Get 100 free creditsXiaohongshu Cover Maker
On Xiaohongshu — known internationally as RedNote — your cover never appears alone. It competes inside a two-column waterfall of vertical cards, where users scroll past dozens of notes per minute and tap purely on the first image. The Xiaohongshu cover maker is built for exactly that contest: a 3:4 vertical frame from your own video, topped with the large poster-style title local audiences expect.
It is aimed at creators publishing to RedNote from outside China as much as native users. Pick a frame, write the hook, and the layout follows platform habits you would otherwise learn through months of trial and error.
Without a base image, a gradient background is used — text-only covers are fine.
Tip: drag to reposition; click to select, then drag the corner handles to resize
Why Xiaohongshu covers are 3:4, not 16:9
Xiaohongshu's discovery feed is a vertical two-column grid. A 3:4 card fills the column and pushes neighboring notes further down the screen, while a landscape or square image leaves visible gaps and shrinks your effective billboard. Uploading a 16:9 thumbnail meant for YouTube is the most common mistake cross-posting creators make — the platform will display it, but it loses the height contest before anyone reads the title.
The big-title habit: how RedNote covers earn the tap
High-performing notes treat the cover like a magazine poster: a large text headline stating the concrete payoff — what the viewer will learn, save, or avoid — set over a clean frame. Unlike YouTube thumbnails that lean on faces and expressions, RedNote covers lean on words. The cover maker's layouts reserve most of the card for that headline and keep it legible at grid size, where each card is barely wider than a thumb.
- State the payoff, not the topic: "3 mistakes that ruin night footage" beats "my camera settings".
- Keep the headline inside the card's center — the grid shows cards edge to edge with no margin for cropped text.
- Use one frame with a single clear subject; busy frames lose to clean ones at thumbnail scale.
Making RedNote covers as an overseas creator
Since RedNote's international surge, plenty of creators publish there without reading Chinese. The cover maker keeps the workflow in English while producing covers that match local conventions, and the same workspace offers subtitle translation when you want the video itself localized for Chinese-speaking viewers.
How to use the Recapo xiaohongshu cover maker
Three steps, fully in the cloud — nothing to install.
Step 1: Import your note video
Upload the clip behind your note, or import it from a link. Vertical, square and landscape sources all work — the crop comes next.
Step 2: Crop to 3:4 and add a poster title
Choose a keyframe, frame it in the 3:4 vertical ratio Xiaohongshu cards use, and place a big-title layout that states the note's payoff in a few words.
Step 3: Export and post the note
Download the finished cover, set it as the note's first image, and publish — or jump back into captions and voiceover for the video itself.
Frequently asked questions about the xiaohongshu cover maker
What aspect ratio should a Xiaohongshu cover use?
3:4 vertical. It is the ratio the discovery grid is designed around — taller cards occupy more of the column and get seen first. The tool crops your chosen frame to 3:4 automatically.
Why do Xiaohongshu covers have so much text on them?
The cover doubles as the note's headline. Users decide from the grid, often without reading the caption below, so a poster-style title on the image is what actually gets the tap. The layouts are built around that habit.
Can I make RedNote covers if I don't speak Chinese?
Yes. The tool itself works in English, and English-language covers perform well with RedNote's international audience. If you target Chinese-speaking viewers, pair the cover with the subtitle translator to localize the video.
Do I need a video file to make a cover?
No. The tool works from a single image — either a keyframe you pulled from a recap or any still you upload — so there is no footage to render and no audio involved.
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Ready to try Xiaohongshu Cover Maker?
Create 3:4 Xiaohongshu (RedNote) covers from your video: pick a keyframe, add the big poster title the feed rewards, and export a cover built to earn the tap.
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