Image Tools·4 min read

How to Make a Meme: Text, Fonts and Layout

A meme lives or dies in the half second someone spends looking at it. The joke matters most, but the craft around it decides whether people can read it at all: text that disappears into a bright sky, a caption cut off by the app, or a file so large it will not send. This guide covers how to make a meme with the Meme Generator on this site, from the classic white Impact look to the modern caption-bar style, and the small layout choices that make a meme easy to read on a phone.

Open the free Meme Generator All insights

The two meme layouts people recognise

Text on the picture, or text above it.

The classic layout puts one line at the top of the picture and one at the bottom, in white capitals with a thick black outline. It dates back to early image macros and is still instantly recognisable. The outline is the clever part: white letters show on dark areas, the black edge shows on light areas, so the text reads on almost any photo.

The newer layout puts the text outside the picture, usually black words on a white strip above the image. It suits longer captions, because the text never covers the part of the photo that carries the joke. The Meme Generator supports both: the classic boxes appear automatically, and the Caption bars sliders add a strip above or below.

Making a meme step by step

Picture, words, download.

Open the Meme Generator and drop or paste a picture. HEIC photos from an iPhone and TIFF files work too. If you want a text-only meme, pick a blank canvas instead, such as Square 1080 x 1080 or Story 1080 x 1920.

TOP TEXT and BOTTOM TEXT boxes are ready straight away. Select one in the Layers list, type your line in the Text box, and drag it on the picture if it needs to move. Press + Add text for more boxes. When you are happy, choose a format and a download width, then press Download meme, or press Copy image to paste it straight into a chat.

Fonts, outlines and readable text

Contrast first, style second.

Impact is the default because it is narrow and heavy, so short lines fit large. Arial Black is a close second, Comic Sans suits deliberately silly memes, and the Devanagari option covers Hindi and Marathi text. Fonts come from your device, so if one is missing the browser picks a similar one.

The Outline slider sets the black edge as a percentage of the letter size. Around 8 percent is the classic look for Impact. Thin fonts need less, or the letters fill in. On busy photos, turn on Background box and set it to 50 to 70 percent opacity; a soft dark panel behind the words is often cleaner than a thicker outline.

Keep each line short. Two lines of five words beat one line of twelve.
Use capitals for punchlines, normal case for longer sentences.
Set Box width to about 90 percent so text wraps before the edge.
Leave space at the very top and bottom, where some apps crop or overlay buttons.
Check the preview at phone size before you download.

Caption bars, extra images and layers

Beyond two lines of text.

For the caption-above style, raise the Top bar slider until the strip is tall enough, drag a text box onto it, set the text colour to black and turn off the outline. Bars can be any colour, so white text on a black bar works too. The picture itself is never covered.

Some memes need a second picture: a reaction face in the corner, a logo, or a before and after pair. Press + Add image to place another picture as its own layer. Drag it into position and use the Width, Rotate and Opacity sliders. Every text box and image is listed under Layers, where you can select or delete it.

Choosing a format and size to share

Small enough to send, sharp enough to read.

Most social feeds show images around 1080 pixels wide, and chat apps shrink them further. The Download width row lets you save at the original size or at 1080, 800 or 500 pixels when the picture is larger, which keeps files light without making text blurry.

JPG at quality 80 to 90 is the usual choice for photo memes. PNG keeps text edges perfectly crisp and suits memes made on a plain blank canvas. WebP gives small, sharp files that most apps now accept. GIF is limited to 256 colours, so photos can look grainy, but a few platforms still expect it.

Privacy and using pictures fairly

Your photo stays on your device.

The Meme Generator draws everything on a canvas in your browser. The picture you add is never uploaded, and there is no watermark or account, so it is safe to use with personal photos.

The tool does not include a library of famous meme images, because those photos belong to other people. Start from your own pictures, images you have permission to use, or a blank canvas. If you use someone else's photo, keep it to commentary and humour, and credit the source where the platform allows it.