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Text is an editable visual layer rather than baked media. Its content, font metrics, wrapping, box geometry, and appearance are all saved with the composition.
Text inspector showing title typography and appearance controls

Title typography in the inspector

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Transform

Position, dimensions, rotation, scale, alignment, and aspect behavior define the text box in the composition or parent space. Box width directly affects wrapping.

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Typography

The inspector exposes font family and style, font size, line height, letter spacing, text value, horizontal alignment, writing direction, and text transform. Use line height and tracking as ratios to the chosen size rather than copying arbitrary values between unrelated fonts. The text-value field previews each change immediately and groups continuous typing into one practical undo step. Move focus away when you finish editing. Escape does not revert the text; use Undo after the edit commits when you need the previous value.

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Appearance

Opacity and blend mode combine the text with the scene. Fill color accepts a solid or two-stop linear gradient; stroke color remains solid-only. An optional text background can add its own solid or gradient color, radius, and horizontal padding. Effects and multiple shadows can add hierarchy, but they should reinforce legibility rather than replace a sound type scale.
Lower-third text selected with inspector controls

A lower-third text treatment in context

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Text box sizing

The Text box controls sit inside Dimensions and determine how authored width and height interact with content: Fit is enabled only when both effective axes are constrained. Choosing Hug on either axis resets Fit to None and enables resize-on-edit behavior. When a parent frame’s managed layout owns an axis, the inspector shows a read-only Fill value for that axis; change the parent layout or child sizing rule instead of trying to override it from the text layer.

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Inline text background

Choose Add background in Appearance to create a background attached to the text layout. Once present, the inspector exposes:
  • a solid or two-stop linear-gradient color;
  • background border radius;
  • horizontal padding from 0 to 100 composition pixels;
  • Remove background, which removes the background styling without deleting the text.
Background padding participates in text relayout. Review wrapping and box size after changing it, especially with a Hug axis or parent-managed Fill.

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Crop

Text layout occurs inside the box before crop and compositing. A narrow box can create extra lines; a crop can then hide glyphs without changing the text value. Diagnose clipping by checking box dimensions, line height, and crop in that order.

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Animation

Position, dimensions, scale, rotation, opacity, and supported visual finish parameters can be keyframed. Font changes are better treated as discrete design decisions unless the current control explicitly exposes animation.
For a title, establish readable static typography first, then animate only position and opacity. Motion should preserve the line break at every frame.
See colors and gradients, caption typography, shadows, and keyframes.