How to Add Text and Captions to Your Videos with MoviePy

March 12, 2025

In today’s digital world, videos are a powerful tool for communication, marketing, and entertainment. Whether you're creating a tutorial, vlog, or promotional content, adding text and captions to your videos can enhance the message, engage your audience, and make your content more accessible. One of the most popular tools for video editing is MoviePy, a Python library that allows you to edit videos programmatically.

In this blog post, we'll walk through how to easily add text and captions to your videos using MoviePy. By the end of this guide, you'll be able to create more dynamic, professional-looking videos with just a few lines of code.


Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Text and Captions

1. Import the Required Libraries

Start by importing the necessary modules from the MoviePy library. You’ll need VideoFileClip for loading your video and TextClip for adding text. We’ll also use CompositeVideoClip to combine the video and text.

from moviepy.editor import VideoFileClip, TextClip, CompositeVideoClip

 

2. Load Your Video

The next step is to load the video to which you want to add text. MoviePy’s VideoFileClip class makes it easy to load a video file and work with it programmatically.

# Load the video file
video = VideoFileClip("your_video.mp4")

 

3. Create the Text or Caption

Now, let's create the text or caption that you want to overlay on your video. The TextClip class in MoviePy allows you to add text with different fonts, colors, sizes, and more.

Here’s an example of how to create a simple caption:

# Create a text clip
caption = TextClip("This is a caption", fontsize=50, color='white')

# Set the duration and position of the caption
caption = caption.set_duration(video.duration).set_position(('center', 'bottom'))
  • fontsize=50: Specifies the size of the text.
  • color='white': Sets the text color to white.
  • set_position(('center', 'bottom')): Places the caption in the center horizontally and at the bottom vertically.
  • set_duration(video.duration): Ensures the caption lasts the entire duration of the video.

 

4. Combine the Video and Text

Now that we have the video and the text, it’s time to overlay the text onto the video. To do this, we’ll use CompositeVideoClip, which allows us to combine multiple video clips or elements.

# Combine the video with the caption
final_video = CompositeVideoClip([video, caption])

 

5. Export the Final Video

Once you're satisfied with the text overlay, it’s time to export the final video. You can save it in various formats, such as .mp4, .avi, or .mov. Here's how you can export the video:

# Export the final video with text
final_video.write_videofile("video_with_caption.mp4", codec="libx264", fps=24)

 

6. Customizing the Text

MoviePy gives you a wide range of customization options for the text. Here are a few additional features you can add:

  • Font Style: You can change the font of the text by specifying a font argument in TextClip. Example: font='Arial'.
  • Text Alignment: You can adjust the alignment of the text using align. For example, align='center' centers the text.
  • Text Effects: You can add text effects like fadein and fadeout to make your text appear and disappear smoothly.
  • Multiple Captions: You can create multiple text clips with different durations and positions to display different captions at different times in the video.

 

Example: Adding Multiple Captions at Different Times

# Create multiple text clips
caption1 = TextClip("Welcome to my video!", fontsize=50, color='white').set_duration(5).set_position('center')
caption2 = TextClip("Stay tuned for more!", fontsize=50, color='white').set_duration(5).set_position('center')

# Set different start times for each caption
caption2 = caption2.set_start(5)  # Show this text after 5 seconds

# Combine the video with multiple captions
final_video = CompositeVideoClip([video, caption1, caption2])

# Export the final video
final_video.write_videofile("video_with_multiple_captions.mp4", codec="libx264", fps=24)

 

7. Adding Subtitles

If you're looking to add timed subtitles, MoviePy can handle that as well. You can create text clips with specific start and end times, which allows you to sync text with the audio or visual cues in your video.

# Create a subtitle clip
subtitle = TextClip("This is a subtitle", fontsize=40, color='yellow')

# Set the duration and position for the subtitle
subtitle = subtitle.set_duration(4).set_position(('center', 'bottom')).set_start(10)  # Starts at 10 seconds

# Combine the video and subtitle
final_video = CompositeVideoClip([video, subtitle])

# Export the final video with subtitles
final_video.write_videofile("video_with_subtitles.mp4", codec="libx264", fps=24)

 

Best Practices for Text in Videos

When adding text or captions to your videos, there are some best practices you should keep in mind:

  1. Keep Text Short: Ensure that your text is concise and easy to read. Overloading your video with text can distract from the content.
  2. Readable Fonts: Use fonts that are easy to read, especially for captions and subtitles. Avoid overly decorative fonts that might be hard to decipher.
  3. Contrast: Ensure that the text stands out from the background. You can use contrasting colors or add a background shadow to improve readability.
  4. Timing: Make sure your text appears long enough for viewers to read but not so long that it becomes distracting. Sync your text with the flow of the video.

 

Conclusion

MoviePy makes it incredibly easy to add text and captions to your videos with just a few lines of Python code. Whether you’re adding simple titles, dynamic captions, or subtitles, MoviePy offers the flexibility and power you need to enhance your video content. With its wide range of customization options, you can personalize your text in countless ways to create professional-looking videos that engage your audience.

Give it a try, and start experimenting with different text styles, effects, and video combinations. Happy video editing!


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