Album Art Designer

Design music album cover art with photo manipulation, typography, and standard CD/vinyl dimensions.

Tested tool guide Tested browser tools Checked August 16, 2026

What Album Art Designer does and how it behaves

This is a canvas-based editor for building a square album cover: place and crop a photo, add typography for artist/title, arrange layout elements, and export the flattened result. It offers preset canvas sizes matched to common release formats (digital streaming artwork, CD jewel-case insert, 12-inch vinyl jacket) so the composition starts at the right proportions. The most common surprise is that all three formats are 1:1 square, but their physical trim sizes differ in inches/mm, and a design built for on-screen streaming art is not automatically print-ready for a CD or vinyl jacket without checking your pressing plant's bleed and safe-margin requirements.

How the result is produced

Format presets set canvas size

Choosing a target format (digital, CD insert, vinyl jacket) sets the working canvas to that format's square dimensions rather than leaving you to guess pixel counts. Digital art is commonly built at 3000x3000 px; CD and vinyl presets are sized to physical trim dimensions in inches/mm so photo and text placement scale correctly for the intended output.

Layered composition and export

Photos and text sit on independent layers that can be repositioned, cropped, and reordered; typography controls (font, size, tracking) apply per text layer. When finished, the composited canvas is flattened and exported as a raster image file (e.g. PNG or JPEG) at the working canvas's pixel dimensions, ready to upload or send to print.

Good uses

An independent artist building square cover art to upload to a streaming distributor before release day
A band laying out photo and title text for a physical CD jewel-case insert
A label designing 12-inch vinyl jacket artwork where the square trim size differs from a digital cover

Limits and checks

Physical formats (CD insert, vinyl jacket) often need bleed and safe-margin allowance beyond the bare trim size for actual printing; this tool's preset canvas is a design size, not a guaranteed print template, so confirm exact specs with your presser before sending files to production
Minimum resolution and file-format requirements for streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) are set by each platform and can change, so treat any built-in size preset as a starting point and verify current requirements on the platform before upload
Exporting an image here produces the artwork file only; it does not embed the image as ID3/metadata cover art inside an audio file, which is a separate step done in a media tagging tool

Common questions

Is the vinyl or CD export file-ready to send straight to a pressing plant?

Not necessarily. Pressing plants frequently require additional bleed and safe-zone margins beyond the flat trim dimensions, and exact templates vary by plant and packaging style. Use this tool's preset as a starting canvas, then confirm the plant's own print template before submitting final files.

What size should I export for Spotify or Apple Music?

A 3000x3000 px square image is the resolution commonly recommended for major streaming platforms, and the digital preset here targets that. Platform minimums do change over time, so double-check the current upload requirements on the platform itself before submitting.

References and verification

The behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.