Add text to video with Camtasia Editor

Add clear, professional text overlays to any video or screen recording. Camtasia Editor helps trainers, marketers, and educators add callouts and titles without reshooting or needing specialized skills.

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A training video title overlay reading "Inventory Training" and "With Sheila Wu" appears over video footage. A Camtasia title properties panel is displayed, highlighting how users can customize title and subtitle text for video introductions.

When your screen recording needs more context

Video can make complex information easier to understand: a recent Wyzowl video marketing study showed that 96% have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 93% of video marketers say video has increased user understanding.

But unclear footage can hurt comprehension and break immersion.

When viewers miss a click or step, they may have to backtrack or risk misunderstanding the instructions. Text callouts add clarity, helping viewers understand your most important information the first time.

Camtasia Editor makes it easy to create consistent callouts and annotations with drag-and-drop placement and professionally designed templates.

The Camtasia Callouts panel shows a selection of annotation styles and themes available for videos. A large arrow callout with instructional text is being placed over a software interface, demonstrating how callouts can draw attention to important information on screen.

How do you add text to a video?

Adding text to your video in Camtasia is quick and simple.

1

Add a text annotation

Choose an annotation type, such as a callout, title, or lower third, then drag it onto the timeline or canvas.

2

Type your text

Click the annotation and type the text you want to display in your video.

3

Customize, time it, and reuse

Use the Properties panel to style and resize your text, then adjust its timing on the timeline. When you’re finished, save the annotation to a shared Library so your team can quickly reuse consistent text styles across future projects.

Professional text, not just a text box

Go deeper than a static text box over your screen recording. Camtasia Editor offers backgrounds, animations, outlines, and other effects that keep text readable and professional over your footage.

Title templates help your most important message come through clearly, while annotations, lower thirds, and captions keep your audience engaged and on track throughout the video.

Annotation

A broad category of visual elements placed over a video, including shapes and text.

Title

Prominent text that introduces a video, section, or topic.

Callout

A text overlay designed to draw attention to specific information, such as an action within a video.

Caption

Text that transcribes and displays spoken audio. Camtasia offers both closed captions and stylized Dynamic Captions.

Lower third

A text overlay placed in the lower section of the screen to display names, titles, locations, or extra context.

Keep every video on brand

Build your style once, then apply it across every project. Reusable themes, fonts, colors, and assets help your team create consistent, professional videos.

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A laptop with Camtasia open to the editor with several pieces of media on the timeline being edited.

FAQs

Still can’t find what you need? Contact us and we’ll help you out.

Yes. In Camtasia Editor, you drag a text annotation directly onto the timeline at the point where you want it to show up, then adjust its length by dragging the edges to set how long it stays visible. This gives you frame-level control over timing, so a label, callout, or instruction appears exactly when a viewer needs it and disappears before it becomes a distraction.

Since text annotations in Camtasia Editor stay editable within your project, you can double-click any text element, update the wording, and re-export without rebuilding the scene or reshooting footage. This matters most for training and documentation videos, where product names, steps, or UI labels change often. Just keep in mind this applies to your Camtasia project file. Once a video is published elsewhere, you’ll need to replace it with the updated export.

No, and this distinction matters for accessibility. Text annotations and titles are visual elements you add to clarify or emphasize something on screen, like labeling a button or introducing a topic. Captions are a synchronized, accurate representation of spoken audio, and they’re what viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on, so Camtasia treats them as separate tools: annotations for context, captions for accessibility.

Yes. Once you customize a callout, title, or lower third with your brand’s fonts, colors, and effects, you can add it to a shareable Library. Anyone on your team can then pull that same styled asset into a new project, so a library built by five different trainers still looks like it came from one team.

Camtasia Editor gives you more than a plain text box. You can choose from title templates and lower thirds, add motion so text animates in and out, and apply outlines, backgrounds, and shadows to keep it readable over any footage. That combination lets you produce polished, on-brand titles and callouts without needing motion-graphics experience.

Check out our tutorial that will walk you through everything you need to know.

Add text to video with Camtasia Editor

When your screen recording needs more context

How do you add text to a video?

Professional text, not just a text box

Annotation

Title

Callout

Caption

Lower third

Keep every video on brand

FAQs

Can I control exactly when text appears and disappears in my video?

What if I need to fix a typo or update text after I’ve already added it to my video?

Is adding text to a video the same as adding captions?

Can my whole team use the same text styles so our training videos look consistent?

Will adding text make my videos look more professional, or will it just look like a basic text box?

Where can I learn how to add text to video with Camtasia?