How To Add Text To TikTok Videos (And Why You Should)
Did you know that people are more likely to watch your TikTok videos if you add text to them? Not only that, adding text has several other benefits, too. This article talks about how you can add text to your TikTok videos, and why you should.
Adding text to TikTok videos and clips is super easy! All you need is a few clicks. Let’s look at how to do that.
Imagine you are on the Subway, reading a book to kill time. It’s quiet inside the train, when suddenly, there is a blast of sound. You look around you and find the source: a guy watching TikTok videos on his phone. Loudly.
It’s annoying, isn’t it? Nobody wants to be that guy, which is why most people (around 92% of them) today watch videos with the sound turned off. Yes, even in private.
If you want your TikTok videos to be viewed by a large number of people, it’s time you start adding text to them. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how. But first…
What Is The Best Font For TikTok Videos?
When it comes to adding text on videos, it is important to use the right font. It is best to go with a no-frills font that improves readability.
Here are 2 of the best fonts for TikTok videos:
Proxima Nova – Semibold
Serif
These fonts are classy and elegant and fit the requirements perfectly when it comes to video captions.
How To Add Text To TikTok Videos Before Posting
You can do this by using the TikTok editor.
Open the TikTok app and create a TikTok video using the + button. If you already have a video filmed, you can open it from your camera roll.
Once you edit your video, click on Next. Here, you will see a Text button at the bottom of the screen. Tap on that and type out your text.
Right above the keyboard, you will see options to change the font and color. Customize it according to your needs. You can change the size of the text by pinching it with your fingers. You can also use the arrow button that will pop up when you tap on the text. If you want to move it around, just tap it and then move it to your desired location.
That was easy, right? Did you know that you can also add text to certain durations alone in your video?
How To Add Text To TikTok Videos At Different Times
There is an easy way to make your text appear only at certain times on the video. Start by following steps 1 to 3 from above.
Once this is done, click on the text and you will see 4 options pop up. In that, tap the timer button and select Set Duration. A small box with a sliding scale will appear at the bottom of the screen. This is the timeline of your video. To set the duration, all you have to do is slide the scale to the duration times you want.
Let’s say your video is 30 seconds long and you want your text to appear for the first 2 seconds. Drag the overlay and place it at 2. Your text will disappear after 2 seconds. Save your changes by clicking on the check mark at the bottom.
To add more text to your video at different times, repeat the above steps. For example, you can place a second text from seconds 2 to 4, and so on. To make sure you have got everything right, you can also preview the video by pressing the play button.
How To Add Text To Different TikTok Clips
Let’s say you are stitching several clips together to form a 30 second video, and you want to add a different text to each clip. All you need to do is follow the exact same method listed under the previous section – “how to add text to TikTok videos at different times.”
However, there is one extra step here. To set the time duration correctly, you need to make a note of when each clip ends. For example, the first clip may end at 5 seconds, while the second may end at 9 seconds. This way, you can drag the sliding scale to the correct time stamp after you add your text, such as having the text for your first clip end at 5 seconds, and so on.
How To Add Moving Text To TikTok Videos
In the above sections, we learnt how to add text to TikTok videos and clips and how you can make them appear only at certain times. All the methods involved you adding the text manually.
But what if you don’t want to do that? What if you want TikTok to transcribe the audio and add the text on its own? You know.. Like subtitles. Is that even possible?
Yes, it is! You can add auto captions to your TikTok videos. Here’s how:
Open your app and choose the video you want to upload.
Once you are done editing, click on Next. Here, you will see a button called Captions on the right side.
Click on that button and TikTok will use speech recognition to automatically add captions to the video.
The only downside is that closed captions are available only in English and there is no way to make sure they align correctly with the audio. But the good news is that viewers can turn these captions on or off depending on their needs!
Now that we are done with the “how,” let’s look at the “why.”
Why Should You Add Text To Your TikTok Videos?
Adding text to your TikTok videos has benefits – not only to you but your viewers as well!
First, they make your content more inclusive for those who are hard of hearing. So, adding text to your videos makes your content accessible to a wider portion of the population.
Second, they increase your engagement because more than 90% of social media users watch videos with the sound turned off – whether they are in public or private. If they don’t see captions on your videos, more often than not, they would move on to the next video instead of turning up the volume. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Third, they allow you to weave stories out of your short videos. Let’s say you want to tell the story of the dog you rescued. You can shoot a simple video of your dog and tell the actual story using the text.
TikTok Video Text Ideas
Even if your video has no audio, you can use text to make it engaging. Here are a few ideas:
Use TikTok text to educate people about something. For example: 5 ways to keep your skin glowing.
Post a video of beautiful scenery with some calming music and use text to add a relevant quote.
Videos that teach people to do X if they want to achieve Y. It could be a video of you doing a yoga pose with the caption: “do this if you want to keep your mind calm.”
How Do You Get Different Text Fonts On TikTok Videos?
TikTok’s video editor has a range of fonts you can choose from. But they are woefully limited. So, what can you do if you want to choose a different font and stand out? You use a video editing app!
