How to Add Text to an Image That Stays Readable
2026-07-05
Putting text onto an image seems to demand a full editor. In practice most captions need four decisions — what it says, where it sits, how big it is, and whether it stays readable — and everything else is overhead.
Step by step
- Open the Add Text to Image tool.
- Drop in one image or several.
- Type your caption and choose top, middle or bottom.
- Adjust the size, colour and outline, then download.
Why the size is a percentage
A fixed pixel size is the classic mistake. Thirty-two point text looks enormous on a 400 pixel thumbnail and is nearly invisible on a 4000 pixel photograph. Sizing the text as a share of the image means one setting produces a proportionate result on both, which matters as soon as you caption more than one image.
Why the outline matters
White text vanishes against a bright sky. Dark text vanishes in a shadow. Most photographs contain both, so any single colour will fail somewhere in the frame. A black outline behind the letters keeps the caption legible over anything without needing a solid banner behind it — which is exactly why the meme convention settled on outlined Impact decades ago.
Line breaks and wrapping
Long captions wrap to the image width automatically, measured with the real font rather than estimated, so you get balanced lines instead of text running off the edge. Your own line breaks are respected where you want a specific arrangement — useful for the classic two-part setup with a line at the top and the punchline at the bottom.
Batch captioning
The same text and settings are applied to every image you add, which is useful for labelling a series or marking a batch of photos with a consistent note.