Add titles over video

You can add title text to any video in your project using one of the many title styles available in iMovie.

You can place titles directly over your video, over a solid-color background clip, or over an Apple-designed graphic background or animated background clip.

To add titles to a video project:

  1. With your project open in the Project browser, click the Title button in the toolbar below the viewer, or choose Window > Titles.

    Image of the Title button

    The Window menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.

  2. Browse the title styles to find the one you want to use.

    Many title styles are animated, which means they move onto the screen in an interesting way. Move the pointer over the title thumbnails in the Titles browser to see how they animate. If you’ve set a theme for your project, a set of theme-styled titles appears above the standard titles in the browser.

  3. Add a title to your project by doing one of the following:

    • If you want the title to appear over video, drag it to the Project browser over the clip where you want it to appear.

      When you drag a title to the middle of a clip, the title spans the entire clip. If you drag a title toward the end of a clip, the title aligns with that end of the clip.

    • If you want the title to appear over a solid-color background or an Apple-designed animated or graphic background, drag it between clips in the Project browser, or to the beginning or end of your project, and then choose a background in the window that appears. The first four backgrounds are animated, the next eight are graphic, and the last eight are simple colored backgrounds.

      When you add a title, a blue bar (for standard titles) or gold bar (for themed titles) appears above the video clip to show where the title appears in your video and its duration, in seconds.

      Image of blue and gold title bars

      If “Snap to Ends” is turned on (choose View > “Snap to Ends” and make sure it has a checkmark next to it), as you drag a title in the Project browser, its ends align with the ends of video clips. A vertical yellow line appears when either end of a title has aligned with either end of a video clip.

  4. Select the placeholder text in the viewer (shown below) by clicking it until it is all highlighted, and then type the text you want to appear.

    Image of placeholder title text

    Some title styles in the Sports theme appear in the viewer with pop-up menus, which you use to choose the team and player you want to appear in that title.

  5. To change the title’s appearance (its font, color, size, style, or alignment), click the Show Fonts button in the upper-left corner of the viewer and make adjustments. Go to this topic for more details: Edit the text and appearance of a title.

    Note:  You can’t change the font in theme-styled titles and some animated titles.

  6. To see how the title looks, click the Play button in the upper-right corner of the viewer.

    Image of the Play button in the viewer.

  7. Click Done.

To delete a title:

  1. In the Project browser, select the blue or gold title bar by clicking it once. A yellow border appears around it.

    Image of blue and gold title bars

  2. Press Delete, or choose Edit > Delete Selection.

    The Edit menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.

To change the title’s text at any time, click the title icon and make your changes in the viewer.

If you add your title over a background, you can adjust the background clip’s duration just as you would adjust the duration of a photo in your project.