Add Text to GIF

How to add text to a GIF

1. Drop a GIF on the box above, or tap it to choose a file.
2. Type your top and bottom text. Leave one empty if you only need one line.
3. Drag the words on the preview to where you want them, then adjust font, size, color and outline.
4. Tap Add text to GIF, check the result, and download it.

Classic meme text, ready to go

The tool opens with the format everyone knows: white capital letters with a thick black outline, one line at the top and one at the bottom. The outline is what keeps meme text readable on any background, from a bright sky to a dark room, without a box behind it. If you want something quieter, switch off ALL CAPS, thin the outline or turn it off, and pick another color. For a white bar with text above the GIF instead of text on the picture, use the GIF Caption Maker.

Fonts

Anton is a heavy, condensed display font in the spirit of the Impact lettering that classic memes use. Impact itself is missing on most phones, which is why memes made in some apps come out in a fallback font; GIFCompact ships its own fonts so the result looks the same on every device. Barlow Condensed ExtraBold is the caption-style option: a little rounder and friendlier, good for longer lines. Both are open-source under the SIL Open Font License.

Put the text anywhere, on any frames

Drag either line anywhere on the preview: across the middle for a subtitle, into a corner for a label, or next to a face for a thought bubble without the bubble. Long lines wrap automatically to stay inside the GIF. Under Frames you choose when the text is visible. Set the first and last frame to make words appear only after the punchline, or to label one moment in a longer clip. The frame count of your GIF is shown next to the field.

Keep the file small

Adding text means rebuilding every frame of the GIF. GIFCompact does that in your browser and then optimizes the result, storing only what changes between frames, so the file usually grows only a little. Text with a shadow or a soft color adds more colors to every frame and can grow the file more than a plain outline. If the result is too big for where you are posting, tapCompress it: the GIF is handed straight to the GIF Compressor, where a preset or a target size finishes the job.

Add text to a GIF on your phone

The tool is built for phones first. Tap Choose a GIF and pick it from your photos or files, then type in the Text tab and drag the words on the preview with your finger. Style, Color and Frames are one tap away in the tabs below the preview, and the Add text to GIF button stays pinned to the bottom of the screen, so you never have to scroll to find it.

When the result is ready, tap Download GIF. On an iPhone, Safari saves it to the Downloads folder in the Files app; open it there and use the share button to save it to Photos or send it straight to a chat. On Android, Chrome saves it to your Downloads folder. The original GIF on your phone is never changed.

Nothing is uploaded

Many GIF editors upload your file, add their logo and ask you to pay to remove it. Here the text is drawn by your own browser, the GIF is rebuilt on your own device, and the download has no watermark. There is no account and no limit on how many GIFs you edit.