How to Add Captions People Actually Read
Published · updated · by Loopin
Captions on music clips are usually set at a size that works on the editing screen and fails on a phone in sunlight. Three settings fix it.
Bigger than feels right
Whatever size looks correct on your laptop, increase it. The clip will be watched on a 6-inch screen, often outdoors, often glanced at. If the text is not readable at arm's length on your own phone, it is not readable.
The check takes ten seconds: export, open on your phone, hold it at normal distance, glance. Do not read it — glance. If you cannot get it in one, make it bigger.
Middle third, never the bottom
The bottom quarter of every vertical feed is covered by the platform's own captions, buttons and username. Text placed there is partially hidden on most devices and completely hidden on some.
Middle third vertically is the safe zone, and it is also where the eye lands first. The top is the second choice; the bottom is not a choice.
Contrast beats colour
White text with a subtle drop shadow, or white on a solid dark strip. Coloured text matching your artwork looks designed and disappears against a busy video, which is most videos.
If your footage is bright, use a semi-transparent dark box behind the text rather than switching to dark text. Consistency of style across posts is worth more than matching each clip.
Lyrics: only the line being sung
Lyric captions work well and full paragraphs do not. Show one line at a time, timed to land slightly before it is sung so the viewer reads and then hears it — that half-second lead is what makes the line feel like a payoff.
Auto-generated captions get music lyrics wrong constantly. Type them yourself; a mis-transcribed hook is the most avoidable way to look careless.
Captions for speech are not optional
A large share of viewers watch with sound off initially, and any clip where you talk is silent to them until they decide to unmute. Captions are what let them decide.
Auto-captioning is fine for speech as long as you read it back and fix the names. Yours, other artists', and any song title — those are exactly the words auto-captioning gets wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Where should captions go on a vertical video?
The middle third. The bottom quarter is covered by the platform's own captions, buttons and username, so text there is partially or completely hidden on most devices.
What colour should video captions be?
White with a subtle shadow, or white on a solid dark strip. Coloured text matched to your artwork looks designed and disappears against busy footage.
Should I caption lyrics in music clips?
Yes, one line at a time, timed to appear slightly before it is sung. Type them yourself — auto-captioning gets lyrics and names wrong constantly.