Text
On-screen text on a Text track, its look, the favorites, the bundled fonts, and how texts behave as clips.
A text is words drawn over the picture for a stretch of the timeline. It lives on a Text track, owns its own look, and burns into every export. This page covers adding a text, moving and editing it on the canvas, the sidebar that edits its look, the favorites, the bundled fonts, and how a text behaves as a clip.
Add text
Click Text in the transport bar above the timeline, press ⌘T, or choose Clip › Add Text. A text lands at the playhead on a Text track at the top of the timeline; the track is added if there is none. The new text wears the default favorite, is selected, and its words field in the sidebar takes focus.
Other ways in: Add Text in a text track's header menu, Add Text Here in the right-click menu of a text row, and Add Text at Playhead in the text track's panel.
Selecting an existing text leaves the keyboard on the timeline. Double-click it to type.
On the canvas
Click a text in the viewer to select it. Drag it to move; it snaps to the centre. Drag a corner to resize; the whole look scales. Double-click to edit the words. See Viewer for the guides that show where the Reels UI covers the picture.
The sidebar
Every text owns its look. The sidebar edits it.
| Section | Controls |
|---|---|
| Text | The words. Return starts a new line; Esc leaves the field |
| Favorites | Apply a favorite from the menu, or Save… the current look as one |
| Font | Font menu, Size in points, Uppercase, Spacing |
| Box | Background box, its color, Opacity, Corners, Padding |
| Shadow | On or off, Strength, Softness |
| Outline | On or off, Width, color |
| Position | X and Y, Center |
The Apply menu shows each favorite's name rendered in that look. The font menu lists every font in its own typeface.
Favorites
Favorites are saved looks, separate from the caption styles. Applying one copies its look onto the text; later edits to either never affect the other. Save… stores the current look under a name.
Seventeen favorites named after the Edits app's styles come with the app: Classic, Modern, Strong, Neon, Typewriter, Meme, Elegant, Literature, Directional, Signature, Editor, Bubble, Deco, Poster, Squeeze, Journal and Rosalia.
Settings › Text Styles lists every favorite. There you can add one, duplicate, delete, reorder, and Set Default. The default dresses new texts. See Settings.
Fonts
The font menu has three groups. Edits holds the open fonts closest to the Edits app's looks, shipped inside the app, so a video looks the same on every Mac. System holds the Mac's system font in its weights and its monospaced face. Mac holds the Mac's own faces.
Text clips
A text starts 3 seconds long. Trim, move, split, copy, duplicate and delete it like any clip. A text track can be magnetic. Text never lengthens the piece.
The text track's panel has Locked, Visible and Magnetic. The eye hides the track from the preview and the export. Visible texts are burned into every export with the same renderer the viewer uses. See Tracks and Export.
A title that moves, or is more than words (a lower third, a counter, a callout), is something an agent makes for you as a clip with a transparent background; it goes on a video track above the footage. See How an agent edits.
An agent adds and edits texts through the video's document: a text names a favorite and can override any part of its look. See How an agent edits.