Add Text to Animated GIFs — Captions & Memes
Overlay custom captions, subtitles, and meme headlines onto animated GIFs with live browser rendering. Pick top, center, or bottom placement using classic Impact-style bold lettering with readable stroke outlines. You can overlay captions across the entire animation or limit them to a specific frame range, creating dynamic title cards or punchline reveals without server-side processing.
Use Cases
How to add text to an animated GIF
Drop an animated GIF into the tool. Total frames and dimensions will be loaded into the editor.
Type your message, choose position (top, center, or bottom), and adjust font size, text color, and outline.
Specify starting and ending frames if you only want the text visible during part of the clip.
Click Run to draw text via OffscreenCanvas on every chosen frame and download the finished GIF.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What font stack is used for the text?
- The tool uses an Impact-style meme font stack: Impact, "Arial Black", and sans-serif, ensuring bold, legible text across all operating systems.
- How does text outline work?
- Every character is rendered with both fillText and strokeText. The dark outline ensures text remains crisp and readable against both light and dark video backgrounds.
- Can I show text on only certain frames?
- Yes. You can specify a starting frame and ending frame number. Text will only be drawn within that inclusive range, leaving earlier and later frames unmodified.
- Does text overlay affect transparency?
- Text is rendered directly onto the composite frame canvas, preserving full palette fidelity and transparency layers.
Private by design. Text rendering and frame compositing run entirely in your browser — your GIF is never uploaded to a server.
Related tools
More free, in-browser tools from the GIF Tools set — every one runs locally, with no sign-up and no upload.