Text that is already baked into the image
When Thumblore generates a thumbnail with a headline, those words are part of the artwork — lit, shadowed and integrated into the scene. That is what makes them look designed rather than pasted on. It also means you cannot just click and retype them.
The editor's Text tab gives you two ways to change baked-in text without regenerating the thumbnail: an exact find-and-replace, and an AI rewrite.
Find & replace
The precise tool. You type what is currently in the image and what it should say instead, and the words are swapped while keeping the original font, size, colour and placement.
- Open the thumbnail in the editor and select the Text tab.
- In Find & replace, type the text currently in the image — exactly as it appears.
- Type the replacement.
- Click Replace in image. One edit, one request.
Use it for: fixing a typo, updating a number, swapping a guest's name for a series, correcting a word the generator misspelled, localising a headline.
Keep the replacement a similar length
The original layout is preserved, so a two-word phrase replaced with a nine-word one has nowhere to go. If the new text is much longer, either shorten it or remove the old text entirely and add a text layer you position yourself.
AI text rewrite
The flexible tool. Instead of naming the exact strings, you describe the change — "make the title say INSANE GAINS", "change the number to 47", "make the headline shorter and louder" — and the text is redrawn in place.
- Text tab → AI text rewrite.
- Describe what should change.
- Click Rewrite with AI.
Use it when you cannot transcribe the existing text exactly, when there are several text elements and you mean a specific one, or when you want the styling adjusted as well as the words.
Which one to use
| Find & replace | AI rewrite | |
|---|---|---|
| You specify | Exact old and new strings | An instruction |
| Styling | Preserved as-is | May be adjusted |
| Predictability | High | Moderate |
| Best for | Typos, numbers, names, series updates | Rewording, restyling, "make it punchier" |
Getting the text out of an image
To read what is in a thumbnail so you can replace it, just look at the stage and transcribe it — find-and-replace needs the string, not a file. If you are working from someone else's thumbnail for research rather than editing your own, download it with the free thumbnail downloader and read it at full size; the palette extractor will pull its colours out at the same time.
The series workflow this unlocks
Find-and-replace is what makes one thumbnail into a template. For an episodic series:
- Generate one strong frame with the series name and "EPISODE 1" in it.
- For episode 2, open the same thumbnail, find "EPISODE 1", replace with "EPISODE 2".
- If the guest changes, swap the face and replace their name in the same session.
- Download. Two edits, and the series looks deliberately art-directed.
For text you expect to change every single video, consider putting it in a text layer instead — layers are edited instantly and cost nothing.
If it does not swap cleanly
- Nothing changed. The "find" string did not match what is actually in the image. Check for a line break, a stray punctuation mark, or that the word is stylised differently than you typed it.
- Wrong text changed. Two similar strings in the frame. Use the AI rewrite instead and describe which one: "change the small line at the bottom, not the headline".
- Font changed too. Undo and try find-and-replace rather than the rewrite — it is the one that holds styling.
- Letters are mangled. Undo, remove the text entirely via custom chat, and add a clean text layer.