Add text to a photo — headline, outline, box and shadow

How to use Image Text Overlay

1. Choose one or more images.
2. Type in Text (it starts with “Summer sale” and “up to 40% off” on two lines).
3. Pick a Position: Centre, Bottom right, Bottom left, Top right, Top left, Bottom centre or Top centre.
4. Choose Font, Text size (% of image width) (1–25%, default 8%), Text colour (white), Opacity, Bold (on) and Italic.
5. Adjust Outline colour and Outline width (% of text size) (0–20%, default 6%; set 0 for none). Tick Background box and pick a Box colour, or tick Shadow.
6. Press Add text and download the files ending in -text.

What it does and when to use it

This tool puts readable words on a picture without opening a design app: a sale banner for a shop post, a title on a YouTube-style thumbnail, a label on a product photo, a quote card, or “Before” and “After” on two pictures. Because size and margins are proportional, you can run a whole batch of different-sized photos with one setting.

For a band of text under the picture rather than on top of it, use Image Caption. To protect your work with a faint signature, use Image Watermark. A blurred background from Image Blur makes overlay text much easier to read.

How it works

Drawing happens on an OffscreenCanvas inside a Web Worker on your device. The tool:

• sets the font size to Text size × image width ÷ 100 (at least 6 px);
• wraps lines at 90% of the image width, with a line height of 1.25 × the font size;
• keeps a margin of 4% of the image’s shorter side from the edges, plus the box padding when the box is on;
• pads the background box by 0.35 × the font size and rounds its corners;
• draws the outline first and the fill on top, so about half of the outline width shows outside the letters.

Worked examples

These sizes follow from the tool’s own formulas.

An Instagram square (1080 × 1080 px), default settings. Letters are 86.4 px, the outline is about 5 px wide, and the margin from the edge is 43 px. The two lines of the default text sit centred, each 108 px apart.

A 4000 × 3000 px camera photo, Bottom centre, Text size 5%, Background box on. Letters are 200 px tall, the box extends 70 px around the text, and the box’s lower edge sits 120 px (4% of 3000) above the bottom of the photo.

Limits and tips

• Emoji and non-Latin scripts depend on the fonts installed on your device.
• Text cannot be edited later; keep your original photo if you may change the wording.
• The output file carries no EXIF data from the photo.