How to Add Text to iMovie

Tijana

Written by Tijana - Reviewed by Ivana Gadgets

Published 11 months ago / updated 4 months ago 4 min read

Apple is constantly leaving users in awe with the amazing free softwares they implement as a part of their products.

iMovie is one of them, the amazing tool which is a part of any Apple device, which allows you to crop, edit, add effects, text and so much more to your videos.

All these features are free, and the video editing software is quite amazing, especially for an app on a phone, and not a video editor on a computer.

However, although the software is free, and it does wonders, we noticed that some features are not so easily found and obvious as to how to use them, and it might cause users to struggle when adding text in iMovies, therefore we decided to create this step-by-step guide, to help you get the most out of the app!

How do I add text to my videos in iMovie?

For some users, the editing section in iMovies seems too complicated, and plenty of users reportedly were struggling with the app.

However, we created a step-by-step guide to help you with the process. Follow these steps:

1. Open the iMovie app on your phone, or if you don’t have it, you can download it for free in the App Store.
2. Launch the app, and you will be given options to create ‘New Project’, or ‘Trailer’.
3. If you choose the first option, you will be able to add photos/videos, and create a slideshow-like video.
4. In the following screen, you will see the video you selected, along with the editing features at the bottom of the page.
5. Click on the ‘T’ icon to add text and edit it. There are special effects that you can add to the text, such as ‘Slide’, ‘Split’, ‘Chromatic’, etc. If you click on any of the effects, a preview will show up in the video, so you can place it at the right time of the video, and the right part. Move the text on the screen to fit it as you need it in the video.
6. If you want to make it smaller/bigger, pinch and replace the text anywhere within the screen where the video is playing.
7. Tap on the ‘T’ icon, and a palette of colors will show up - and you can choose the ‘Grid’ option, ‘Spectrum’ and ‘Sliders’.
8. if you click on the ‘Aa’ icon, you will be given a list of fonts to choose from. You can switch back and forth between the fonts to choose the most suitable one.
9. By clicking on the three dots in the screen, you will also be able to add shadows and uppercase letters.

Note: Some users experience problems finding the editing tools. If you do not see the editing tools right away after you put in the video, click on the ‘Play’ sign, and the tools will show up at the bottom of the screen, as in the screenshot below.

Besides the ‘Add Text’ feature, iMovies has plenty of other options for video editing. You can crop it, add voice-overs, put filters (5th icon in the screenshot). Check out how to record your screen with audio on Mac with iMovie.

Additionally, the same process goes for iPad users, since the app is the same on both devices.

Additional tips:

• Editing title position, size, text

To edit title position - tap and drag to the position you need.

To edit the size - pinch and resize it to how you’d like it to stay.

To edit the text - tap on the text and rewrite it.

• Changing a different title

To change to a different title, you need to have your project open. Tap on a video, and the features at the bottom of the screen will show up. Click on the ‘T’ icon, and swipe through the options to choose the suitable one.

• Removing a title

To change to a different title, you need to have your project open. Tap on a video, and the features at the bottom of the screen will show up. Click on the ‘T’ icon, and select ‘None’ from the list.