Hey, you over there… are you looking for the best guide on how to add an overlay to OBS?

Of course you are. Read on and let’s get that cool lookin’ Twitch overlay showing up on your channel for all your viewers to see.

My goal is to make this as simple as possible for you to understand, so you don’t have to waste hours trying to figure out how to overlay-ify your Twitch stream – or maybe you’re using hitbox or YouTube.

Either way, enough chit-chat, here’s how to add your overlay image to your stream using OBS in 3 simple steps.

Don’t have an overlay yet or time for a new one?
Click here to check out our selection of high-quality overlays.

Here’s an updated 2018 video walk-through for adding your overlay to OBS: 

For the text version – keep reading below:

Step 1. Add a Scene

I’m going to assume you have Open Broadcast Software already installed. If you don’t, feel free to pick it up here.

OBS creates a scene for you by default when you open up the program, but if for whatever reason you don’t have one – create one.

Mouse over the Scenes: box > Right Click > Add Scene

Step 2. Add Your Overlay Image

Next we’re going to add your overlay image (yayy).

Mouse over the Sources: box > Right Click > Add > Image

Give it a name, hit OK, then from there you’ll want to click on the Browse button to find the overlay you’re wanting to add to your stream.

Once you’ve picked out your overlay image hit OK again, and voila! You should now have your overlay added to your OBS scene.

Step 3. Resize & Move Your Overlay To Your Desired Position

OK, now that you’ve figured out how to add your overlay to your stream we’ll want to make sure it’s the right size and it’s placed where you want it.

To do this, hit the Edit Scene button, and make sure you have your overlay image selected.

You’ll now see a red border around the overlay:

Now you can right click on either the image name under Sources: or right click the actual image itself to bring up a bunch of different options…

In my case, my overlay is too big for the scene, so I’m gonna wanna hit the Fit To Screen button (Ctrl-F) under the Position/Size menu:

Sweet, the overlay is at the perfect size, now all you need to do is move it …move it…

While still having the overlay selected, left click on the image and drag it to your desired position.

And that’s it! To stop editing, simply hit the Edit Scene button again to save your new sizing/positioning options and you’re now good to go.

Pro Tips:

• For even better image resizing capabilities – hold Alt while you use the click to drag resize option.
• Save your overlay image without a background, and as a .png file so you don’t have to deal with any annoying white (or black) backgrounds when adding it to OBS.

Not Seeing Your Overlay?

If you’ve added your overlay image and for some reason it’s not showing up, it could be because the image source is underneath another source (like your gameplay source) that’s covering the entire screen.

What do I mean? Check out the images below…

Always make sure your window/game captures are the bottom layer in your Source panel.

You Might Also Be Interested In: Twitch overlay ideas

That’s it That’s all

So that wraps up this guide on how to add your overlay to your stream using open broadcast software. Quick and painless…

If you have any questions just drop me a comment below.

And – if you’re looking for some new graphics to customize your Twitch stream, or YouTube channel then feel free to look around at our site…

You can find anything you need – from Twitch panels, offline screens, profile banners, and even some dope ass stream overlays.

Check us out here: https://streamplay.com/graphics

Thanks!