video tool

Video contact sheet maker

A video contact sheet is one image holding frames taken at even steps through a clip, laid out in a grid with the time of each, so you can see a whole video at a glance. Open a video, choose the columns and rows, and the frames are drawn into the grid with timestamps and a header, ready to save as a PNG or JPEG.

Loading the tool…

How it works

  1. 1

    Open a video

    Choose a file or drop it on the panel. A first sheet of four by four frames is drawn straight away.

  2. 2

    Pick the grid

    Set the columns, rows and frame width. More rows give finer steps through the clip; a wider frame gives more detail per frame.

  3. 3

    Choose the extras

    Keep or remove the timestamps and the header line, and switch to a light background for printing. Press Make the contact sheet to redraw.

  4. 4

    Download

    Pick PNG for sharp frames or JPEG for a smaller file, then press Download. The image is named after your video.

Where the frames come from

With a grid of 16 frames on a 2 minute clip, the tool takes one frame every 7.5 seconds, starting half a step in, at 3.75 seconds, and ending half a step before the end. Starting half a step in skips the black first frame most clips open on and spreads the samples evenly. For each one the video is seeked to that time, the frame the browser shows is drawn into its cell at the chosen width, and the time is stamped in the corner. The height of each cell follows the clip's own shape, so a vertical phone video makes tall cells rather than letterboxed ones.

What a contact sheet is good for

Editors and photographers have used contact sheets for decades to review footage without playing it. A sheet shows at once whether a recording has the shots you need, where a screen recording changes from one task to the next, and whether a long clip is mostly static. It is also a compact way to send someone an overview of a video for approval: one image attached to a message instead of a link they have to watch. For a tutorial, a sheet of a screen recording makes it quick to pick the moments worth turning into steps. Because every frame carries its time, a reviewer can answer with a timestamp instead of a vague description, such as cut the section around 1:40.

From a recording to a tutorial video

Once the sheet shows the moments that matter, save those exact frames at full size with the frame extractor and they can become the steps of a tutorial video. The OneCraft video generator accepts up to 8 images with a brief, and for screens it also has its own capture that snaps a still at each press of Capture step, so you can mark a click point and a zoom on each one. Tutorial videos are a Starter plan feature; the stills from this page work in a promotional video on any plan.

Limits worth knowing

Browsers seek to the requested time, but some files can only show the nearest keyframe quickly, so a frame may be from a moment either side of its stamp; on footage with fast cuts that can mean the neighbouring shot. The frames are only as varied as the clip: evenly spaced samples can miss a short shot entirely. Very large grids at the widest frame size make big images, and a portrait clip with many rows is the tallest case, though every grid here stays within browser limits. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored, ever; the drawing happens in this page.

Limits

  • Seeking accuracy depends on keyframes and the browser, so a frame can come from a fraction of a second away from the time stamped on it.
  • The browser has to decode the video. ProRes MOV, AVI and many HEVC clips will not open; re-save them as MP4 with H.264.
  • A recording with no stored length, such as some files saved straight from a browser, cannot be sampled until it is re-saved.

What it does not do

  • It does not detect scene changes. Frames are spaced evenly by time.
  • It does not save the frames as separate files. Use the frame extractor for single full size frames.
  • It does not make an animated GIF or a video.

Questions people ask

How many frames should a contact sheet have?

Enough that each step is shorter than the shots you care about. For a two minute clip, 16 frames gives a step of 7.5 seconds, which catches most scenes. For a 20 minute talk, 30 to 40 frames makes a useful outline. Past about 60 frames the cells get small; make two sheets of halves instead.

Can I make a contact sheet of a vertical phone video?

Yes. Each cell takes the clip's own shape, so a 9 by 16 video makes tall cells and the sheet comes out taller than it is wide. Use more columns and fewer rows to keep it a manageable shape, such as 6 columns by 3 rows, which still gives 18 frames for the overview.

Why do two frames look identical?

Either the video really did not change between those two times, which is common in talks and screen recordings, or the browser could only show the nearest keyframe for both times, which happens with heavily compressed clips. Re-saving the video with more frequent keyframes in an editor fixes the second case; the first is the footage itself.

Is a PNG or a JPEG better for the sheet?

PNG keeps every pixel, including small text in screen recordings, and is the better choice to review or print. JPEG at the quality used here is often half the size or less and fine for sending in a message or email. The file size of the saved image is shown after you download it.

Can I print the contact sheet?

Yes. Switch on the light background, which saves ink and suits paper, and keep the header so the printout says which file and length it came from. A sheet 4 columns wide at 480 pixels per frame prints well across an A4 or Letter page; set the print to fit the page width.

Turn your best frames into a video

Take what you made here into videos.

Create a video with OneCraft

More tools like this

Background reading: the question page on this.

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .