Twitch overlay size and safe area
Design Twitch and Kick overlays with safe areas for cam, game, chat, and alerts. Match your OBS canvas before you polish type.
On this page
Streaming is phone-and-desktop first. Design for the canvas you actually go live on: 1920 x 1080 (16:9) for Twitch and Kick, or 1080 x 1920 (9:16) for vertical. A mismatched pack crops wrong and kills type.
Get the size wrong and everything downstream suffers: type too small, panels crushed, facecam covering the game. Get the size right once, then reuse it across starting, live, BRB, and ending scenes.
Working size
Build every scene at your live canvas. Export overlays and panels at that size. Scaling a vertical pack into a landscape stream (or the reverse) is how type dies and UI collides.
Thumbs and live kits should feel like the same brand. If they fight each other, the channel feels sloppy before the first follow.
Platform docs cover OBS connect and canvas details in Help. Use that for connect steps and troubleshooting. This post is about design safe area.
Safe area rules
The platform draws its own chrome: chat, bids, and on some setups a ticker or giveaway QR. Custom art must leave those zones open. Critical type in the collision zone is invisible when it matters.
- Keep cam and game visible. The stream is the product.
- Leave room for platform chrome: chat, alerts, and any giveaway UI when present.
- Do not park critical type where the app already draws UI.
- Test on a real phone, not only a desktop preview.
- Check both starting and live scenes. Safe area can shift when cam appears.
Where facecam can sit
Facecam earns trust. It should not cover the game or the panels viewers need. Common patterns put cam in a corner that stays clear of chat and alerts. If cam and overlay fight, game and chat win.
Size the cam so your face is recognizable without eating half the frame. Giant cam + tiny board is a common mistake on first kits.
Scenes, not one flat file
Treat starting, live, and BRB as separate scenes. Starting holds brand and show title. Live carries cam, overlay, and board with safe areas open. BRB is a short hold while you reset. One oversized PSD with everything visible at once is harder to run in OBS.
For how those scenes drop into OBS as Image or Browser Source, see OBS setup for Twitch overlays and boards.
Quick checklist before export
- Canvas is 1080 x 1920.
- Card region is clear on the live scene.
- Board type survives a phone screenshot.
- No critical labels under chat or bids.
- Starting and BRB use the same brand language as live.
When to get a custom stack
If you are still testing the platform with no branding, a simple clean cam is fine. The moment you run filled breaks, chase a recognizable look, or fight Twitch leftovers every night, a sized kit saves time.
Want examples of kits that already follow these rules? See Best Twitch overlay examples on this blog.
We size the stack for your show. If you want overlays that fit stream instead of fighting it, start a Free Audit or talk on Discord.
Need overlays, panels, alerts, or a full OBS package sized for your stream?
