Text and titles
Animated titles, labels and lower thirds on their own track — and how they differ from annotations.
The Text track holds words you type: a title over the opening, a label naming what's on screen, a closing card. Each one animates in and out.
Add one from the Text tab in the dock — Add text at the playhead — or right-click the Text track.
To change the wording later, double-click the text on the preview and type.
Text or annotation?
Both put words on screen, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake here. The difference is one thing, and it decides everything:
| Text | Annotation | |
|---|---|---|
| Sits on | The screen — like a caption or a watermark | The recording |
| When the frame zooms, moves or tilts | Stays exactly where you put it | Travels with the frame |
| In a device mockup | On top of the device | Inside the device screen |
| Animated in and out | Yes, 20 presets | No |
So:
- A title, a section heading, a closing card — anything belonging to the video rather than to the thing on screen → Text.
- An arrow pointing at a button, a label on a menu item — anything that must stay glued to what it's pointing at while the frame zooms → Annotation. See Effects.
Motion
Each text segment has an in and an out animation, chosen separately, with a duration for each.
| Whole line | Word by word | Letter by letter |
|---|---|---|
| Rise · Fade · Drop · Pop · Blur · Wipe · Slide · Glow · Hero Pop · Swing · Spin In | Word Drop · Word Slide · Word Blur · Cascade · Word Pop | Typewriter · Letter Wave · Letter Pop · Letter Drop |
Word-by-word and letter-by-letter read as more deliberate, so they suit an opening title. Whole-line presets get out of the way faster, which is what you want for a label mid-demo.
Drift
Drift while holding adds a slow movement between the in and the out — up, down, left, right, or across. A title that drifts a few percent while it sits there looks filmed rather than pasted on.
Keep it small. The point is that the viewer shouldn't consciously notice it.
Look
Style applies a complete look in one click: Clean · Bold · Boxed · Outline · Glow · Gradient · Pill · Marker · Neon · Ocean · Tag · Sticker.
Then adjust anything:
| Control | Does |
|---|---|
| Font · Size | Typeface and scale — More fonts… opens every font installed on your Mac |
| Fill | Solid colour or a Gradient (with an Angle) |
| Outline · Shadow · Glow | Edge treatments — each can be turned off |
| Background | A plate behind the text |
| Opacity | |
| Letter spacing · Line height |
Placement
Drag the text on the preview, or set X · Y numerically.
Fit to width scales the text to a width you choose rather than a point size, which keeps a title the same visual weight across different export resolutions.
Fit into free space places the text where the recording isn't — the margin around a padded recording, for instance. It's available when there's free space to use: no mockup, a 2D frame, or a browser frame. With a 3D device or a photo mockup filling the canvas there's nothing to fit into, so the control doesn't apply.
New animations and styles
New animations and styles are added from time to time, and they appear in the Text tab on their own — no app update needed. Open the editor while online and the latest set is there; anything you've already used keeps working offline.
Defaults
The Text tab in the dock carries a Default animation and a Default style. Set those once and every new text segment starts there instead of starting plain.
From the command line
Text is available to the CLI and to AI agents as a text effect, so a scripted or agent-driven export can add titles without opening the editor. See AI Director.
AI assistants connected through MCP — Claude, Cursor and others — can add titles the same way. Ask in plain words, for example "Add a glowing title 'Ship faster' near the bottom at the 2-second mark." Titles added from the command line or by an assistant land on the Text track, so you can open the project and keep editing them.
Exports from the command line include your Text titles too, with the same animations and look as the app.
Where to go next
- Effects — annotations, masks, callouts
- Voiceover, music and captions — subtitles are a separate track
- Timeline