How to Add Text in DaVinci Resolve (Step by Step)

To add text in DaVinci Resolve, open the Edit page, go to Effects > Toolbox > Titles, and drag Text (or Text+) onto a video track above your footage. Select the title clip and type in Inspector > Title. Set the font, size, and color there, then drag the clip’s edges to decide how long it stays on screen.

If nothing shows up, check three things: the title is on a higher track than the footage, the playhead is parked inside the title clip, and that track is enabled.

That is the whole job for a basic title. The rest of this guide covers styling, timing, which title type to grab, a simple lower third, and a fade.

Versions. These steps match DaVinci Resolve 19 through 21, including the free version. MultiText needs Resolve 20 or later. Create Subtitles from Audio is the one step below that needs DaVinci Resolve Studio.

How to add text in DaVinci Resolve, step by step

1. Open the Edit page and park the playhead. Titles are added on the Edit page, not on Cut, Color, or Fusion. Move the playhead to the frame where the words should appear. The viewer shows the frame under the playhead, so a title that starts later looks like it failed until you move there.
2. Open Effects > Toolbox > Titles. The Effects Library is the upper-left panel on the Edit page. Click the Effects tab if you are looking at the Media Pool. Open Toolbox, then Titles. If the bin is long, type text in the search box at the top of Effects.
3. Drag Text onto a video track above your footage. Drop Text on V2 when the picture is on V1. A title clip about five seconds long appears at the playhead. Dropping it onto the footage’s own track cuts it into that track instead of laying it over the picture. Pick Text+ instead only if you already know you want the extra layout and shading controls. The difference is covered below.
4. Select the title clip and type in Inspector > Title. The Inspector sits at the top right. Open the Title tab, click in the text box, and replace the sample words. Press Return for a second line. You edit this title in the Inspector. Resolve does not have a Type tool you click in the viewer.
5. Set font, size, and color in that same Title tab before you touch animation. Stroke, shadow, and a background box are in the styling section next.

Coming from Premiere Pro? There is no T shortcut here. The Premiere version of this guide is the one that starts with the Type tool.

Style your text in the Inspector

With a Text clip selected, the Title tab holds the controls you will actually use:

• Font and font face. Pick the typeface, then the weight (Regular, Bold, and so on).
• Size. Take it up until the words read easily. A line that looks fine in the viewer can still shrink to nothing on a phone, so bias a little larger.
• Color. The fill of the letters.
• Alignment. Left, center, or right. Center fits a title card. Left fits a lower third.
• Tracking and line spacing. Open or tighten the letters, and set the gap when you have two lines.
• Stroke. Turn it on, then set the color and size. A thin dark stroke keeps white text readable over a bright sky or a patterned shirt.
• Drop shadow. Turn it on when the letters still blend into the picture.
• Background. A box behind the words. Turn it on and set its color when you want a bar under a name without building one from scratch.

Text is rich text, so you can highlight one word in the box and change only that word’s size or color.

To move the block, set the viewer’s on-screen control to Transform and drag, or change Position in the Inspector. Zoom for the whole clip sits in the same Settings area as the fade, under Transform.

Dragged Text+ instead? It has no Title tab. Styling is split into four panels:

• Text holds the words, font, size, and color.
• Layout chooses how the block is arranged: a point in the frame, a wrapping frame, a circle, or a path.
• Transform covers spacing and rotation for that text.
• Shading is where fill, outline, and shadow live, as separate layers you turn on.

For a normal title on Text+, stay on Text and one Shading element. You do not need to open the Fusion page.

Set when text appears and disappears

A title is a clip. Timing works the same way it does for video:

• Move it: drag the whole title clip left or right along the timeline.
• Change its duration: drag the left or right edge. A fresh title from the Titles bin is about five seconds. That is a starting length, not a limit.
• Keep it above the picture: higher video tracks composite on top. V1 is the bottom track, so a title on V2 or V3 shows over footage on V1. The track’s enable switch in the track header has to stay on, or the whole track disappears.

New to tracks and trimming? The Edit page basics lesson walks through the timeline layout these steps assume.

Text, Text+, MultiText, or a Fusion title

Use the simplest title that does the job. All of these live in Effects > Toolbox > Titles, and all of them work in the free version except where a version is named.