There are also several font generators that you can use to get eye-catching fonts. Once the fonts have been generated, you can paste them on to your video. Here are a few such apps:
Ideally? Not very long. There is no hard-and-fast rule, but it should be short enough for people to read through it quickly. Otherwise, they will have to pause the video so that they can finish reading the text. Let’s be honest. Nobody is going to do that.
Preview the video and see if you are able to read the text in a few seconds. If yes, you are good to go!
Adding text to TikTok videos is not only inclusive, it is an underrated marketing strategy. Don’t shy away from using it! This could be the very thing that makes your content go viral.
Karina Gandola was born and raised outside the city of Charleston, in the beautiful mountain state of West Virginia. Karina loves writing about the influencer marketing space and an area she is passionate about. She considers her faith and family to be most important to her. If she isn’t spending time with her friends and family, you can almost always find her around her sweet yellow Labrador retriever, Poshna.
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How To Add Text To TikTok Videos
Adding text to TikTok videos and clips is super easy! All you need is a few clicks. Let’s look at how to do that.
Imagine you are on the Subway, reading a book to kill time. It’s quiet inside the train, when suddenly, there is a blast of sound. You look around you and find the source: a guy watching TikTok videos on his phone. Loudly.
It’s annoying, isn’t it? Nobody wants to be that guy, which is why most people (around 92% of them) today watch videos with the sound turned off. Yes, even in private.
If you want your TikTok videos to be viewed by a large number of people, it’s time you start adding text to them. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how. But first…
What Is The Best Font For TikTok Videos?
When it comes to adding text on videos, it is important to use the right font. It is best to go with a no-frills font that improves readability.
Here are 2 of the best fonts for TikTok videos:
These fonts are classy and elegant and fit the requirements perfectly when it comes to video captions.
How To Add Text To TikTok Videos Before Posting
You can do this by using the TikTok editor.
That was easy, right? Did you know that you can also add text to certain durations alone in your video?
How To Add Text To TikTok Videos At Different Times
There is an easy way to make your text appear only at certain times on the video. Start by following steps 1 to 3 from above.
Once this is done, click on the text and you will see 4 options pop up. In that, tap the timer button and select Set Duration. A small box with a sliding scale will appear at the bottom of the screen. This is the timeline of your video. To set the duration, all you have to do is slide the scale to the duration times you want.
Let’s say your video is 30 seconds long and you want your text to appear for the first 2 seconds. Drag the overlay and place it at 2. Your text will disappear after 2 seconds. Save your changes by clicking on the check mark at the bottom.
To add more text to your video at different times, repeat the above steps. For example, you can place a second text from seconds 2 to 4, and so on. To make sure you have got everything right, you can also preview the video by pressing the play button.
How To Add Text To Different TikTok Clips
Let’s say you are stitching several clips together to form a 30 second video, and you want to add a different text to each clip. All you need to do is follow the exact same method listed under the previous section – “how to add text to TikTok videos at different times.”
However, there is one extra step here. To set the time duration correctly, you need to make a note of when each clip ends. For example, the first clip may end at 5 seconds, while the second may end at 9 seconds. This way, you can drag the sliding scale to the correct time stamp after you add your text, such as having the text for your first clip end at 5 seconds, and so on.
How To Add Moving Text To TikTok Videos
In the above sections, we learnt how to add text to TikTok videos and clips and how you can make them appear only at certain times. All the methods involved you adding the text manually.
But what if you don’t want to do that? What if you want TikTok to transcribe the audio and add the text on its own? You know.. Like subtitles. Is that even possible?
Yes, it is! You can add auto captions to your TikTok videos. Here’s how:
The only downside is that closed captions are available only in English and there is no way to make sure they align correctly with the audio. But the good news is that viewers can turn these captions on or off depending on their needs!
Now that we are done with the “how,” let’s look at the “why.”
Why Should You Add Text To Your TikTok Videos?
Adding text to your TikTok videos has benefits – not only to you but your viewers as well!
First, they make your content more inclusive for those who are hard of hearing. So, adding text to your videos makes your content accessible to a wider portion of the population.
Second, they increase your engagement because more than 90% of social media users watch videos with the sound turned off – whether they are in public or private. If they don’t see captions on your videos, more often than not, they would move on to the next video instead of turning up the volume. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Third, they allow you to weave stories out of your short videos. Let’s say you want to tell the story of the dog you rescued. You can shoot a simple video of your dog and tell the actual story using the text.
TikTok Video Text Ideas
Even if your video has no audio, you can use text to make it engaging. Here are a few ideas:
How Do You Get Different Text Fonts On TikTok Videos?
TikTok’s video editor has a range of fonts you can choose from. But they are woefully limited. So, what can you do if you want to choose a different font and stand out? You use a video editing app!
There are also several font generators that you can use to get eye-catching fonts. Once the fonts have been generated, you can paste them on to your video. Here are a few such apps:
How Long Should The Text Be On TikTok Videos?
Ideally? Not very long. There is no hard-and-fast rule, but it should be short enough for people to read through it quickly. Otherwise, they will have to pause the video so that they can finish reading the text. Let’s be honest. Nobody is going to do that.
Preview the video and see if you are able to read the text in a few seconds. If yes, you are good to go!
Adding text to TikTok videos is not only inclusive, it is an underrated marketing strategy. Don’t shy away from using it! This could be the very thing that makes your content go viral.