In this guide
The 30-second answer
Tap the text tool, type your words, and place them where they do not cover faces or important action. Use one font and one or two colors for the whole video, keep lines short, and give each text block enough time on screen to be read twice. If viewers cannot read it on a phone at a glance, it is too small, too long, or too low-contrast.
Text does jobs that nothing else in the edit can do. It names the topic in the first second, labels what the viewer is looking at, and carries the call to action at the end. It is different from captions: captions transcribe speech, while text adds meaning the speech does not contain.
The mistake most beginners make is treating text as decoration. Every word on screen should earn its place. If a sentence does not change what the viewer understands or does, cut it — the video will feel faster and more confident without it.
Add on-screen text
On-screen text is any short label that sits over your footage: a location name, a step number, a price, a punchline. Adding it is quick; placing it well is the skill.
- Move the playhead to the moment the text should first appear.
- Open the text tool and type your words. Keep it to a few words per line — long sentences shrink to unreadable sizes.
- Choose a font and size, then drag the text to its position. Keep it inside the safe area, away from the edges where platform buttons and captions sit.
- Set how long the text stays on screen by dragging its edges on the timeline to match the shot or idea it labels.
- Preview on the phone screen, not just in the editor. Text that looks fine in a large preview often turns out too small on a real feed.
- Repeat the same font, size, and placement for the same kind of label throughout the video, so viewers learn your system once.
Position matters as much as wording. Lower thirds — text sitting in the bottom third of the frame — are the default for a reason: they rarely cover faces. Center-screen text works for emphasis, but only for a second or two, and only when the shot behind it is simple.
Build a title card
A title card is the full-screen or near-full-screen text that opens a video or a section: the topic, the episode number, or the promise of what comes next. It is the first thing viewers read, so it deserves more care than a passing label.
- Decide on one line of text. A title card with a paragraph on it is a slide, not a title — save the detail for the voiceover or the description.
- Place the title over a simple background: a clean shot, a solid color, or a slightly darkened frame. Busy footage behind a title makes both harder to read.
- Use your largest text size for the title and a smaller size for any subtitle, and keep the two aligned to the same edge.
- Hold the card for two to three seconds. Shorter than that and viewers cannot read it; longer and the video feels like it has not started.
- Pair the card with a clean cut or a simple fade into the first shot, and keep the same card design across episodes so returning viewers recognize your videos instantly.
If you make a series, build the title card once and reuse it. Reusing one card is not laziness — it is branding. Change only the words, and your series gains a visual identity for free.
Style text so it stays readable
Readability is mostly contrast and restraint. A beautiful font in the wrong color over busy footage is unreadable, while a plain font in white with a dark outline reads anywhere.
Pick one font family and stick to it. Mixing three fonts in one video looks accidental. Use one font for titles and, if you need a second, one for labels — never more. Bold weights read better on small screens than thin ones, and all-caps works for short titles but tires the eye in longer lines.
Contrast beats color. White text with a dark outline or a semi-transparent dark panel behind it survives almost any footage. Colored text looks great on a still preview and disappears over real video, so reserve bright colors for emphasis words rather than whole sentences.
Respect the safe area. Keep text well inside the frame edges. Platform buttons, usernames, and captions cover the corners and bottom of the screen in the feed, so text placed flush to an edge will be hidden for many viewers.
Keep lines short. Two or three short lines read faster than one long line, and they let you control where the breaks fall. Break lines on natural pauses, not in the middle of a phrase.
Before you export, check readability the way viewers will see it: on the phone, at arm’s length, with the sound off. If you cannot read a text block in two seconds that way, it needs to be bigger, shorter, or higher-contrast.
Animate text without overdoing it
Animation is text arriving, not text performing. A fade, a slide, or a gentle pop draws the eye to the words at exactly the right moment; anything fancier competes with the words themselves.
Use one entrance style for the whole video. If every label slides in from the left, viewers stop noticing the motion and start noticing the information — which is the point. Save a different entrance for the one moment that deserves it, like the reveal of a result or a price.
Keep entrances short, around a quarter to half a second. Long, bouncy animations eat into reading time and make a fast video feel slow. And let text exit simply: a quick fade is almost always enough. Text that spins, flips, and explodes on its way out looks like the editor showing off instead of telling a story.
One more rule: never animate text that viewers must read carefully, such as instructions or a disclaimer. Moving words are harder to read, so keep important text still for its full duration.
Time text to the edit
Text should arrive with the idea it supports and leave before the next idea starts. The simplest timing rule is the reading rule: give viewers enough time to read the text twice. A three-word label needs about a second and a half; a full sentence needs three to four seconds.
Anchor text to the audio as well as the picture. A label that pops in on the beat of the music feels intentional; one that appears half a second late feels like a mistake. If a spoken line and a text label say the same thing, start the text a fraction before the speech so the eye catches it first.
When a shot changes, decide whether the text belongs to the old shot or the new one, and cut it cleanly with the shot. Text that drifts across a cut looks like an accident. For a sequence of steps, keep each step’s text on screen for exactly that step — no longer, no shorter — so the text becomes a progress indicator in its own right.
Fix common text problems
Text is too small on phones. You sized it on a large preview. Increase the size until it reads at arm’s length on the phone, then shorten the words if the bigger size crowds the frame.
Text gets cut off at the edges. It sits outside the safe area. Pull every text block inward by a comfortable margin, and check the corners, where platform buttons overlap the video in the feed.
Text is unreadable over bright footage. Add contrast, not color: a dark outline, a shadow, or a semi-transparent dark panel behind the words. If the footage is still fighting the text, darken that section of the video slightly.
Too much text at once. Split it. One idea per text block, shown one at a time, reads far better than a paragraph on screen. If you cannot split it, the words probably belong in the voiceover or the description instead.
Text and captions collide. Captions sit at the bottom of the frame, so move your own text higher when both are on screen, or keep them on different shots. See the captions guide for how to keep the two from stacking.
Frequently asked questions
What size should text be in a vertical video?
Big enough to read at arm’s length on a phone without squinting. There is no magic point size, because it depends on the font and the footage behind it — so judge by the phone preview, not the editor. As a starting point, make titles the largest text in the video and labels roughly two-thirds of that size, then increase anything you cannot read in a two-second glance.
Can I use my own fonts in Instagram Edits?
Edits works with its own built-in font set, and there is no option to import a custom font file into a project. If your brand uses a specific typeface elsewhere, pick the closest built-in match and stay consistent with it across your videos. Consistent use of one built-in font reads as a brand choice; switching fonts every video reads as indecision.
Why does my text look blurry after exporting?
Usually the export settings, not the text itself. Text is the first thing to suffer when a video is exported at a lower resolution or heavily compressed, so check your export settings and export at 1080p for vertical video. Also avoid scaling a small text block up after placing it — set the size you want from the start, so the text renders crisply at its final size.
Should on-screen text match what I say in the video?
Not word for word. When viewers read and hear the same sentence at the same time, their attention splits and neither lands well. Use text to add something the speech does not: a name, a number, a step, or the punchline the voiceover sets up. The two should support each other, not duplicate each other.
How long should a title card stay on screen?
Two to three seconds for a short title, longer if the title is a full sentence. The test is the same as for any text: a viewer should be able to read it twice before it leaves. If your title card feels rushed, add half a second rather than shrinking the font — and remember that a card that overstays its welcome makes the video feel slow before it has begun.