Free
- Font, from all 18 bundled caption fonts
- Text size and colour
- Letter case
- Outline colour and width
- Position on a nine-point grid
Caption styles
Animated caption styles
A caption style is the font, colour, outline, background, layout and animation applied to every caption in a video at once. Capster ships ready-made presets — including karaoke-style word highlight and one-word-at-a-time pop — and lets you change any part of one. Restyling is a single tap and applies to the whole clip.
18 caption fonts · iPhone, iOS 16.0+ · Updated September 2026
The presets in the style picker
These are the 7 presets version 1.0 lists, in picker order. Every one of them is a starting point — change the font, colour or placement and it becomes your own custom style.
Plain
Free
White text with a black outline, no box and no highlight. The safe default over busy footage.
Set in Nunito.
Yellow Desert
Free
Two lines of condensed display type with a yellow word highlight. The style a new project opens with.
Set in Lilita One.
Comics
Pro
Comic lettering in yellow, with the spoken word flipping to white on a red block.
Set in Bangers.
Pink Sun
Pro
Rounded white type in a box, with the active word picked out on a pink fill.
Set in Paytone One.
Midnight
Pro
A dark rounded card behind the caption and a yellow active word. Built for bright, high-contrast footage.
Set in Montserrat.
Glow
Pro
Wide geometric type with a glow behind it, so captions hold up over dark or noisy video.
Set in Righteous.
One Word
Pro
One word at a time, scaled up and popped in on the beat. The style most short-form edits use.
Set in Lilita One.
The App Store description lists 9 presets, two more than the picker shows. Studio Clean and Emoji Vibe are in the app and still render in any project that already uses them, but they are not offered in the picker in version 1.0. Everything named above is something you can tap today.
The style panel
Animation controls, the caption editor, and the font, colour, outline and highlight controls.
Animate captions in and out, or pop them word by word.
Tap any caption to fix a word, split a line, or retime it.
Font, size, colour, outline, letter case, word highlight.
The five caption layouts
The layout is the shape of the caption on screen. It is what makes two clips in the same font look nothing alike.
| Layout | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| One word | One word on screen at a time, scaled up and popped in as it is spoken. | Fast, punchy edits. Talking-head clips where you want the pace to feel quicker than it is. |
| Two line | Up to two lines of caption at once, with the spoken word highlighted inside them. | The default for most short-form video. Enough context to read ahead, short enough to scan. |
| Boxed | A solid rounded card behind the caption, sized to the text. | Bright, busy or high-contrast footage where an outline alone is not enough. |
| Pill | A tighter capsule behind the line, closer to the text than a card. | A cleaner look than a full box when the background is only moderately busy. |
| Glow | A soft halo behind the letters instead of a hard outline or a box. | Dark or moody footage, where a box would sit on the frame like a sticker. |
What each control does, and which tier has it
Every control stays visible whether or not you subscribe, so you can see what a locked one does before deciding it is worth paying for.
Pro
- Caption background: colour, corner radius, padding
- Word highlight: colour, and a highlight background
- Layout effect: one word, two line, boxed, pill, glow
- In and out animation: fade, slide, scale, pop
- Pixel-precise caption position
Full comparison and prices on the pricing page, or see exactly what the free tier covers.
Picking a style that works on the footage you shot
- Busy or bright background? Use a background or a heavier outline. Plain white text over a sky is the single most common reason captions go unread.
- Talking to camera, fast cuts? One word at a time keeps pace with the edit and leaves the frame almost clear.
- Explaining something? Two lines with word highlight lets the viewer read slightly ahead, which is what makes a dense clip watchable.
- Dark, moody footage? A glow reads without putting a hard-edged box over the picture.
- Whatever you pick, check the placement. Every platform covers the bottom third and the right edge with its own interface.
Questions people ask
What are animated captions?
Captions that move with the speech rather than sitting still. The common forms are a highlight that follows the word being said, one word appearing at a time, and lines that fade, slide or scale in and out. All three need word-level timing to work.
What are karaoke captions?
Captions where the word currently being spoken is picked out from the rest of the line, usually by changing its colour or putting a coloured block behind it. Capster calls this word highlight, and it is the effect most short-form video uses.
Which caption styles can I use for free?
Plain and Yellow Desert, plus every one of the 18 bundled caption fonts, text size and colour, letter case, outline, and position on a nine-point grid. The other presets and the background, highlight, effect and animation controls are Pro.
Can I make my own caption style?
Yes. Start from any preset and change what you like — the app stamps the result as a custom style rather than overwriting the preset. Restyling applies to the whole video at once, so you never re-style caption by caption.
Do animated captions still work when the video is compressed?
Yes, because the animation is rendered into the frames before upload. Compression softens fine detail, so heavier fonts and an outline or background hold up better than thin text — which is what most of these presets already do.
Then add captions to a video on iPhone in about two minutes.
Read next
Pick a style on your own clip
Plain and Yellow Desert are free, and so are all 18 fonts. 5 transcriptions to try it on.
Free to try: 5 transcriptions, clips up to 2 minutes, exports carry a small Capster badge. iPhone, iOS 16.0+. No account.