Game dev & streaming

Stream / OBS Layout Pixel Budgeter

Free Twitch / YouTube live-stream layout calculator. Set canvas resolution and aspect ratios for webcam and gameplay box; outputs exact pixel dimensions to paste into OBS / Streamlabs.

Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software

When to use this

Use when designing a new stream overlay or moving from 1080p to 1440p. Pixel-perfect dimensions prevent blurry scaling artifacts.

How it compares

OBS Studio templates require dragging-and-eyeballing. This gives you exact numbers to paste in.

Enter your values below. Calculations run locally as you type.

Canvas & webcam

Canvas resolution Webcam aspect ratio

Webcam width (% of canvas) Edge padding (px)

OBS configuration

Webcam size

480 × 270 px

16:9

Position

(1430, 800)

bottom-right corner

Safe area

1900 × 1060 px

10px padding

Layout preview

How it works

Webcam pixel width = canvas width × (size %). Pixel height = width × (aspect-ratio H ÷ aspect-ratio W).

The position output places the webcam in the bottom-right corner with the chosen padding from each edge.

Use the visual preview to sanity-check coverage before pasting dimensions into OBS / Streamlabs.

FAQs

Why does my webcam border get blurry?

Scaling your image at non-integer ratios introduces blur. The calculator outputs exact pixel sizes to avoid scaling artifacts.

What's a good webcam size?

15–25% of canvas width on a 1080p stream. Smaller for gameplay, larger for face-cam-focused content.

Why should I size overlays in exact pixels instead of percentages?

OBS and Streamlabs position and scale sources by pixel coordinates, so exact dimensions let you paste values directly without guesswork. This also keeps elements crisp by avoiding fractional scaling.

Do these pixel dimensions change between 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?

Yes; the same on-screen proportion translates to more pixels at higher canvas resolutions, so a webcam that is 320 px wide at 1080p needs roughly 640 px at 4K. Always set your dimensions for the canvas resolution you actually stream at.

Worked example

Input

1920×1080 canvas, 16:9 webcam at 25% width, 10 px padding.

Output

Webcam 480×270 px at position (1430, 800).

25% × 1920 = 480 px wide. 16:9 ratio → 270 px tall. Positioned 10 px from the right and bottom edges.

Common pitfalls

Twitch and YouTube preview different aspect ratios on mobile — leave safe-area buffer.
OBS scene scaling can override your pixel choices — confirm output resolution matches.
Webcam software (XSplit Vcam, etc.) may add their own resize step.

Working in canvas percentages, not pixels

The layout works from a canvas — 1920×1080 by default — with the webcam and other elements sized as a percentage of it. Working proportionally rather than in fixed pixels is what makes a layout survive a change of canvas resolution, which is otherwise a full rebuild.

Aspect ratio is kept as a separate input from size for the same reason: a webcam source stretched to fit a box of the wrong ratio is one of the most visible amateur mistakes in a stream layout.

Safe areas and what mobile viewers lose

A large share of viewers watch on phones, where the stream occupies a small part of a small screen. Text sized comfortably on a 27-inch monitor is illegible there, and detail near the frame edge can be cropped by player chrome or by the platform.

Keeping essential elements inside a margin from each edge — the padding input — and sizing text for the smallest screen you care about are the two decisions that most affect whether a layout works in practice. Check any layout at phone size before committing to it.

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