Craft

What is Cover frame?

Also called Thumbnail.

In one sentence

The cover frame is the still image representing a video on a profile grid, in search results and on browse surfaces. It does almost nothing in the feed, where videos autoplay, and almost everything everywhere else.

Explanation

Because it is chosen in a full-screen editor and viewed at roughly the size of a postage stamp, most cover frames are unreadable in the only places they matter. At grid size only large shapes and strong contrast survive, so a beautifully composed frame in subtle tones reads as a grey square.

Profile grids crop to square on all three platforms while feeds do not, which means a cover composed for vertical can lose its text entirely on the profile. That single crop difference accounts for a large share of covers that look fine in the editor and wrong in place.

The common mistake

Judging a cover at full size. Shrink it to grid dimensions before choosing, and cut the text to three or four words, because anything longer becomes texture.

Where this shows up in PikoReels

In PikoReelsThumbnail testerThe cover judged at the size it is actually seen.

Related

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