What does Add Text to GIF do?
Add Text to GIF draws a caption on the composited frames of a local GIF. You can use more than one line, choose size, color, alignment, bold, an outline, and a background box with opacity. Place the text at the top, center, bottom, a corner, or a custom point by dragging, arrow keys, or the position numbers. Show it for the whole GIF, or set a start and end. Only frames that overlap that interval are drawn on. The preview updates without encoding. Export rebuilds a palette GIF, so colors and file size can change. Frame delays are not rewritten to fit the caption.
How to use Add Text to GIF
- 1Upload a GIF and review its duration and frame count.
- 2Type the caption, or start from a template, then set font, color, outline and box.
- 3Place the text and choose the whole GIF or a start and end time.
- 4Export when the preview looks right, then download. Editing the words does not re-encode.
Supported inputs and outputs
Inputs
Animated GIF, Static GIF
Outputs
GIF with the caption drawn on the selected frames
Practical uses
- Adding a meme caption to an animation
- Placing a subtitle on the bottom of a GIF
- Showing a label only during part of the loop
Browser and media limitations
- Export re-encodes a palette. Colors can shift and the file can grow. The preview is not a lossless copy.
- Noto Sans is bundled for Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Greek, Devanagari and Vietnamese. Other scripts use a generic font.
- Bold uses Noto Sans 700 for Latin. Other bundled scripts may be synthetic bold.
- The caption end is exclusive. A caption that ends when the next frame starts does not draw on that frame.
- Long text wraps inside the margin and can shrink to 8 pixels so it stays on the canvas.
- Limits are 30 MB, 300 frames, 2048 pixels on a side, and 24 million total pixels.
How local processing works
Your media is processed locally in your browser and is not uploaded to Tubelexity for processing. This page does not load a video engine. Page navigation and analytics still use network requests.
When a sample caption is visible
This example uses a generated sample, not a user file. Take a GIF whose frames last 100, 200 and 300 milliseconds. Frame one occupies 0 to 100 ms, frame two occupies 100 to 300 ms, and frame three starts at 300 ms. A caption from 100 ms to 300 ms draws only on the middle frame. The end is exclusive, so the third frame stays clear. The delays are not rewritten to fit the words.
Templates only set type, color, outline, box and placement. They do not invent caption text. Multiline text wraps inside the margin. Noto Sans on this page includes Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Greek, Devanagari and Vietnamese. A character outside those subsets uses a generic font, and the export can differ from a font that exists only on your computer.
Frequently asked questions
How do you add captions to an animated GIF?
Type the text, place it on the preview, and export. The preview draws on the decoded frames. The GIF file is encoded when you export, not on every edit.
Can text appear only during part of a GIF?
Yes. Turn off whole-GIF timing and set a start and end in seconds. Text is drawn only on frames that overlap that interval. Frame delays are not changed.
Does adding text change animation quality?
The frames are re-encoded with a palette, so colors can shift and the file size can change. Timing stays at GIF's hundredth-of-a-second precision.
Can you add multiple lines?
Yes. Line breaks are kept, and long lines wrap inside the margin. If the block still cannot fit, the size shrinks down to 8 pixels. Noto Sans does not cover every writing system.