RunLocalTools

Story Countdown Sticker Maker: Transparent PNG, Daily ZIP and Animated GIF

Free countdown sticker maker for Stories, Reels and TikTok. Ten designs, transparent PNG, a ZIP with one sticker per day, animated GIF. Runs in your browser.

What it does

Type an event name and a date, and this tool draws a countdown sticker you can download as a transparent PNG and drop onto a Story, Reel, TikTok, YouTube Short or WhatsApp status. You choose the look from ten designs, set your own colours, borders, tilt and font, and place the sticker on a full 1080×1920 frame if you want a finished image.

It also solves the biggest problem with countdown graphics: a picture does not tick. So the tool can build a whole ZIP with one sticker for every day until the event, already dated for posting, or an animated GIF that steps down day by day.

How it works

Calendar-correct days. The count works out the date in the time zone you choose, then counts calendar days between today and the event. That means “Dec 24 evening” shows 1 day to go for Dec 25, the way people say it, and clock changes for daylight saving never shift the number by one. If you prefer strict 24-hour days, switch the setting.

More than days. Show days only, days:hours:minutes, days:hours:minutes:seconds, or weeks plus days. Count business days only, skipping weekends and any holidays you list. Or write a template such as {d} {dl} until {title} and the tool fills in the numbers and the singular or plural word for you.

Drawn in your browser. Every sticker is painted on a canvas element, so the PNG keeps a truly transparent background with smooth edges and soft shadows. Nothing is sent to a server.

A GIF encoder written for this tool. The GIF is built in your browser with its own encoder. GIF only supports fully transparent or fully solid pixels, so a transparent GIF has hard edges; pick a solid background colour for the smoothest animation.

Safe zones. On the Story frame you can overlay guides for Instagram Stories, Reels, TikTok and Shorts. The green box marks the largest area clear of every selected app’s buttons and captions. The guides show in the preview only and are never printed into your download. App layouts change, so treat them as a guide. Our TikTok and Shorts safe-area overlay is the way to check a finished video the same way.

How to use it

  1. In Countdown, enter the event title, date, time and time zone, and pick how the count is shown. Set what it says on the day itself and after the moment passes.
  2. In Design, pick one of the ten looks, then adjust colours, border, corner radius, tilt, font and an optional emoji. Upload your own font file if you have one, and save the look for next time.
  3. In Canvas, choose sticker-only or a full frame (Story, portrait, square or wide). For a frame, set the background colour, gradient or your own image, then drag the sticker into place or use the arrow keys.
  4. In Export, download the PNG, copy it to your clipboard, or share it straight from your phone.
  5. For daily posting, set how many days ahead and press Build the ZIP. Each file is named with the date to post it, and a schedule.csv lists them.
  6. For an animation, choose day-by-day or a 60-second live tick, pick a width and background, and press Create the GIF.

If you are choosing colours, our colour picker can lift an exact brand colour from an image first.

Designs and options

  • Ten designs: card, pill, progress ring, ticket, neon, flip clock, glossy sticker, minimal text, badge and speech bubble.
  • Output sizes: sticker-only at 1×, 2× or 3×, or frames of 1080×1920, 1080×1350, 1080×1080 and 1920×1080.
  • Your own font (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2) and your own background image are kept in this browser, so they are still there after a refresh, and you can remove them at any time.
  • Settings can be exported to a small file and imported later or on another device.

Privacy

Everything happens on your device. Your dates, images and fonts are never uploaded. The tool needs no account. The first time you build a ZIP it downloads one small library, and after that it works offline.

FAQ

Does the sticker count down by itself inside Instagram?

No. This tool makes a picture, and a picture cannot tick. Instagram’s own countdown sticker is the only one that updates inside the app. Use this tool when you want your own branding, when you post on TikTok, Shorts or WhatsApp, or when you want a new sticker each day, which the daily ZIP is built for.

How do I post a different sticker every day?

Choose your date, set the number of days, and press Build the ZIP. Each PNG is named with the date to post it (for example 2026-12-22_3-days-left.png). The last file is the day-of version.

Which time zone does it use?

The one you choose, with your own zone as the default. The same instant can be a different calendar day in different zones, so set the zone where the event happens.

Why are the edges of my transparent GIF jagged?

The GIF format has no partial transparency. Pixels are either fully see-through or fully solid. For a smooth result choose a solid background colour that matches where you will post it.

Can I use business days only?

Yes. Turn on business days, and weekends are skipped. Add holidays as dates and those are skipped too.

What size should I export?

For a Story or Reel, pick the 1080×1920 frame. For dropping a sticker into an editor, export the sticker alone at 2× or 3×, which keeps text sharp when you scale it up.

Registration note (plain text, not for the page)

  • Suggested id: story-countdown-sticker (matches the existing backlog entry)
  • Display name: Story Countdown Sticker Maker
  • Category: Social & Creator
  • Tier: as in the existing backlog entry
  • Blurb: Make a countdown sticker or Story frame: ten designs, transparent PNG, a dated ZIP of one sticker per day, or an animated GIF.
  • Send-to target: no (handoffShapes not needed).
  • Interlinking: two in-body links are written into the copy (tiktok-safezone, colorpick). Both are shipped and use their registry url: values. banner-safezone was not linked because its registry entry has no url:.
  • Uses these existing helpers: TK.settings, TK.filePersist (custom font and background image), TK.createCanvasPreview, TK.downloadZip, TK.createDropzone, TK.createSegmented, TK.createSlider, TK.checkFileCount, TK.checkCanvasSize, TK.formatBytes, TK.toast, TK.escapeHtml.
  • Network: none. TK.downloadZip lazy-loads JSZip from the CDN on first use, as it does for every tool, and works offline afterwards.
  • Shared helper I wished existed: a reusable time-zone and calendar-date helper (TK.zonedToEpoch, TK.partsInTz). tz-convert, world-clock and countdown likely each carry their own version.
  • Follow-ups worth doing separately (not changed by me):
    1. tiktok-safezone.js has a bug in its “guaranteed safe” rectangle. The caption box touches the left edge, so the maths treats it as a left-hand rail, and the result is a sliver about 3% wide (measured: TikTok x 0.80, w 0.03; all three platforms combined w 0.01). It should use a largest-empty-rectangle search instead, which is what this tool does (see safeRect in the new file). The overlay boxes themselves are fine; only the combined safe rectangle is wrong.
    2. banner-safezone has no url: in registry.js.
    3. The attached core.js is build 2026-09-20.2, while index.html stamps it ?v=2026-09-20.3 and the master reference says live is .4. Everything here uses only helpers present in the attached copy, but confirm the live copy has not changed their signatures.