Meme Generator
Stays on your device. The caption is drawn in your browser.
The meme generator adds top and bottom captions to an image you choose, drawn in the white-with-black-outline style the format has used since the mid-2000s. The image is processed on a canvas in your browser and never uploaded, and there is no template library, you supply the picture.
How it works
The caption style is specific and worth getting right: heavy condensed type, all capitals, white fill with a black stroke around every glyph. The stroke is what keeps text readable over any image, light or dark.
- Text is drawn twice (once as a stroke, once as a fill) so the outline sits outside the letterforms rather than thinning them.
- The stroke width scales with the font size, at roughly one twelfth, which keeps the proportion right at any caption size.
- Captions are uppercased automatically, as the format requires.
- Images wider than 1000 pixels are scaled down, which keeps the canvas responsive on a phone.
The font stack asks for Impact first and falls back to Arial Black. Impact ships with Windows and macOS but not with most Linux distributions or Android, so the caption may render in a different weight there.
Examples
A two-line caption
Top
WHEN THE BUILD PASSES
Bottom
ON THE FIRST TRY
Result
The image with both captions drawn in outlined white capitals
Both captions are optional. Leaving one blank draws only the other, which suits images where the joke is all in one line.
A long caption on a narrow image
Top
a caption longer than the image is wide
Caption size
48px
Result
The text is compressed horizontally to fit within the image width
Canvas squeezes text to a maximum width rather than wrapping it. Reduce the caption size for long text, or split it across both captions.
Frequently asked questions
Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by your browser, drawn onto a canvas locally, and the download comes from that canvas. The page makes no network requests, which matters given people caption personal photos.
Why does my caption look different from the classic meme font?
Because Impact may not be installed. It ships with Windows and macOS but not with most Linux distributions or Android, so those devices fall back to Arial Black or a generic bold face. The download will match whatever your device rendered.
Why does long text get squashed instead of wrapping?
Because canvas text drawing compresses to a maximum width rather than wrapping. There is no automatic line breaking. Lower the caption size, shorten the text, or split it between the top and bottom captions.
Are there any meme templates included?
No, and deliberately. Template images are almost all somebody’s copyrighted photograph or film still, and shipping a library of them is a rights problem rather than a technical one. Bring your own image.