• Text is the everyday title. One rich-text block, styled on the Title tab. Use it for title cards, labels, and a plain two-line lower third.
• Text+ is the Fusion-powered title. Reach for it when you want a frame or a path, a stacked outline and shadow, or a Write On reveal. It still lives on the Edit page. Opening Fusion is optional, not required.
• MultiText (Resolve 20 and later) puts several text layers in one clip. Each layer has its own words, style, and position. Use it when a name and a role should move independently and you do not want two clips to keep aligned. On Resolve 19, put two Text clips on two tracks instead.
• Fusion titles are the designed items in the same bin: bars, scrolls, openers, and the L Lower 3rd, M Lower 3rd, and R Lower 3rd. You replace the sample lines in the Inspector. Pick one when its layout is already close. Rebuilding it on the Fusion page is a different project, and nothing on this page needs that.

Make a simple lower third

A lower third is the name and role that sits in the lower part of an interview shot. Two ways to get one, from least work to most control.

Use a built-in lower third. In Titles, drag L Lower 3rd (left), M Lower 3rd (middle), or R Lower 3rd (right) onto a track above the footage. Select the clip and replace the sample lines in the Inspector. Trim the edges so the bar is only up while that person is on screen.

Or build a plain one with Text:

1. Drag Text onto V2.
2. In Inspector > Title, type the name, press Return, and type the role.
3. Set alignment to the left.
4. Turn on Stroke or Background so the lines survive a busy background.
5. Move the block down into the lower part of the frame with Position, or with the viewer’s Transform control.
6. Trim the clip to the length of the shot.

On Resolve 20 or later, MultiText is the middle path: one clip, a name layer and a role layer, each moved on its own.

Animate text with a fade or a small zoom

A fade is enough for most titles. Opacity keyframes do it, on Text and on Text+:

1. Select the title clip and open the Inspector.
2. Open Settings and find Composite.
3. Move the playhead to the first frame of the title.
4. Next to Opacity, click the keyframe diamond, then set Opacity to 0.
5. Move about half a second later and set Opacity to 1. Resolve stores a second keyframe and fades between them. Opacity runs from 0 (invisible) to 1 (solid), not from 0 to 100.
6. At the end of the clip, do the same in reverse: a keyframe at 1, then 0 on the last frames.

For a little motion, keyframe Zoom the same way. Start at 1 and ease it to something small, such as 1.05, over the first half-second. A big zoom reads as a mistake. Keep the change slight.

Text+ only, and optional: in the Text controls, find Write On. Keyframe End from 0 to 1 and the characters appear in order. Use it when the line should write on. A fade is simpler, and it works on every title type, not just Text+.

Text vs. subtitles: which one do you need?

They both put words on the picture. Resolve does not treat them as the same thing.

• Titles sit on a video track. You place each clip, style it on its own, and animate it. Use them for titles, labels, callouts, and lower thirds.
• Subtitles sit on a subtitle track. They follow what people say, share a caption style, and travel as a captions file. Use them for dialogue and accessibility.

In the free version, add a subtitle track from the timeline (right-click a track header and choose Add Subtitle Track) and type the lines, or bring in an existing file with File > Import > Subtitle. Create Subtitles from Audio, which generates captions from the soundtrack, is DaVinci Resolve Studio only. The free version does not include that command.

A Text title will not export as an SRT, and a subtitle will not give you a designed lower third. Pick the track that matches the job.

Do it hands-free with Skilly

Reading steps is fine until you are staring at Resolve and the Titles bin is not where the guide said it was. That is where Skilly helps.

Skilly is a voice tutor for Mac. Hold Control+Option and ask out loud, something like “where’s the Titles panel?” Skilly looks at your DaVinci Resolve window, answers in voice, and points at the exact control on your screen. DaVinci Resolve is one of Skilly’s built-in skills, and it switches on when Resolve is the app in front.

A few questions worth asking while you work through this guide:

• “Where’s the Titles panel?”
• “How do I change the font on this title?”
• “Why can’t I see my text?”
• “How do I make this title stay on screen longer?”

Skilly does not edit your project. It shows you where things are, so the next time you need a title, you will know where to drag it. Want a feel for the voice-and-pointer guidance first? Try the browser demo, no install needed. To ask over your own Resolve window, download Skilly for Mac. The trial is 15 minutes, no card.

Keep going

• DaVinci Resolve Edit page basics: tracks, the playhead, and the Edit page layout this guide uses.
• DaVinci Resolve tutorial for beginners: the full beginner curriculum, from the interface through export.
• How to add text in Premiere Pro: the same job in Premiere, starting from the Type tool.
• Allow screen recording on Mac: the macOS permission a screen-aware tutor needs before it can see Resolve.
• ChatGPT screen sharing on Mac: what ChatGPT can and cannot see on a Mac, if you are comparing ways to get help while you edit.