In my experience, almost every single edit is going to have some sort of text in it. This text can be to introduce a character, a place, give background, and even be used as a storytelling element itself. Good text is a skill and an art form. The wrong font or placement of the text, and the audience will begin to notice the text itself rather than it’s meaning. It should be used simply throughout to give a little bit of extra information when a visual element won’t do.
It’s crucial in many different movies. Imagine James Bond without text, how would we know where he is in the world? Without the proper text, we would be left guessing the location from context clues instead of paying attention to the story. (Which can be a story telling aspect if you want the audience as confused as the actors). However, whether present or not, text is a crucial part of the editing process. Today I am going to show you how to add text in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. It’s quite simple, and has a lot of customization.
How to Add Text in Premiere Pro CC
Let’s start off with a quick version. Just getting to the proper tools and placing them in the sequence. I find learning and mastering the tool itself gives way to more freedom. Once the tool becomes second nature, creativity can be freely expressed.
Quick Version
- Look for the tool panel. It is usually left of the source monitor and above the timeline.
- In the tools look for the T tool. This is the Type Tool.
- Click on the Type Tool.
- Go to your footage in the source monitor and click anywhere. A new graphics layer will be created.
- Start typing, the text will appear.
- To customize, look for the essential graphics panel to find the text controls.
That is the quickest way to add text. You just need to find the T tool, click on it, click on your footage, and start typing. There is additional customization one can do with the type tool.
Extended Features of Text Tools
The text tool has the ability to accept many different levels of customization. The panel displayed below is from the essential graphics panel, which you can find by going to window->essential graphics.
1. Here we have the ability to choose the different elements in the graphics layer. When you add text in Premiere Pro, it creates a graphic layer. This layer can have many different text elements in it. Make sure to choose the one you want to manipulate.
2. At this location we have the align and transform properties. With these properties we can align the text into the center of both the vertical and the horizontal. We can also individually affect the rotation, and x-y positions of the text.
3. Here we can select our text, and whether we want it bold, condensed, italic, or regular. (Only some fonts allow these selections). In the bottom controls, you are also able to affect things like letter spacing distance, and line height.
4. You can change the color, background, and drop shadow here. You can also give the text a stroke. Make sure you highlight the text you want to change before making any changes.
There you have it, how to add text in Premiere Pro. It’s not too difficult once you have done it a few times. Experiment around and become a master of this tool. The more abilities you learn, the easier it will be to create unique and masterful edits in the future. Just a couple of clicks, and you will be on your way. If you have any comments or questions, leave them below, or on the video itself. Also check out Adobe’s own tutorial or a great tutorial by MotionArray on this. They cover it in a slightly different way!
If you are interested in some advanced lessons on text, check out the following videos.
