01
Which is better for short vertical video?
Words in the picture, by a wide margin. A separate file needs the platform to read it and the viewer to have captions enabled, and in a feed neither is safe to assume. Putting them in the frame removes both dependencies, with the honest trade that they cannot be switched off afterwards.
02
Getting the words right before they are fixed
Because burned words cannot be changed after export, the review before producing matters more. Read the whole text once for spelling and once while watching, to check each line appears when it is said. A word that arrives half a second late looks sloppy in a way that is hard to pin down.
Pay particular attention to line breaks. A break that splits a name or separates a number from its unit, such as 25 on one line and percent on the next, makes the line harder to read. Adjust the text so natural phrases stay together.
Check the first and last line separately. The opening line is what a scrolling viewer reads before deciding to stay, so a typo there costs more than one in the middle. The final line often gets cut short when a clip ends on a word, so make sure it stays on screen long enough to be read before the clip loops back to the start. If the last sentence is long, trimming a filler word from it is usually better than letting it flash past.
03
Placing words where they survive every app
Each app covers a different part of the screen with its own buttons, names and captions. Words placed in the lower-middle area, clear of the very bottom and the right-hand edge, stay visible on nearly all of them. Test a clip by posting it privately and checking nothing overlaps.
If you also add a headline at the top, leave space between it and the upper edge, where some apps show a status bar or a search field. Two text areas that crowd the face make the clip feel cluttered, so keep the speaker's eyes clear.
04
Keeping a clean copy as well
It is worth saving a version without words for each clip you care about. If you later want to translate a clip, fix an error, or change the style to match a new look, you will need the clean picture to start again.
A clean copy also helps when a partner or a client wants to add their own text for a different audience. Handing over a version with words already burned in forces them to cover your text with theirs, which rarely looks good.
05
Translations and burned words
If you publish in several languages, produce a separate version of the clip for each language rather than stacking two lines of text. Two languages at once crowd the frame and slow every viewer down. Separate versions let each audience read comfortably and let you post each where its readers are.
Keep the clean version so new languages can be added later.
06
Words that cannot be switched off
- Upload the video. Any common file, or one of the seven supported addresses.
- Style the words. Nine styles, twenty-one appearance effects, position and size.
- Produce it with them in place. Part of the image from then on.
Produce one clip and see how it reads with the sound down.
Questions people ask
- Can I have an SRT instead?
- No. The words go into the picture.
- Is that worse for accessibility?
- It cuts both ways honestly. They are always visible, which helps in a silent feed, but a platform cannot translate or hide them.
- Can I fix a word first?
- Yes, the text is editable before the clip is produced.
- What resolution comes out?
- Up to 1080p with no mark on paid plans. The free video is 720p and carries a small one.
- Do they resize with the shape?
- The layout follows whichever of the four shapes you chose.
- Do the words survive a repost?
- Yes. Once they are part of the picture there is nothing separate to strip out, which is the usual reason text disappears when a clip is shared onward.