From Images to a Live Telegram Sticker Pack: the @Stickers Bot Workflow, Step by Step

#python #webdev #tutorial

My last two posts were about making single stickers that WhatsApp accepts. This one is the next step: turning a folder of images into a live Telegram sticker pack with its own t.me/addstickers/... link — no code for the publishing part, just one Python script to get the images into spec.

What Telegram actually checks

Sticker type	Format	Size	Limits
Static	PNG or WebP	one side exactly 512 px	≤ 512 KB
Animated	TGS (Lottie-based)	512×512	≤ 64 KB, ≤ 3 s, 30 fps
Video	WEBM (VP9)	512×512	≤ 256 KB, ≤ 3 s
Pack size	—	—	up to 120 stickers

If you're just starting out, static PNG is the simplest path: no Lottie tooling, no timing rules — resize, pad, upload.

Step 1 — batch-prepare a whole folder with Pillow

from pathlib import Path
from PIL import Image

SRC = Path("my_images")        # raw images, any size or format
OUT = Path("telegram_ready")
OUT.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

for i, f in enumerate(sorted(SRC.iterdir()), 1):
    if f.suffix.lower() not in {".png", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".webp"}:
        continue
    im = Image.open(f).convert("RGBA")
    im.thumbnail((512, 512))                     # keeps aspect ratio
    canvas = Image.new("RGBA", (512, 512), (0, 0, 0, 0))
    canvas.paste(im, ((512 - im.width) // 2, (512 - im.height) // 2), im)
    canvas.save(OUT / f"{i:02d}.png")

Why PNG for the output: at 512 px there's rarely a size problem, so PNG sidesteps any quality tuning. If one of your stickers does blow past 512 KB (noisy, highly detailed art can), re-save just that file as WebP with quality=90 — Telegram accepts WebP the same way.

Step 2 — talk to @Stickers

Open t.me/Stickers in Telegram. This bot builds every public pack on the platform.

Send /newpack — it asks for a pack name (this is the display name users see).
Upload your images as files, not as photos. This is the single most common mistake: sending as a photo makes Telegram compress the image, which wrecks transparency and sharp edges. Use the paperclip → File, or drag the file onto the chat on desktop.
After each upload the bot asks for one emoji. Pick the best match — that emoji is how your sticker gets suggested in the emoji panel later.
When the last sticker is in, send /publish.
Choose a short public link. You get a URL like t.me/addstickers/my_pack_name — anyone who opens it can install the pack in two taps.

Useful later: /addsticker appends to an existing pack, /delpack deletes one, /cancel backs out of any wizard.

The failure modes I hit, so you don't have to

511×512 or 513×512 → rejected. "One side exactly 512" means exactly. My thumbnail((512, 512)) plus padding canvas handles this, but if you resize by hand, double-check.
Uploaded as photo → blurry sticker. Resend as file. There's no way to fix a compressed upload after the fact.
GIF ≠ animated sticker. Animated packs need TGS (a Lottie JSON converted with the official tooling), not a renamed GIF. Start with static if you don't want to touch that toolchain.

Make it once, use it twice

The same square, transparent PNG that Telegram accepts is one quality-loop away from being a WhatsApp sticker — WhatsApp wants exactly 512×512 WebP under 100 KB instead of "one side 512". I covered that conversion, including the quality loop, in my previous post.

Or skip the pipeline entirely

If you'd rather see finished packs first: FunnieStickers is a free library of 192 stickers, shipped in WhatsApp and Telegram formats — no sign-up, click to download. The meme and reactions sets are the ones I'd install first.

Built a pack from this? Drop the link in the comments — I actually install them.

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