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Ten word-by-word caption styles

Start from ten purpose-built presets—from Bold's high-contrast capitals and Karaoke's moving word box to Editorial's documentary serif and Typewriter's letter reveal. Every preset is completely unlocked: customize the typeface, active-word highlight, entrance physics, stroke, shadow and words per line, then save your own preset.

Updated 27 October 2026

Live preview of all ten presets

Bold Montserrat in capitals with a black outline, up to three words at a time. The spoken word turns yellow and each caption pops in.
Use Bold on your video
Clean TikTok Sans in normal case, one word at a time, with a soft shadow and no outline.
Use Clean on your video
Karaoke Poppins, up to five words on two lines. A purple box sits behind the word being spoken.
Use Karaoke on your video
Comic Luckiest Guy with a thick outline, two words at a time. The spoken word grows, and emphasised words turn red and wiggle.
Use Comic on your video
Tall Anton, very large, one word at a time, slamming in from large.
Use Tall on your video
Editorial Instrument Serif with punctuation kept, up to six words on two lines. Words not yet spoken are dimmed.
Use Editorial on your video
Boxed Dark TikTok Sans on a white box, up to four words at a time.
Use Boxed on your video
Rounded Nunito in capitals with a dark outline and a solid drop shadow. A green box marks the spoken word.
Use Rounded on your video
Typewriter Space Grotesk on a translucent black box. Letters appear one by one as each word is spoken.
Use Typewriter on your video
Glow Bricolage Grotesque with a cyan glow, one word at a time, coming into focus from a blur.
Use Glow on your video

Some previews use a frame from Sprite Fright by Blender Studio, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Eight adjustable entrance animations

  • Pop: scales up smoothly with subtle spring overshoot.
  • Punch: slams down from large scale for high-impact hooks.
  • Bounce: drops in with vertical bounce physics.
  • Rise: glides upward while fading in.
  • Slide: enters cleanly from the left margin.
  • Fade: soft opacity dissolve for calm edits.
  • Focus: sharpens in from a Gaussian blur.
  • Typewriter: reveals characters sequentially as each word is spoken.

Prefer zero entrance motion? Choose None for instant cuts, or dial the animation speed slider up or down to match your cadence.

Five active-word highlight modes + single-key emphasis

  • Colour: changes the fill colour of the currently spoken word (e.g. yellow over white).
  • Box: moves a rounded pill or rectangle behind the active word (Karaoke / Rounded look).
  • Grow: scales the spoken word larger than surrounding words in the phrase.
  • Dim others: lowers the opacity of upcoming words until the speaker reaches them.
  • Word-by-word reveal: displays words one by one as they are spoken inside the phrase.

Independently of the active-word mode, press E on any word in your transcript to trigger Emphasis (giving key hooks, numbers or punchlines a distinct accent colour and scale), or click Auto-pick to highlight numbers, prices and power words automatically.

24 video-licensed fonts + custom TTF/OTF/WOFF uploads

Cuecaps includes 24 SIL Open Font License typefaces cleared for commercial video: modern sans-serifs (TikTok Sans, Montserrat, Poppins, Inter, Nunito), heavy display faces (Anton, Bebas Neue, Oswald), energetic gaming fonts (Luckiest Guy, Bangers), grotesque/tech fonts (Space Grotesk, Bricolage Grotesque) and editorial serifs (Instrument Serif, DM Serif Display).

On Creator and Pro, upload your brand's own TTF, OTF or WOFF font file and save your exact layout, colours, stroke weight and Y-position as a one-click preset synced across your computers.

Questions

Which caption style works best for YouTube Shorts and TikTok?

Bold (3-word uppercase with yellow active word) and Karaoke (2-line phrase with a moving highlight box) are the highest-retention defaults on vertical feeds. For faceless stories or fast clips, Tall and Clean show one word at a time in the center of the frame.

Do all ten styles work on 16:9 horizontal videos as well as 9:16?

Yes. Every preset scales cleanly across 9:16, 16:9, 1:1 and 4:5 aspect ratios, and you can drag the captions anywhere on the preview canvas.

Can I upload my own brand or client font?

Yes, on the Creator and Pro plans you can upload any TTF, OTF or WOFF font file. It renders locally in your browser and stays in your font picker.

Try it on your video

You can also drop a file anywhere on this page. Or tryTry the demo clip

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