Stencil Review: Fast Image Creation for Non-Designers

What Is Stencil and What Does the Deal Include?

Stencil is a browser-based image creation tool that's been around long enough to earn a third appearance on AppSumo, which says something about its staying power. The lifetime deal is refreshingly simple: $49 gets you the unlimited plan with full access to everything Stencil offers. No stacking required, no tiered nonsense.

If you want multiple accounts for different businesses or to keep things organized, you can grab additional licenses, but there's no real benefit beyond having separate user access. For $49 with no ongoing fees, the barrier to entry is about as low as it gets for a design tool of this caliber.

Creating YouTube Thumbnails in Minutes

One of the things I use Stencil for most is creating YouTube thumbnails, and it's become a genuinely fast workflow. You can create and save templates inside Stencil, which means once you've built your base layout, cranking out a new thumbnail for each video takes just a few minutes.

My process is straightforward: I start with a saved template that has my logo, a "Lifetime Deal Review" header, and a yellow background (following Brian Dean's advice about using bold "Gobi" colors like green, orange, blue, and yellow to stand out in YouTube search results). From there, I upload the product logo from Google Images, resize it, and drop it into place.

For the personal touch, I snap a quick photo with my webcam, run it through remove.bg to strip the green screen background, and upload the cutout into Stencil. The whole process from blank template to finished thumbnail takes just a few minutes. When you're ready, hit download, choose JPG or PNG, optionally export at 2x resolution for retina screens, and you're done.

Removing Backgrounds with Remove.bg

A quick tip that pairs perfectly with Stencil: remove.bg is a free website that strips backgrounds from photos automatically. I use it every time I need to add my face to a thumbnail or overlay a product image onto a design.

The process is dead simple. Upload your photo, let the tool do its thing, and download the transparent PNG. If the initial result isn't clean, try cropping the image tighter to remove distracting elements in the background and run it again. In my experience, a tighter crop almost always produces a better cutout. Once you've got your transparent image, upload it straight into Stencil and layer it into your design.

Text Editing and Styling Options

Stencil's text editing tools cover all the basics you'd expect from a design tool. You can add text elements, resize fonts, adjust letter spacing, change line height, and control alignment. It's standard word-processor-level functionality wrapped in a visual editor.

Where it gets more interesting is the styling options. You can apply drop shadows, outlines, and background colors to any text element. There's also a color picker that lets you sample colors already present in your image, which is a small feature that saves a surprising amount of time when you're trying to keep a design cohesive. Any color you land on can be saved to your account for quick reuse across future projects.

Facebook Ads Grid Overlay

If you're running Facebook ads, Stencil has a built-in grid overlay tool that helps you stay within Facebook's text-on-image guidelines. Facebook has historically been strict about the amount of text allowed on ad images, and if your image is too text-heavy, your ad either won't get approved or will get pulled quickly.

The grid divides your canvas into sections, and the general rule is to keep your text within five boxes or fewer. It's a simple toggle that gives you an instant visual check before you export and upload to Facebook's ad platform. A small feature, but one that can save you from wasted ad spend on rejected creatives.

Canvas Sizes and Presets

Stencil comes loaded with presets for just about every common image dimension you'd need. Whether you're creating a Facebook post, an Instagram square, a YouTube thumbnail, or a skyscraper banner ad, there's a preset ready to go.

You're not limited to the built-in sizes either. You can create custom canvas dimensions and save them as your own presets. I've set up a custom 16:9 preset for creating green screen backgrounds, for example. Having the right canvas size from the start means you never have to worry about awkward cropping or images that don't fit the platform you're posting to.

Social Media Safe Zones

This is one of those features that sounds minor but is actually a huge time-saver. When you're creating cover art for platforms like Facebook or YouTube, a single image has to work across mobile, tablet, and desktop. Each device shows a different crop of the same image, so if your important text or call-to-action is near the edge, it might get cut off on smaller screens.

Stencil solves this by displaying safe zones directly on the canvas. You can see exactly which areas are visible only on desktop, which areas are mobile-only, and where the universally safe area is. Any critical content like your headline or CTA button should live inside the safe zone, while decorative elements can safely extend into the outer areas. It's the kind of thoughtful feature that separates a purpose-built design tool from a generic image editor.

2.2 Million Royalty-Free Stock Photos

Stencil includes access to a library of 2.2 million royalty-free photos, and the key detail here is that there are no upsells. Every single photo in the library is included with your license. No premium tier, no per-download charges.

You can search by keyword, click any photo to set it as a background image, or drag it onto your canvas as an overlay element. There's also a color overlay feature that lets you tint background images to improve text readability, plus a blur slider for creating that depth-of-field effect where the background softens and your text pops. These are the kinds of finishing touches that make a graphic look polished without requiring any real design skill.

