How to Add Your Own Text to a Video for Free in Studio

To add your own text to a video for free, sign in to Modisign Studio with Google, add your clip, open Text and click Add title at playhead. Type up to 120 characters, choose a bundled font, color, size, position and timing, then export. A basic title, including free motion, needs no Pro. Changing the wording of a catalog overlay such as Hook title is a different route, and it needs Pro unless it matches the free preset.

What does a free title look like?

This is a crop of a frame we exported on a simulated free account: Lora, weight 700, gold, size L, Backing on, with a Timeline time label above the text. The gradient is a generated test clip, and the wording is ours. You need a local video (or photo), a free Google account for Studio and a desktop browser. Studio edits and exports in your browser, and your media is not uploaded.

How do you add, style and time a title?

1. Open Studio and import your clip. Continue with Google (free), click Import, then use the plus button on the media tile to add it to the timeline. Put the playhead where the title should start.

2. Open Text and click Add title at playhead. A title with the text "Title" appears, labelled "Explicit time". On a phone-sized screen use More and then Text; the sheet is called Titles.

3. Type your wording. The Title text field stops at 120 characters; we typed 130 and it kept 120. Write for people who may have the sound off. Press Enter to finish.

4. Choose the look under Style. Font offers Montserrat, Lora and Roboto Mono, all bundled. Weight lists the weights each family has (Lora: 400, 600, 700), and Italic appears for Lora only. Pick a Color swatch or the custom picker, and Size S, M, L or XL, which are 5, 7, 10 and 14 percent of the output's shorter side. Backing adds a dark plate behind the text. Position has Top, Center and Bottom, and Horizontal and Vertical sliders place it freely.

5. Set Timing. Under Shows, Explicit time gives the title its own start and duration, which you can drag on the timeline or set with the numbers and frame-step buttons. Bound to clip ties it to one clip: it shows for the clip's whole span and follows trims, reordering and splits.

6. Add a time label if you want one. With a bound title, Timestamp can show Source time (where the shown part starts in the original file) or Timeline time (where the clip starts in your edit). In our test the second clip began at 4.2 seconds, so Timeline time drew "00:04" above the words. Photos have no source time: Studio disables Source time and says "A photo has no source time. Use the timeline time."

7. Export. Click Export, keep 1080p or choose 720p, and click Export MP4. Open the file and check each title at phone size before you post. Our 12.23-second export was 1080×1920 H.264 at 30 fps with audio, and the frames showed the titles where we placed them.

On a narrow screen, below 1024 px, select a clip, press Back, then More, Text, Add title at playhead. The title opens a Title text sheet, and the toolbar reads Back, Text, Style, Timing and Delete. We checked those labels in an emulated 390×844 touch viewport in desktop Chrome, not on a phone.

Is it a native title, a catalog overlay or captions?

	Studio title	Catalog overlay (such as Hook title)	Speech captions
What it is	Your own text, drawn by Studio	A prepared animation with its own text fields	Timed words generated from speech
Where	Studio, Text	Studio Overlays, or the overlay editor	Studio, Captions
Your wording	Free, up to 120 characters	Pro, unless the result equals the free preset	Free to edit
Export	Free after Google sign-in	Free only if unchanged	Free in Clean, Boxed or Minimal with no styled word
Motion	Free	Any non-identity motion key on it is Pro	Not available

The caption workflow covers speech, and Mixed fonts covers styled caption words. A title is typed by you, so it does not depend on the audio.

What happens when you change a catalog overlay's text?

We added the free Career truth Hook title unchanged and Export offered Export MP4. After we changed Punch words to "your desk", the overlay showed a Pro badge and Export showed the Pro prompt. Reset to preset made the export free again. A catalog overlay is free only while its configuration equals a free preset, so custom wording needs Pro.

If a prepared animation is what you want, browse the free Hook title. That filter listed one card, Career truth. For guidance on what the words should promise, read the hook title writing guide. For your own wording at no cost, use a native title.

What are the limits?

• A title holds 120 characters, and a project holds 100 titles. This is a short-text tool, not a full desktop typography editor.
• Fonts are the three bundled families. Studio cannot upload fonts.
• Studio requires Google sign-in. Calling it "no sign up" would be wrong.
• Titles also offer Reveal and Behind person. Both are free to preview and need Pro to export, so leave them Off for a free export.
• Save is a Pro feature. It stores title text, style and timing with the project, and never your media.
• Basic title motion is free. The Motion section on a title offers Smooth zoom, Slide left and Fade in recipes; we tested Fade in.

What do CapCut and Canva offer instead?

CapCut documents Text, then Add text on desktop and in its mobile app, plus a text template option. CapCut text guide. Canva documents a free online editor where you choose which part of the video gets text and change font style, color and size, with free and premium fonts and text animations. Canva add text to video. Both offer broader template and animation libraries than Studio's three fonts. We did not test either, or compare cost, watermarks or export limits. Pick them when you need that range; pick Studio when a quick local title with a free export is enough.

Where should the text go?

These are design suggestions, not measured results:

• Hook at the start: a bound title on your first clip stays for the whole shot. If the shot is long, use Explicit time and a duration of 2 to 3 seconds so the words leave before the explanation starts.
• Step labels: bind one title per clip with Timeline time to number sections without typing timestamps. See the step title guide.
• Keep clear of the edges: use Center or the Vertical slider, then check the safe-zone guide. Bottom, which we used here, can sit under platform controls.