Meme Generator

How to use the Meme Generator

1. Drop a picture onto the box, click to choose one, or paste a screenshot.
2. Type your top text and bottom text. Long lines wrap and shrink automatically.
3. Optionally add an extra caption and drag it into place on the picture.
4. Adjust text size, outline and colors, then click Download meme.

Features

• Classic white text with a black outline in capital letters
• Automatic word wrap and shrink-to-fit
• Optional third caption you can drag anywhere
• Text size, outline thickness, font and color controls
• PNG or JPG download
• Works on phones; nothing is uploaded

The anatomy of a classic meme

The image macro, the format most people picture when they hear the word meme, has a recognizable recipe: a picture, a setup line across the top, a punchline across the bottom, all in bold capital letters with a white fill and a thick black outline. The outline is the clever part. White text alone vanishes on a bright sky and black text vanishes in shadows, but white letters with a black edge stay readable on any background, which is exactly what you need when you do not control the picture.

The traditional typeface is Impact, a condensed, heavy sans-serif that packs lots of letters into a line and stays legible when small. Impact ships with Windows and macOS. Android, Linux and Chromebooks usually do not include it, so this tool falls back to the boldest similar font your device has.

How the text is laid out

• Text size is a share of the picture's width, so the caption looks the same on a small screenshot and a large photo.
• Lines wrap at word boundaries to stay inside the picture with a small margin.
• If a caption would still be too wide or would cover more than about 40% of the picture's height, the size steps down until it fits.
• The outline is drawn first and the fill on top, with rounded joins so letters like M and W do not grow spikes.

Writing captions that land

• Setup on top, payoff at the bottom. Readers scan top to bottom, so put the surprise last.
• Short beats clever. A few words per line read instantly in a feed; if you need a paragraph, it is probably not a meme.
• Let the picture do the work. The best captions add context that changes how you read the expression or situation in the image.
• Know the template. Popular formats come with conventions. Following them helps people get the joke; breaking them on purpose can be the joke.

Sizes for sharing

Most platforms happily accept a meme at the picture's own size. Very large photos are scaled down to 2000 pixels on the long side, which is plenty for any feed and keeps files small. For a square post, crop the picture to 1:1 with the Image Cropper first. Choose PNG for the sharpest letters, or JPG for a smaller file when sending over messaging apps.

A word on pictures and permission

Many memes reuse film stills, TV screenshots or other people's photos. Whether that is allowed depends on the law where you live and how the image is used. In the United States, commentary and parody can count as fair use, but that is decided case by case and is less likely for commercial use such as ads. The safest choice is your own photos, images you have permission to use, or pictures with an open license. Be thoughtful about memes of private individuals, too; a joke at a stranger's expense can spread further than you intend.

Your picture stays on your device: the meme is drawn by your browser and nothing is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions