iMovie Complete Tutorial: 1. iMovie Basic Editing Tips +; • Watermark Videos in iMovie; • Add Mosaic/Censor Effect in iMovie; • Add Text with iMovie; • Add transitions to video in iMovie; • Crop and Rotate Photos/Videos in iMovie; • Join Clips in iMovie (updated 2019); • Add Subtitles in iMovie 11/10/9/8; • Use iMovie to Edit Videos and Make a Movie; 2. iMovie Advanced Editing Tips +; • Stabilize Shaky videos in iMovie [Mac & iOS]?; • Speed Up and Slow Down Video in iMovie; • Resize Video in iMovie; • Color Correction in iMovie; • Speed Up and Slow Down Video Clips in iMovie; • Record and Add a Voiceover in iMovie; • Use PIP Effect in iMovie; • Add Background Music to iMovie Project and Videos; • Fade Music and Audio in iMovie; 3. iMovie Creative Editing Tips +; • Make a Movie Trailer with iMovie; • Create the Glitch Effect in iMovie?; • Top 5 iMovie Plugins; • Cool Effects for iMovie; • Top iMovie Tips; • Blur Faces in iMovie; • Zoom in on iMovie; • Make Stop Motion Videos in iMovie; • Make Split Screen (Side by Side) Videos in iMovie; • Reverse Video in iMovie; • Make a Cool YouTube Video Intro in iMovie; • iMovie Themes; • Add Video Effects in iMovie; • Use Green Screen in iMovie; 4. iMovie Alternatives +; • Free Online iMovie Alternatives; • iMovie for Windows 10; • iMovie Alternatives for Win & Mac; • 7 iMovie Alternatives for Android; • iMovie for iPad; • iMovie for iPhone; • iMovie Alternatives for Mac; • Best iMovie for Windows; • iMoive Equivalent; 5. iMovie Troubleshooting +; • Fix iMovie Not Responding Issues; • Fix iMovie Crashing; • iMovie Update Tips; • iMovie Problems and Solutions; • iMovie Vs Final Cut Pro

Filmora Video Editor

Best video editing software to add text and subtitles

Easiest way to add text and titles with a few clicks
Various built-in text and credit templates
Customizable text color, font, size, position, etc.
Modern & fashion & easy-to-use

Try It Free Try It Free

How to Add Text with iMovie in Mac and iPhone

Liza Brown

Oct 16,2019• Proven solutions

Preparing a presentation video or building in the narration within the video requires some dexterity with software applications that allow you to add text in a video. There will be so many reasons that you want to place some text over a video. With iMovie in your Mac and iPhone, you can put a standard title, or a lower third substiles, or scrolling credits to the video with ease. iMovie definitely ranks as great software to help you add text in videos.

In this article, we will show you how to add text with iMovie for both Mac and iOS mobile devices.

Part 1: How to add text using iMovie alternative
Part 2: How to add texts using iMovie for Mac
Part 3: How to add texts using iMovie for iPhone

Part 1: How to add text using iMovie alternative - Wondershare Filmora for Mac

While iMovie has emerged as a big editing software brand, it does seem a little complicated for users on the editing interface for the very first time. Even adding text seems to be a big hassle on the interface.

Here, we recommend you to use Wondershare Filmora to add text in an easier way. Filmora is available both for Mac and Windows. And the tutorial below is recorded with Windows OS, but the steps for Filmora Mac are similar.

The following steps are for Mac users. You can download Filmora for Mac first, and then follow the steps below to add texts to your video.

Simply click on the Import Media option on the Filmora editor interface to get the video clip or photo you want to add the text to. You can also drag and drop the file on to the interface.

filmora mac import video

Click on the text icon on the left hand side panel of the interface, choose the right text effect, drag, and drop it on the timeline. Adjust the position of the text on the correct video scene.

filmora mac add text

Double click on the text on the timeline and you can go to the window where you can customize the text color, font, and the actual text.

filmora mac text advanced settings

Click on Export once you want to save the final media with the text edit. Also, you can upload your video to YouTube, Facebook or Vimeo to share with your friends and family.

filmora mac export

What's more, there is a title and text effect pack available on Filmora Effects Store, just watch the video below to check out what it can do for you.

Part 2: How to add texts using iMovie for Mac

After dragging your media files to the timeline, follow the steps below to add text in iMovie for Mac.

Start by clicking on the Text button to display the text slides list

iMovie add text

Select the appropriate text slide from this list and drag the slide on to the Project timeline. You can either layer the slide or keep it as a standalone within the slide.

iMovie add text

Double click within the viewer interface to get the edit mode to change the text. You can click on Show fonts to edit the font attributes and then click on done to save the changes.
You can double click on the project timeline to open the text inspector and change the transition and placement attributes.

Notes: If you are running a different version of iMovie, like what’s running on my Mac, like iMovie 10.1.8, you will find the steps of adding titles to video in iMovie is different.

After loading the media in the timeline, place the cursor to where you want to add texts and then switch to Titles tab. From there, you will see there are Titles Presets available.

Now you can add some standard titles, Lower Third, or scrolling credits and much more by dragging and dropping it to the timeline. You will see how long the text effects last and adjust the text duration by dragging the edges to meet the requirement. One of the inconvenience of adding text to video in iMovie is that it seems impossible to adjust the Text position manually.

iMovie video editing

Part 3: How to add texts using iMovie for iPhone

Adding text with iMovie in iPhone is easy. The tutorial below will show you how to add text with iMovie app in iPhone step by step.

Below are the simple steps you can refer to:

Open the iMovie app on your iPhone and tap on the appropriate video or photo within the timeline to get the inspector controls at the bottom of the interface.
Tap on the Text button marked with a T.

iMovie for iPhone add text

Select the right text style
You can select center or lower to change the position of the text appearing on the interface.
Tap on done on your phone keyboard to save the changes

If you want to edit videos on Android with video editing apps similar to iMovie, you can check our picks of Best iMovie Alternatives for Android

If you want to edit your video or add filter, effects, voiceover or music to your video clips in your iPhone, you should not miss Best Free Video Editing Apps for iPhone.

Conclusion

Above are the details of how to add text to videos in iMovie on Mac and iPhone. Some of the steps may differ on your devices because of the version issues.

So, it is recommended to make sure that you are running the latest iMovie version. If you want to edit the text in an advanced way, like animated the text effects and save the text effect for future use, Filmora for Mac would be a good choice.