How to prepare photos for YouTube thumbnails on Mac

What this does

YouTube thumbnails want a widescreen 16:9 frame at 1280 by 720 pixels. This rule crops every incoming photo to that frame, resizes it, converts it to JPEG, and strips location data, following the same pattern as the Instagram crop rules but tuned for YouTube’s own dimensions. All three steps keep their own copy, so your original is never touched.

What you’ll build

A rule that matches any image, then crops it to 16:9, resizes it to 1280 pixels, and converts it to JPEG, keeping the original and every intermediate copy.

Open the rule editor

This walkthrough happens inside FilesAutomator itself, so install it from the Mac App Store first if you have not already, then open it. In its toolbar, choose Add, then New Automation Rule.

Name the rule and choose a folder

Name it something like “Prepare my YouTube thumbnails” and use Add Folder to choose the folder your photos land in.

FilesAutomator

Build the condition

Add a single condition: Kind is a kind of public.image, which matches every image format.

FilesAutomator

Add the action steps

Step 1: Crop image

Choose Add Step, then Crop image. Set “Crop to” to Widescreen (16:9). Set “Keep the original file as” to Left untouched, new file created separately, and “Mark the new file as” to “cropped”.

Step 2: Resize image

Choose Add Step again, then Resize image. Set “Longest side (pixels)” to 1280, which lands the 16:9 crop on 1280 by 720. Set “Keep the original file as” to Left untouched, new file created separately, and “Mark the new file as” to “resized”.

Step 3: Convert image

Choose Add Step once more, then Convert image. Set “Convert to” to JPEG, and turn off “Keep original metadata”. Set “Keep the original file as” to Left untouched, new file created separately, and “Mark the new file as” to “converted”.

FilesAutomator

Turn it on

Select Create Automation Rule, then switch the rule on. Every photo dropped here now gets a thumbnail ready JPEG waiting alongside it.

A faster way

The template gallery inside FilesAutomator already has this rule ready to install, named Prepare photos for YouTube thumbnails.