The Stencil App: Create Stunning Images in Record Time
This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a commission if you shop through my links.
 Disclosure Policy
The Stencil App makes it possible to create images for your blog and social media profiles in record time.
I think you will agree that creating engaging images is probably one of the most time consuming parts about blogging.
But it doesn’t have to be.
The Stencil App has many great features to make creating website graphics a breeze.
And the number one feature is speed.
You can grab a photo, add a text overlay, and resize it in just a minute or two.
Of course, it is much more robust than that and I will show you how I use some of the features in the Stencil App that I love.
CLICK HERE to give Stencil App a try.
With the Stencil App You Can …
- Upload your own photo or choose a photo from a library of over 1 million royalty photos
- Apply filters or color overlays to your photos
- Embellish your photo with a full library of icons from the Noun Project
- Add text overlays – the Stencil App includes a huge library of fonts but you can also choose from any of the Google Fonts or even upload your own fonts
- Save a library of logos or watermarks and apply them to your photos as needed – they can be resized and repositioned as well
- Resize your image to the ideal size for a variety of social media profiles or use your own custom dimensions
- Select quotes from a library of over 100,000 quotes
- Share directly to your many social media platforms or download your finished projects
- Save your projects to continue editing at a later time
The list goes on.
This is the process that I usually use to create graphics for this blog.
More Articles About Creating Blog Graphics
Upload a Photo
The first thing that I do is upload a photo to the Stencil App.
I use photos that I have either taken myself or stock photos from Haute Stock.
Even though Stencil App has an extensive library of royalty free photos I prefer to use my own photography or stock photos that I purchase.
The images for this post feature photos from the Spring is Coming watercolor collection in Creative Market.
Choose An Image Size
Next, I choose an image size.
I have created a few custom sizes in the Stencil App that I use often.
For Pinterest, I like images to be tall and long – usually 1000×1500 pixels.
And for Facebook and Twitter, I use 1200×628.
Add My Uploaded Photo to My Canvas
Then I drag the photo that I just uploaded to my newly created canvas.
The Stencil App gives the option to use your photo as a background image or as a layer that you can resize.
Using an image as a background image is the fastest and also resizes really well.
But I usually use my images as a layer so I can zoom in on a particular part of the photo.
Create A Text Overlay
I almost always add text to my social media images – especially for the ones that I share to Pinterest.
The Stencil App makes it easy to add text using their fonts or by uploading your own.
Over time I have accumulated some beautiful handwriting fonts for free at Creative Market (always check the license of any creative assets you use for your blog).
So, I imported a few of these to use on my images as well.
In Stencil you can easily adjust the font size, letter spacing, and line spacing as well.
In the images for this post I used the Montserrat font (included in Stencil) and the Loveline handwriting font from Creative Market.
Apply My Logo
Watermarking or applying a logo to your images is always a good idea.
This gives your some brand identity on social media and may deter some people from stealing your images.
In Stencil, adding your logo is as easy as a click of the mouse – and you can resize and reposition it to fit with the photo that you are working with.
Save and Resize
The last step is to create a bunch of different image sizes from your original creation.
Stencil makes this easy enough – again with a click of the mouse.
However, you will need to adjust some of your layers to fit the new dimensions.
This takes a little time, but is much, much, easier than starting from scratch.
Automatic Social Sharing
If you just want to create some quotes or images to share directly to social media, the Stencil App makes the process even easier.
Stencil offers a library of over 100,000 quotes and a library of templates as well.
You can even save one of your own images as a template to reuse.
Check It Out
The Stencil App does have a FREE plan – so you can take it for a test drive.
Happy photo editing. 🙂
Hi Neena!
Great post about Stencil! Did you know they also have a Chrome extension (https://getstencil.com/stencil-for-chrome) that lets you highlight any text/image on a website and instantly create a beautiful graphic without ever leaving the site you’re on? It’s awesome and super fast!
Hi Serene,
I do have the extension and it is really awesome! I am ashamed to say that I don’t use it as much as I should. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
Hey Neena,
I have been using Canva for a very long time and maybe an alternative app like Stencil can bring a new way for image creation. I like its features.
It’s more like giving the freedom for better designs. The upload option and using the default images are really helpful.
Thanks for the info.
Enjoy your day.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi,
I have used Canva as well, and while I do like it a lot – I found Stencil to be a bit quicker for me.
It’s funny – but each image editor that I try has a few features that I really love, so I will use different ones depending on the project that I am working on and what I need for that project.