Examples
Before
AfterAdd text to GIF files in three steps
Pick the file, type the words, set the look, and see it before you save.
- 1
Pick your GIF
Click the file picker or drop an animated GIF on the preview. Here you add text to GIF files in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
- 2
Type the text to add
Each box takes up to 200 characters and wraps onto more lines. Fill one box or both; leave both empty and the tool asks you to type something first.
- 3
Set the look, then save
Choose font, size, color, outline and ALL CAPS, press Add Text, and download the result. Start over loads another file with your settings kept.
Add text to GIF frames that stay readable
Four font styles are on offer: Impact-style, Sans, Serif and Mono. The Impact-style face is the classic caption look, thick enough to read over moving footage.
Size runs from 5 to 30 percent of the GIF's height. Colors come as six swatches plus a custom picker. Switch the outline on when the picture behind the words is busy, and ALL CAPS on or off to taste.
Where the words go when you add text to GIF
The words go at the top and the bottom of the picture. You cannot drag them elsewhere. The same text is burned into every frame, so it shows for the whole loop and cannot appear or change partway through.
If the subject sits at the top or bottom edge, use one caption line only, or make it smaller so it does not cover the action.
Why the file grows when you add text to GIF
Text adds new colors to every frame, so the tool re-encodes the frames and optimizes them again. In our test a 320 by 240 GIF went from 34 KB to 82 KB, and a 19.9 MB GIF with 150 frames came out at 20.7 MB.
If the file must fit an upload limit, run the result through the GIF compressor on this site.
Before you add text to GIF files
- Watch the GIF once and note which edge is quiet; that is where the text is easiest to read.
- Keep each caption to a few words, because a GIF loops quickly and long lines go unread.
- Pick a text color that contrasts with the picture and turn the outline on if it is busy.
- Start with a size near the middle of the range, then check the preview; GIFs are usually seen small.
- Use the Impact-style font with ALL CAPS for a meme look, or Sans for a plain label.
- Check spelling in the preview, because the text is burned into the pixels and cannot be edited afterwards.
- Make the GIF the size you want first, since text is sized as a share of the height.
What happens when you add text to GIF files
Your GIF stays on your device
The GIF is decoded, captioned and rebuilt by your browser. It is never sent to our server.
Free to add text to GIF, no watermark
There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how many GIFs you caption.
What it does not do
It adds the same top and bottom text to every frame. It cannot place text freely, time it per frame, or remove text already in the picture.
Tested on small and large GIFs
In Chrome on a Mac, a 320 by 240 GIF took 0.2 seconds and a 150-frame, 19.9 MB GIF took 3.9 seconds. A 115 MB 1080p GIF took 16 seconds.