How To Add Text To Your Videos On iMovie - Top Tips for Titles

Learn How To Add Text To Your Videos On iMovie

I'm sharing my best practices for working with titles inside iMovie. If you're thinking of adding titles to your next video then you'll definitely want to check out my top tips on how to add text to your videos on iMovie.

Top Tips For Adding Text in iMovie

Creating motion graphics and titles has always been a barrier for many video creators since they are not graphic designers. However, iMovie makes it super easy to create titles, but it doesn't provide you with the tips on how to make your titles great. Keep in mind, the purpose of a title graphic is to emphasize a key point in your videos, so in this video you'll learn by top tips for working with titles inside iMovie. Let's get started.

To access the title graphics inside iMovie you can simply click on the Titles tab here which will display a plethora of titles templates to customize. Each of these title templates have pre-defined styles and motion already built in. However you can edit the font, color, size and alignment of each title to your liking.

Font Selection for Adding Titles in iMovie

The first item to discuss is font selection. We'll start with this graphic called Reveal which is a great title for an opener graphic. Let's drag this down to our timeline, as you can see the title itself is rather bold and easy to read. I always like to use large, bold, blocky fonts since they are easy to ready across all devices as well as compliment the overall viewing experience.

​I like to stay away from using small, skinny, hard to read fonts over video, as they can get lost or become illegible, especially for those viewing on mobile devices. A few fonts I'd recommend staying away from are Papyrus, Comic Sans, Impact and any script looking font. These are overused and less professional looking. 

Papyrus font

Comic Sans font

Impact font

Script font

Fonts I like to uses are bold Arial, Helvetica, Bebas, Gotham or Avenir. These are modern, easy to read and professional looking. 

Arial font

Helvetica font

Bebas font

Gotham font

Avenir

You can access the font selection by dropping down this menu here to find the best font for your video.

Choosing Colors For Text

When it comes to the color of your text, you'll want to choose a color that stands out. You might have your heart set on Orange colored text but when placed over your video it becomes hard to read. So it's best to play around with different colors to see how it looks with the footage underneath. 

If you're working with existing branding elements such as a logo, I like to grab a color from the logo and use that as my text color so everything matches up and is consistent with a branded scheme. But most often I will use white or black colored text since it usually always pops and is easy to read. With your text layer selected on your timeline, you can use the Text controls to change color by clicking into this box right here, which pops open color controls to choose your color. 

Additionally if there is a color on screen you want your text to match, then use the eyedropper tool right here and hover over the area to select a color for your font.

Title Styling Features

There are not a lot of custom title effects you can add to your title layers, most of the title templates come with their own styling, but there are a few options to consider when working with titles to customize them to your liking. These include increasing the size of the title by typing in a value into this box here, certainly we have our alignment options here whether you want it centered, left justified, etc. Then you have these three icons here for Bold, Italics and Outline. The outline effect can be rather useful for creating a layer of separation from the title to the background.

There is however no controls to adjust the placement of the text on screen. In other words, if I wanted this title to be at the bottom, there is no way in iMovie to move it down. It's rather annoying if you ask me. 

The only way around it would be to create a title graphic inside Photoshop or a similar program, then import it back into your project using the Picture in Picture effect to size and place it wherever you'd like.

Use As Few Words As Possible

As you type in your text on the screen you'll want to get your point across in as few words as possible. Again title graphics are used to emphasize a key point in your video, you don't want viewers to strain trying to read all the text which will take away from the viewing experience. Only use the best words or phrases to illustrate your point. 

So for instance the title on the video I created for YouTube is how to add text to your videos. If I was to place that text in my video it would appear long, I'd most likely shorten it to say Add text to video. 

Doing it this way allows you to keep your titles short which will give you more space to make the text large. In addition to short, punchy phrases I'd recommend you not overuse the text effect as it can dwindle the importance of your overall message. Instead, only use it to emphasize the key points in your video. You don't want your entire video to be filled with text in every shot, unless you're using subtitles. Keep it minimal.

Extend Duration Of All Titles On Screen To Ensure Viewers Have Time To Read Them

And last but not least, you want to make sure you leave your title graphic up on screen longer than you think. Again, your audience is watching the video and seeing it for the first time and anytime text that appears on screen, they will read it. But if it pops out to quick it may not give viewers enough time to read it. The best way to time it out properly is to put yourself in the shoes of the viewers, playback the clip with the text on it and try reading it for yourself. If it goes away too quick, extend the duration of the text graphic over your video by clicking and dragging the layer over the clip accordingly as long as it still relevant to the footage under it.

[FREE] Before You Shoot Guide

Follow these best practices to ensure you're creating the best, readable text graphics on your video inside iMovie. But it's not complete without shooting actual video, so if you haven't already downloaded my “Before You Shoot” guide, please follow the link. The guide will prove as a useful resource for each and every one of your video creations. If you've enjoyed this article then check us out on YouTube and again thanks for visiting VideoZeus, where we help you spend less time making more videos.