independent releases go out with cover art that was an afterthought, and the most common failure is not ugliness — it is illegibility at 300 pixels wide. This tool lays a title and an artist name out on a square canvas at the right pixel size, fits the type so it cannot overflow, draws the safe area that streaming platforms crop against, and gives you a PNG to upload.
Fill in a title and the layout shows up here.
Why size and safe area matter more than design
A distributor will reject artwork below 1400 pixels square, and most of them want exactly that. Below it your cover is soft on a decent display. But the more common problem is layout: streaming services overlay badges, crop corners for playlists, and render your artwork at sizes down to about 80 pixels. A title that reads at 1400 can vanish at 80, and a title set too close to an edge can be cut off entirely.
The dashed guide on the canvas marks the central region that survives most crops. Keep the title inside it and your cover works everywhere. Put anything important in the outer margin and you are trusting every platform to leave it alone, which they will not.
How to use the result
- Use this as a placeholder, not as finished artwork. It gets a legible cover out today, and it is accepted by most distributors, but it is typography rather than design.
- Check the title at thumbnail size before you upload. Zoom the preview down until it is about 80 pixels wide — if you cannot read it there, nobody can.
- Serif reads as established and literary, sans as modern and plain, monospace as technical or self-released. Match it to the record, not to your mood.
- You must own the rights to whatever you upload. That is not a problem for plain text, and it is a serious one the moment you add a photograph you found.
Questions people ask
- What size do distributors require?
1400 by 1400 pixels is the common minimum and the safe answer. Some accept 1080. This tool does both. They also usually want square, JPG or PNG, and RGB rather than CMYK.
- Why does the title shrink on its own?
The type is auto-fitted so it cannot overflow the safe area. If it shrank below what you wanted, your title is too long for the treatment — try a different preset or a shorter title.
- Can I add my own image?
Not here. This is deliberately text-only, because a tool that accepted uploads would need somewhere to put them and this one has no server. Add a background in any image editor afterwards.
- Where does the PNG go?
Straight to your downloads folder. It is generated in your browser from a canvas and saved locally — nothing is uploaded.
What this tool does not do. It lays out text on a canvas. It is not artwork, it has no templates beyond four treatments, and it cannot tell you whether your cover is any good. Every distributor requires you to hold the rights to whatever image you upload — plain text is fine, a photograph you found is not. Nothing is uploaded; everything runs in your browser and works offline. See the site disclaimer. Written by Nico, who builds these tools and writes about writing at WrittenTone.