Adding text to video is one of the most commonly utilized tools for media content creation. In this article, I’ll be showing you how to add text to your video content using DaVinci Resolve 17. Additionally, I’ll be covering how to change the font, as well as add your own custom font. Finally, I’ll be briefly covering how to add a basic fading transition effect to your text to make it feel more professional.
Just getting started with DaVinci Resolve? Check out my getting started guide for this Free Video Editing Software.
Getting Started with DaVinci Resolve 17
Table of Contents
The Process –
Before you can add text to your video project, you first need to be in edit mode. You can access edit mode by clicking on the edit mode button, located at the very bottom of the video editor:
Once in here, you’ll need to select “Effects Library”, which is located at the top left secondary navigation menu within the interface:
In the new window that appeared in the lower-left corner (by default), you’ll see a small, collapsed list:
- Toolbox
- Open FX
- Audio FX
To add text to the video, you need to expand the Toolbox menu, where you’ll find the titles menu. Click on it, and you’ll see a huge variety of text template tools to add to your video to the right of the menu:
Before you do anything else though, you’ll want to create a new video layer for the text to reside in. The reason is in how text is designed to work in a video editor. In case you’re curious, text works in video editors by creating a fake video that contains the text itself – you then layer the text “video clip” in its own video layer, one that is situated above the primary video track.
You can adjust the duration of the text appearing on screen, and apply effects and transitions to it like the video itself, which I’ll cover in the next section. With that said, this is all you need to know to add text to DaVinci Resolve 17.
Selecting the Font Used
When you add a text object to DaVinci Resolve 17, selecting it allows you to modify all the values within it, including selecting the font.
The Window appears on the right side of your screen.
You can easily change the font used from the font family dropdown selector – The circular arrow to the right of it will revert your selection to the default font assigned to the title object. Take some time to familiarize yourself with all the settings in here, so you can learn how to manipulate and master the use of text in your videos.
With that said, less is usually more – as long as the text serves its purpose in the video, then you don’t need to spend a lot of time manipulating it.
Adding Custom Fonts to DaVinci Resolve 17
Adding text to your content is all well and good, but what about the fonts?
Well, you can easily add your own fonts to DaVinci Resolve, just be sure that the fonts you use are safe for commercial use/media use if you plan to use them on YouTube and monetize the video. Trust me when I say you don’t want to mess with copyright law – violations can lead to copyright strikes, which can lead to your channel being shut down.
To add fonts to DaVinci Resolve 17:
- Find a font you want to use:
- Ensure the permissions allow for monetization/media use
- Download the font
- Extract the font to somewhere
- Double click on the .ttf or whatever type of font it is
- Select “Install”
- Restart DaVinci Resolve 17
- Select the font that is in the list
- Not seeing the font? Refer to this thread on the Black Magic Design forums that shows you how to get your font into the correct folder in Windows 10.
How to Make A Basic Text Fade In/Out in DaVinci Resolve 17
The most basic transition you can do for text is to make it fade in and out. This is also one of the most commonly used methods of easing text into a video, and the duration of the fade – how quickly it goes from invisible to visible, is the main part that changes the “feel”.
A slow fade is often used for dramatic effect, and that effect is amplified when accompanied by complementary music.
As for a quick fade, that just makes it look a fair bit more professional than just “popping into and out of existence”.
To accomplish this basic fade-in, hover over the top left corner of the video clip until it looks like two arrows pointing left and right.
Now, all you need to do is to left-click and hold, while dragging to the left/right and adjust the fade itself until it shows a darkened portion, like on the right. I recommend keeping your fade-in and out the same duration unless you want to try experimenting.
Now, there are more advanced methods of fading your content, including creating custom transitions with motion blur and things like this, but this is easily the most time-efficient method, and it works plenty well for most applications. I’ll be covering the custom transitions in another article soon, so look forward to that!
For now, this video does a fantastic job of explaining how to create a custom transition effect.