How to Add Posters and Artwork

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Plex Media Server will do its best to find and download posters, backgrounds, and other assets that can be associated with your media.

You may find that Plex may not find a good asset to use for your media, such as a missing poster or one that doesn't look good. For such a situation, you can specify your asset for Plex to use instead.

This article will show you how you can add your local assets to your media so Plex can use one of those assets instead of an asset it finds online.

How to Add Posters and Artwork to Plex

Supported file formats

There a several supported file formats that can be used by Plex for posters, backgrounds, and banners. These formats are:

  • jpg
  • jpeg
  • png
  • tbn

If you don't use one of the formats listed above, then your asset won't be used by Plex.

Movie Posters on a Wall.

Posters

Posters are displayed in the Plex app dashboards, library views, and when looking at the details for a media item.

The typical aspect ratio for a poster is 1:1.5, so using this aspect ratio will allow your posters to display correctly in Plex.

Movies

Similar to movie naming conventions, to have Plex correctly detect your movie posters, you should use one of the following naming conventions:

  • Movies/movie_name (release date).ext
  • Movies/movie_name (release date)/poster_name.ext

Where poster_name is:

  • cover
  • default
  • folder
  • movie
  • poster

For example:

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).jpg

or

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)
        /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
        /poster.jpg

You can include multiple posters for a movie. To do so, you would include a number in the name of the poster, as such:

  • Movies/movie_name (release date)-N.ext
  • Movies/movie_name (release date)/poster_name-N.ext

Where -N is a number.

For example:

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)-1.jpg
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)-2.jpg

or

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)
        /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
        /poster.jpg
        /poster-2.jpg

TV shows

You can include posters for the entire series of a TV show, or each season. As with TV show naming conventions use the following naming convention for posters:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/poster_name.ext

Where poster_name is:

  • folder
  • poster
  • show

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /show.jpg

You can include multiple posters for a TV show series by appending a number to the end of the poster name, as such:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/poster_name-N.ext

Where -N is a number.

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /show.jpg
        /show-2.jpg

Seasons

If you would like to add a poster for a specific season of a show, you can use the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/Season NN/seasonNN.ext

Where NN is the season number.

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /Season 01
            /Season01.jpg

For a poster for a "Specials" season, use season-specials-poster as the name.

Unlike the other naming conventions, to specify multiple posters for a TV show season, you will use an alphabetic character instead of a number. To do so, you would use the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/Season NN/seasonNNa.ext

Where NN is the season number and a is an alphabetic letter (a-z).

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /Season 01
            /Season01a.jpg
            /Season01b.jpg

Music

Posters for music can be used for artists and albums. The music naming conventions for each are different and are explained below.

Artist

For artist posters, you would use the following naming conventions:

  • Music/artist_name/poster_name.ext

Where poster_name is:

  • artist
  • artist-cover
  • artist-default
  • artist-folder
  • artist-poster
  • cover
  • default
  • folder
  • poster

For example:

/Music
    /Foo Fighters
        /artist.jpg

Album

The poster naming convention for a music album is:

  • Music/artist_name/album_name/poster_name.ext

Where poster_name is:

  • album
  • cover
  • default
  • folder
  • poster

For example:

/Music
    /Foo Fighters
        /The Colour And The Shape
            /album.jpg
Artwork on a Wall.

Backgrounds

The background image is displayed when viewing the details of a media item. The background also be used elsewhere in Plex.

The typical aspect ratio for a background is 16:9, which is the typical aspect ratio of televisions.

Movies

Movie backgrounds can have the following naming conventions:

  • Movie/movie_name (release date)-background_name.ext
  • Movie/movie_name (release date)/background_name.ext

Where background_name is:

  • art
  • backdrop
  • background
  • fanart

For example:

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)-background.jpg

or

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)
        /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
        /background.jpg

To specify multiple images you would use one of the following naming conventions:

  • Movie/movie_name (release date)-background_name-N.ext
  • Movie/movie_name (release date)/background_name-N.ext

Where -N is a number.

For example:

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)-background-1.jpg
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)-background-2.jpg

or

/Movies
    /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003)
        /The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mp4
        /-background.jpg
        /-background-2.jpg

TV shows

For TV show backgrounds, you can use the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/background_name.ext

Where background_name is:

</ul>

  • art
  • backdrop
  • background
  • fanart

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /background.jpg

To specify multiple background images for a TV Show, you can use the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/background_name-N.ext

Where -N is a number.

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /background.jpg
        /background-2.jpg

Episode

You can add artwork to individual episodes of a TV show. Typically, Plex will generate the artwork from a screenshot of the episode and is displayed on the details page for the episode. The recommended aspect ratios for episode artwork are 4:3 or 16:9, which are the standard aspect ratios for old and new TV show episodes.

To do this, you would use the following naming conventions:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/Season NN/episode_name.ext

Where NN is the season number.

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /Season 01
            /Band of Brothers - s01e01 - Currahee.mp4
            /Band of Brothers - s01e01 - Currahee.jpg

Banners

Banners are used for TV shows by a few Plex Apps, but not many. They can be used for either the entire show or for an individual season. Banners use a 5.4:1 aspect ratio.

TV shows

For TV shows the naming convention for a banner is:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/banner.ext

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /banner.jpg

You can specify multiple banners using the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/banner-N.ext

Where -N is a number.

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /banner.jpg
        /banner-2.jpg

Seasons

To specify a banner for a TV show season, you can use the following naming convention:

  • TV Shows/tv_show_name/Season NN/SeasonNN-banner.ext

Where NN is the season number.

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /Season 01
            /Season01-banner.jpg

For a banner for a "Specials" season, use season-specials-banner as the name.

To use multiple banners for a TV show season, you can use the following naming convention:

  • tv_show_name/Season NN/seasonNN-bannera.ext

Where NN is the season number and a is an alphabetic letter (a-z).

For example:

/TV Shows
    /Band of Brothers
        /Season 01
            /Season01-bannera.jpg
            /Season01-bannerb.jpg

Music

Background artwork can be specified for either a music artist or an album. The naming convention for each is different, but they are both listed below.

Artist

To add a background for a music artist, you can use the following naming convention:

  • Music/artist_name/background-name.ext

Where background-name is:

  • art
  • artist-art
  • artist-backdrop
  • artist-background
  • artist-fanart
  • backdrop
  • background
  • fanart

For example:

/Music
    /Foo Fighters
        /artist-background.jpg

Album

To add a background for an album, you can use the following naming convention:

  • Music/artist_name/album_name/background-name.ext

Where background-name is:

  • art
  • backdrop
  • background
  • fanart

For example:

/Music
    /Foo Fighters
        /The Colour And The Shape
            /background.jpg

If the local files aren't available in Plex to be used, you may need to enable local assets for that library.

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