Plex Posters
Plex is a personal media server and streaming platform that allows you to organize, manage, and stream your own media files, such as movies, TV shows, and music. It functions by hosting your media library on a server or computer and then providing access to it through various devices, like smartphones, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles, or web browsers.
Objective
While Plex is an exceptional tool, it doesn’t always provide an optimal experience for every user need, particularly when it comes to visual assets like movie posters. Frequently, the default poster designs compromise usability, prompting me to redesign them for better clarity and function.
My objective is to improve the legibility and usability of these posters within Plex. By reformatting the original artwork—removing extraneous text, adjusting key visual elements, and occasionally incorporating new assets—I ensure that titles and essential visuals remain clear and recognizable, even at the smaller display sizes used by Plex. This enhances the user experience, making content identification seamless and visually accessible.
Users:
Plex Users
Tools:
Photoshop
Deliverables:
2:3 jpg file
Movies
Here is a selection of "before and after" samples from the hundreds of movie posters I have reformatted using Photoshop. A common challenge with importing movie posters into Plex is that the original dimensions (27 x 40 inches) and dense textual content do not scale well. In Plex, posters appear around 1 x 1.5 (2:3 ratio) inches, making much of the text, including the movie title, difficult or impossible to read when resized.
This lack of legibility can be a significant usability issue, requiring users to strain to identify titles.
To address this, I start by removing all text except the movie title, which often allows me to increase the visual content's prominence and optimize space for the title itself. The Weird Science poster illustrates this approach effectively.
In other cases, like Lone Wolf McQuade, simply removing additional text isn’t enough to achieve the desired clarity. In such instances, I also reorganize the visual elements, creating space to enlarge the title and improve legibility.
In Action Jackson, not only did the text become illegible when reduced, but the left-side images lost clarity as well, so I removed them. After repositioning the title and main image, I was left with a blank area on the left, which I filled by incorporating an action shot of Carl Weathers sourced from online assets.
For Wizards, I was able to locate the original artwork used as the basis for the poster and substituted it for the smaller, less detailed image, enhancing both clarity and visual impact.
Before
Before
After
After
Animated Shorts
One of my hobbies is collecting classic animated theatrical shorts, and I have organized nearly 5,000 of them into over 200 curated collections in Plex, each requiring its own cover image.
Initially, I tried using DVD covers from existing cartoon collections, but these often didn’t align with my organizational structure. Alternatively, I considered using title cards from the shorts, but Plex’s 2:3 aspect ratio requirement posed a challenge, as all title cards are horizontally oriented.
As a result, I needed to create custom cover artwork. I meticulously searched for visual assets online and adapted them into 2:3 covers. In some cases, I recreated official artwork to fit the required ratio, while in others, I designed entirely original covers.
Below is a sample of the over 200 covers I’ve developed.
2:3 ratio
4:3 ratio
2:3 ratio
16:6 ratio
In Conclusion
In both my movie poster and animated shorts projects, I have undertaken the task of adapting artwork to fit Plex’s format requirements while prioritizing clarity and visual appeal. By reformatting original designs, removing excess text, and sourcing additional visual assets, I have created covers that are not only legible but also align with my organizational vision. This collection reflects both my commitment to preserving the essence of the original artwork and my dedication to enhancing user experience through thoughtful design. Each reimagined cover serves as a carefully crafted representation, balancing functionality and aesthetics within Plex’s constraints.
