How to use the video contact sheet maker
- Drop a video onto the box or click to choose one.
- Set Columns (1–12, default 4), Rows (1–20, default 4) and Sheet width in pixels (400–8,000, default 1,600).
- Keep Show timestamps ticked to print each frame’s time in its corner, and Header with file details ticked for the information strip at the top.
- Choose the Image format: JPEG (default, smaller) or PNG.
- Press Make contact sheet, check the preview and download the image.
What it does and when to use it
A contact sheet is the video version of the strip of prints photographers used to judge a roll of film. It lets you see a whole clip at a glance: share a quick overview with a client or editor, check that a long recording captured what you expected, choose which part of a video to cut, or add a visual summary to an archive or catalogue of footage.
To save the individual frames as separate files instead, use the video frame extractor. For one high-resolution still, the video thumbnail grabber is the better fit, and the video info viewer lists every technical detail of the file as a table.
How it works
The tool reads the video’s size, length and average frame rate with Mediabunny in a background worker. It then works out the grid:
cell width = (sheet width − 8 × (columns + 1)) ÷ columns, rounded down
The cell height follows the video’s shape, with an 8-pixel gap between cells and a 64-pixel header band when the header is on. Frames are decoded at the middle of equal slices of the clip, fitted into their cells on a dark background, and the time of each is written in the bottom-right corner. The finished canvas is saved as JPEG (90% quality) or PNG. The video never leaves your device.
Worked examples
These sizes come from the tool’s own layout function.
| Video | Grid | Sheet width | Sheet size | Cell size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920×1080 | 4 × 4, header on | 1,600 | 1600×980 | 390×219 |
| 1920×1080 | 6 × 3, header on | 1,600 | 1600×531 | 257×145 |
| 1080×1920 | 3 × 5, header off | 1,200 | 1200×3508 | 389×692 |
On a 95-second clip, the default 16 frames are stamped 0:03, 0:09, 0:15 and so on up to 1:32.
Limits and tips
- Large grids on long videos take time, because each frame has to be found and decoded. Files without a seek index, such as some browser recordings, are read from start to end instead.
- Timestamps are whole seconds, so two frames less than a second apart can show the same time.
- AVI, WMV and FLV cannot be read here; convert them first with the video converter.
Frequently asked questions
How many frames can a sheet hold?
What does the header show?
Why is the sheet so tall with a phone video?
Does the sheet show the first and last frame?
How do we know nothing is uploaded? Test it yourself on the privacy proof page.