Icons and Vector Graphics Library

Beyond photos, Stencil includes a library of vector icons and graphics that you can drop into any design. These range from simple shapes and symbols to more detailed illustrations. Search by keyword, click to add, and resize as needed.

Some icons support color customization directly inside Stencil, which is handy for matching your brand palette. The more detailed or multi-colored icons generally can't be recolored, but the simpler single-color vectors give you full control. It's a solid collection that covers most common use cases without needing to hunt for icons on external sites.

Templates for Quick Design Starts

If you're not a designer and staring at a blank canvas feels intimidating, Stencil's template library is where you want to start. Templates are organized by category, so you can browse options for Facebook covers, Pinterest pins, Instagram posts, motivational quotes, and more.

The real power is in customization. Pick a template that's close to what you need, then swap out the text, change the colors, replace the icons, and adjust the imagery. Within a few minutes you've got something that looks professionally designed, even if you have zero design training. You can also save your modified templates for reuse, which is exactly how I built my YouTube thumbnail workflow.

Built-In Quotes Library

Need a quick inspirational or motivational quote for a social media post? Stencil has a built-in quotes library that lets you search by topic and drop formatted quotes directly onto your canvas. Search for a topic like "coffee" or "success," pick a quote you like, and it appears as an editable text element.

It's a niche feature, but if you're managing social media accounts and need to keep a steady stream of engaging content flowing, having quotes baked right into your design tool eliminates one more step in the workflow.

WordPress Plugin Integration

This is one of those features that made me genuinely excited. Stencil has a WordPress plugin that integrates directly into the media library. Install and activate it from the WordPress plugin repository, and the next time you go to insert an image into a page or post, you'll see a Stencil tab in the media uploader.

From there, you can browse your saved Stencil images, give them an SEO-friendly filename, and add them straight to your WordPress media library with a single click. If you're also running an image optimization plugin like ShortPixel, the image gets compressed automatically on upload. It's two lifetime deals working together seamlessly with WordPress, and it completely eliminates the download-rename-upload-optimize cycle that normally bogs down content creation.

Creating YouTube Thumbnail Outlines

You've probably noticed that a lot of popular YouTubers have a bright outline or silhouette effect around their face in thumbnails. It's an attention-grabbing technique, and it's surprisingly easy to pull off in Stencil.

The trick is simple: duplicate your cutout photo, stretch the copy slightly larger, apply a full brightness/lightness effect to turn it into a solid white silhouette, then send it to the back layer. Align it behind your original photo, and you've got that clean outline effect. A few clicks, no Photoshop required.

Custom Backgrounds and Logo Creation

I get asked about my green screen background a lot, and people are usually surprised when I tell them I made it in Stencil. I set up a custom 16:9 canvas, searched the stock photo library for something like "distressed black background," picked one that looked good, and that was it. Exported and used it as my green screen backdrop.

The logo for this channel was also a Stencil creation. I grabbed the 1080x1080 Instagram preset, used a few individual text elements with a drop shadow and a touch of green behind it, drawing a bit of inspiration from one of my favorite TV shows. The whole thing took about an hour from idea to finished logo. Could I hire a designer for something more polished? Sure. But for testing a new channel concept, spending money on a logo before you know if the idea has legs would be a waste. Stencil let me get up and running immediately.

Watermarks and Image Organization

Stencil includes a watermark feature that lets you upload your logo or branding mark once, then toggle it on or off for any image with a single click. If you're creating social media content at any kind of volume, this alone saves a surprising amount of repetitive work.

All of your uploaded images live in an uploads section, and your finished designs are stored under saved images. You can also create collections to organize things further, though honestly the organization system is one of Stencil's weaker points. Moving images into collections is a one-at-a-time process with no bulk selection, which gets tedious fast if you have a hundred-plus images to sort through.

Final Verdict: 9.4 Out of 10

Stencil earns a 9.4 out of 10, and it's genuinely one of the tools I use most in my daily workflow. For anyone who isn't a graphic designer but needs to produce professional-looking visuals on a regular basis, it's hard to beat.

That said, it's not perfect. The interface can be sluggish, especially when working with uploaded images rather than the built-in stock library. And the image organization system needs serious work; there's no bulk file management, and creating collections is more tedious than it should be. If Stencil can address the speed issues and improve file organization, it would be nearly flawless.

The bottom line: if you're a content creator, marketer, or small business owner who needs to produce graphics quickly without a design background, Stencil is a must-buy at $49 for lifetime access. The combination of 2.2 million stock photos, vector icons, templates, WordPress integration, and a dead-simple editor makes it one of the best value propositions in the lifetime deal space.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.