Meme generator

The classic format

The "impact" style meme, bold white capitals with a black outline at the top and bottom of an image, has been the standard since the mid-2000s and still reads instantly. The outline is what makes it work: it keeps the text legible over any background, light or dark, busy or plain. This tool reproduces that style exactly, with a live preview so you can see the result while you type.

Getting the text right

• Keep it short. One line top, one line bottom is the classic form. Long captions wrap and shrink, and lose punch.
• Size relative to the image. The size slider sets caption height as a percentage of the image height, so the same setting looks consistent on a small and a large image. Around 8 to 10% suits most pictures.
• Colour. White with the black outline works on almost anything. Yellow is the traditional alternative for very bright images. Black is for pale, washed-out backgrounds.
• Use the bottom line for the punchline. The eye reads top, then image, then bottom.

Image choice and size

Start from the largest, cleanest copy of the image you have; the caption is drawn at the image's full resolution, so a 400 pixel source gives a 400 pixel meme. For social posts, 1,080 pixels wide is ideal. Very tall or very wide images push the captions far apart; a crop to roughly 4:3 or 1:1 first, using the crop tool, usually gives a better result.

Export format

Privacy and rights

The caption is composited onto the image in your browser, so a private photo of friends or colleagues never leaves your device, which is not true of most meme sites. Use images you have the right to use; a photo you took, or one published under a licence that allows reuse.