Text clips put titles, captions and lyrics over your video. Each clip has its own font, size, color, stroke, shadow, position and one of 16 entry animations, and they are drawn on top of everything else in the frame.
There are three ways to add text:
Note: The Text button needs a text track to exist. New projects include one (called "Aa"). If you deleted it, add one with Add Track, or use a template, which creates a text track for you.
Text clips can be moved, trimmed, split, duplicated and copied like any other clip. See timeline and clips.
Select a text clip and the inspector shows these controls, top to bottom.
| Control | Range or options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Start, Duration | Exact placement in seconds |
| Text box | Any text | Type your words here. The clip label on the timeline updates as you type |
| Font | Device fonts, Bitgrain fonts, and the built-in font groups | Searchable list, grouped |
| Upload font from device | .ttf, .otf, .woff, .woff2 | Adds your own font, see below |
| Animation | 16 options | See animations |
| Size | 16 to 240 px | Measured in pixels on the project canvas |
| Weight | 100 to 900 | Shows a dropdown instead when the font only ships certain weights |
| Color | Color picker | Fill color of the letters |
| Stroke | Width 0 to 20 px, Stroke color | See stroke and shadow |
| Shadow | Drop shadow on or off, Shadow color, Blur, Offset X, Offset Y | See stroke and shadow |
| Align | Three alignment buttons | Sets which side of the anchor point the text grows from |
| Position X, Position Y | 0 to 100% | The anchor point on the frame, 50% and 50% is dead center |
| Fade In, Fade Out | Up to half the clip length, max 5 s | Works together with any animation |
Position X and Position Y place an anchor point on the frame. The text is vertically centered on that point. The align buttons decide whether the line is centered on the point or extends to one side of it, so if a caption is running off the edge, try a different alignment before moving it.
Click Upload font from device and choose a font file. Bitgrain loads it in your browser, adds it to the "Device fonts" group, and applies it to the selected clip right away. Uploaded fonts are stored in this browser and are available in every video project on this device. They are never uploaded anywhere.
Every text clip has one animation. Most of them play once as the clip enters, then the text holds still. They are timed relative to the clip's length, so a longer clip gives a slightly slower entrance, up to a cap.
| Animation | What it does |
|---|---|
| None | Text appears instantly and stays put |
| Fade | Fades in at the start and fades out at the end (up to half a second each way) |
| Typewriter | Letters appear one by one, finishing at 60% of the clip's length |
| Slide Up | Rises into place from below while fading in |
| Slide Down | Drops into place from above while fading in |
| Slide Left | Slides in from the right, moving left |
| Slide Right | Slides in from the left, moving right |
| Scale In | Grows from 40% size to full size while fading in |
| Blur In | Starts blurred and sharpens while fading in |
| Bounce | Bobs up and down a few times and settles |
| Pop In | Springs up in size with a small overshoot |
| Gravity Drop | Falls from above and bounces as it lands |
| Jump In, Slide Out | Pops in at the start, then shoots off to the right and fades at the end |
| Sticky Jelly | Lands with a squashy, elastic wobble |
| Swing In | Swings into place from a slight tilt |
| Whoosh | Streaks in from the left with a motion blur trail |
Entrances like Slide, Scale In, Blur In and Whoosh take at most about 0.4 seconds. The springier ones (Pop In, Gravity Drop, Sticky Jelly, Swing In) take up to about 0.8 seconds. Only Fade and Jump In, Slide Out also animate the exit.
Tip: For a clean exit on any animation, add a Fade Out in the inspector. The fade multiplies with the animation, so you can combine a Whoosh entrance with a soft fade out.
Set Width above 0 to draw an outline around each letter. Once the width is above zero, a Stroke color picker appears. A thin dark stroke is the easiest way to keep white captions readable over bright footage.
Text clips have a soft drop shadow by default. Use the Drop shadow toggle to turn it off or on. When it is on you can set:
| Control | Range |
|---|---|
| Shadow color | Any color |
| Blur | 0 to 40 px |
| Offset X | -30 to 30 px |
| Offset Y | -30 to 30 px |
When a clip has a stroke, the shadow is cast by the outline rather than the fill, which keeps the letters crisp.
The Titles tab in Templates holds ten preset titles. Each one drops a styled text clip at the playhead on your first text track (a text track is created if there is none) and selects it, so you can type your own words straight away.
| Template | Animation | Length | Placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bold | Scale In | 3 s | Large, centered |
| Lower Third | Slide Right | 4 s | Bottom left, with a fade out |
| Pull Quote | Fade | 4 s | Centered |
| Ticker | Typewriter | 4 s | Small caption along the bottom |
| Gravity Drop | Gravity Drop | 2.5 s | Very large, centered |
| Whoosh | Whoosh | 2.5 s | Large, centered |
| Jelly | Sticky Jelly | 3 s | Large, centered |
| End Card | Fade | 4 s | Centered, with fade in and fade out |
| Chapter Title | Slide Up | 3 s | Just above center |
| Shout | Pop In | 2 s | Very large, centered |
Every template is just a normal text clip once it is placed. Change the words, font, size, colors and animation freely in the inspector.
9:16 projects where apps cover the edges.80 px reads well as a caption, and 160 px and up works for headline words.