Where to Get YouTube Channel Backgrounds?

Your Own Photo Collection

You can make your own background easily by uploading a favorite photo or image. To fill the entire background, you'll need a photo between 1500 and 2000 pixels in width; it varies depending on your channel design and what modules you display. File sizes of up to 256 KB are allowed. You can upload a much smaller image and tile it, so it shows the same image over and over again to fill the entire background. Select "Repeat Background" when uploading to enable this.

An image search on Google.com or Picsearch.com can help you find suitable images. To get backgrounds you are sure you have permission to use, filter the results according to license: On Google Images, click "Advanced Picture Search" and select "Only Images Labeled for Reuse"; on Picsearch, click "Advanced Search," then click "License Image Search." You can find images through other search engines, but it's not always possible to filter out non-reusable images. Both Google and Picsearch allow you to search according to size, too, which helps if you want a photo to fill your entire background.

Several sites offer free YouTube backgrounds with no registration required. Backgroundtube.com, YTLayouts.net and Pimpmychannel.com, you simply search for backgrounds, then right-click the image and select "Save" to download a background to your computer. Then upload to YouTube from your PC, as you would with your own image file. If you haven't decided in advance what kind of background you'd like, you can browse these sites according to themed categories, such as entertainment, music and sports.

If you use YouTube for professional reasons or simply want your channel to stand out from other YouTube channels, you can pay a designer to make a custom YouTube background. Some websites, such as Backgroundtube.com, Custom-page.com and Mytubedesign.com, offer paid custom layouts alongside free, pre-designed backgrounds. Alternatively, contact a local Web design company and tell them your requirements.