Add Text to an Image, Free
nothing stored

What the Add Text Tool Does

Add Text to Photo draws a caption onto your picture and saves it as a new image.

You type up to 120 characters. The text keeps the capitals you type, so a sentence stays a sentence and a shout stays a shout.

The tool then fits the caption to your photo. It starts at the size you allow and shrinks until the text fits across about nine-tenths of the width, wrapping over up to five lines. Lines are balanced, so you get two even lines rather than a long line with one word left dangling below it.

You choose one of five styles, a position (top, center or bottom) and a color. In Advanced, Text size sets the largest size as a share of the photo’s short side.

The result is saved in your photo’s format, at its full resolution, with no watermark.

How to add text to a photo

1. Add your photo. JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone HEIC photos all work. 2. Type your caption in the Text box. Short captions are larger and easier to read. 3. Pick a style. See the next section for when each one works best. 4. Pick a position. Bottom suits most captions. Top suits a headline or a setup line. Center suits a single word or a quote over a calm area. 5. Pick a color in Advanced if you want something other than white. 6. Add text and download. Press Add text. To try another style, change it and press it again; your photo does not need to be added again.

Text is drawn with a margin from the edge. If it covers a face, move it to another position or shorten it so it takes fewer lines.

The five styles and when to use them

Clean with shadow is bold white text with a soft shadow. It reads on most photos without drawing attention to itself. Use it for everyday captions.

Bold outline gives each letter a thick contrasting edge. It stays readable on busy, bright or patterned backgrounds, and it has the familiar social-video look.

Caption box puts each line on a rounded box in the color you pick, with black or white text chosen to read on it. It is the subtitle look from short-video apps and the most readable style on any background.

Neon glow gives the text a lit-tube glow in your color. It stands out best on darker photos. White has no color to glow with, so white text glows pink; pick a color for a different glow.

Elegant serif sets the text in a classic serif with a soft shadow. Use it for invitations, quotes and calm, editorial photos.

Making text easy to read

A caption only works if people can read it at a glance, often on a small screen.

Keep it short. Six to ten words is plenty. Fewer words mean bigger letters.

Find the calm part of the photo. Text over sky, a wall or a dark floor reads easily. Text over leaves, crowds or patterns fights with them. Use the position setting to reach the calm area.

Add contrast when the background is busy. Switch from Clean to Bold outline or Caption box. The caption box works on anything.

Mind the edges on Stories and Reels. Apps place their own buttons and text near the top and bottom of vertical posts. For those, the center position or a shorter caption keeps your words clear.

Match the mood. Serif for weddings and quotes, neon for nights out, outline and caption box for fast, playful posts.

Fonts and quality

The sans-serif styles use Inter, the same clean typeface this site uses, so letters render sharply and consistently. The serif style uses a classic serif that is already on your device, such as Georgia.

Text is drawn at your photo’s full resolution. A 12-megapixel photo gets a 12-megapixel result with crisp edges, not a screenshot-sized copy.

The file keeps its format: a JPG stays a JPG and a PNG stays a PNG, so transparent areas of a PNG stay transparent around the text.

There is no font picker and no free positioning, by design: the five styles cover the common caption looks, and automatic fitting means there is nothing to drag or nudge. If you need exact placement or special fonts for a poster, a design app is the better tool.

Private captions, and changing text that is already there

Your photo never leaves your device. It is read by your browser, the caption is drawn in memory and the result is handed back as a download. Nothing is uploaded or saved on our servers. That matters for photos of family, friends and your home.

Adding text is unlimited and there is no watermark. Your first few downloads need no account; after that, a free sign-in keeps them going.

This tool adds new text on top of a photo. Changing text that is already in a photo is a different job: a wrong price on a shelf label, a typo on a banner, a sign in the wrong language. The paid Edit Image studio does that with AI. You describe the change, such as "change the sign to OPEN", and it rewrites the words with matching lettering, angle and lighting. It runs in the cloud and uses credits.