Overview
Adding text to a media asset helps you call out important details, provide context, or make your content easier to follow. You can use text for titles, captions, or labels so viewers clearly understand your message.
The text, once added, can be modified in many ways to match your creative vision.
The process for adding text to an image is slightly different from adding text to a video asset. This article walks you through both methods step by step.
Note:
When you add text to a media asset in the Media Editor, the text becomes embedded in the asset itself. Once saved, the text and media are merged into a single asset. To edit the text later, you'll need to reopen the Media Editor.
This differs from adding a text overlay in the Studio. Unlike embedded text, a text overlay remains separate from the media, making it editable and available for personalization.
Adding Text to an Image
| 1. | Open the image in the Media Editor. Not sure how? Follow the steps in Accessing the Media Editor. |
| 2. | Click Text on the sidebar. |
| 3. | Select the text style you want to use: Heading, Sub-heading, or Footnote. These styles serve as a starting point for any customization you can then make to the text. ▶ These styles are based on the brand settings applied to the video. |
| The text box is added to the image. | |
| 4. | Use the options at the top of the screen to customize the text as needed. ▶ In the example below, the font, size, and color have been adjusted. ▶ If you want to create contrast between the text and the image, you can add a shape as a background to the text. |
| 5. | Click Apply in the upper-right corner to save your changes. |
Adding Text to a Video Asset
| 1. | Open the video asset in the Media Editor. Not sure how? Follow the steps in Accessing the Media Editor. |
| 2. | Open the timeline by clicking Timeline in the lower-right corner. |
| 3. | Click Text on the sidebar. |
| 4. | Select the text style you want to use: Heading, Sub-heading, or Footnote. These styles serve as a starting point for any customization you can then make to the text. ▶ These styles are based on the brand settings applied to the video. |
| The text box is added to a new track above the main track, so it appears on top of the video asset. By default, the text box is displayed for five seconds. |
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| 5. | Use the options at the top of the screen to customize the text as needed. ▶ In the example below, the font, size, and color have been adjusted. A green-filled shape was added behind the text to improve contrast. Finally, the duration of both the shape (rectangle) and the text box was extended on the timeline so they remain for the entire length of the video asset. |
| 6. | Click Apply in the upper-right corner to save your changes. |
Text Editing Options
When a text box is selected in the Media Editor, a toolbar with various editing options appears. Use the expanders below to learn how each option works.
Open the font drop-down list and select from the available fonts in SundaySky, Any custom fonts uploaded to your account are also included in this list.
Open the drop-down list and select the desired font size. Sizes are shown in points (pt), which indicate the height of the text.
Select an alignment option (left, center, or right) to align the text inside the text box.
Select a font color from the Brand Palette, or click Edit to open the color picker and choose a custom color.
The stroke is the visible outline (border) of a letter.
By default, this option is disabled. After selecting Stroke on the toolbar, you will also need to enable the option by clicking the eye icon to access all its settings.
After enabling the Stroke option, you can define the following settings:
| a. | Color: the color of the stroke (border) |
| b. | Stroke width: the width of the stroke, in pixels |
| c. | Stroke style |
| d. | Join: the style that defines how stroke corners are connected. Options include miter (sharp corners), bevel (cut corners), and round (rounded corners). This setting affects how the stroke appears where letter segments meet at angles. It's most noticeable on letters with sharp angles like "A," "K," or "W." |
If, in addition to a text box, you have added other elements to the media asset, you can use the Move settings to change the layer order of the stack.
Use the Align to Page settings to align the text box on the media asset.